Muscle DOES NOT weigh more than fat and put away the damn sc

.... I feel like if you spend 20 minutes on these forums you'll pretty much figure out the basics, as well as learn who on here actually knows what they're talking about for the most part.

Two of the biggest things on this forum that I see people always saying is that muscle weighs more than fat. It doesn't. The other is the constant worrying about what the scale says. Throw the damn thing away.

First on the fat vs muscle weight myth:

Fat is bulky and lumpy so if you carry an extra five pounds of fat, you'll be lumpier than with five pounds more muscle. A five pound pile of fat will take up more space (volume) than a five pound pile of muscle; but five pounds is still five pounds, so for those of you that don't "get it", you cannot say one thing weighing a certain weight weighs more than another thing at that same weight. It's a common joke to play on an 8-year old. The correct way to state the muscle weighs more than fat scenario is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."

A woman weighing 150 pounds with 19% fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman at 150 pounds with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different. Because muscle is more dense than fat the person with less fat and more muscle will look smaller.

Stop being so obsessed with body weight and start paying attention to body composition. How much body fat do you have compared to muscle? Simply seeing how much you weigh isn't very helpful.

Now onto the scale and how much you weigh:

Take measurements and put the scale away. The scale is just one tool out of the toolbox to use to track your progress, but in my opinion is probably the less helpful. The scale has a way of playing mind tricks on you and causing setbacks and hopelessness if you do not hit the number you "think you deserve" from all the exercise you are doing. There are so many factors tied into that number on the scale, that weighing nightly, daily, weekly, every two weeks can play significant emotional mind games with some people. Put the damn thing away and use it monthly to track your progress, if at all, if that number even means anything to you. It doesn't to me.

I gauge my success off how my clothes are fitting, my energy levels, and my overall outlook on life. Not some 3 digits on a scale.

If I am following the recommended caloric guidelines MFP has setup and trying to lower my body fat % by working out and exercising then the weight will come off.

And to end this rant, I will say that most of us here did not become overweight in a week. It took months, if not years of unhealthy living and diet. You cannot expect to lose it all in a week or a month. Stick to the guidelines, simplfy it, and you WILL see results. It's all mind over matter.

-Rant over

Well, let's say it like it is. I do not know the educational level of any of the people on this site. When someone posts that muscle weighs more than fat, someone will probably take that as what they are saying.....literally. I see it all the time when someone posts about being bummed that they did not lose any weight this week. You always have someone post about how they probably gained muscle instead and muscle weighs more than fat. Sorry, but that makes no sense to me. And for someone that is emotionally attached to the scale, they are not going to understand what they are trying to really say.

When people say that muscle weighs more than fat, they mean per unit volume. No one thinks 5lbs. of anything does not weigh 5 lbs.