Muscle & Fat
How many times have you heard that muscles weigh more than fat? I hear that all the time, but it is not true. Pound for pound, they weigh the exact same. The magic is in the volume.
I found this awesome picture of 5 pounds of muscle and 5 pounds of fat:
Besides the fat looking majorly icky, and the muscle looking nice and smooth, you can see the difference in how much room on your body the muscle takes versus the fat. It really makes you think about the importance of weight. Looking at that picture makes me realize that I probably won’t ever be 120 pounds. I’m just not built like that. While my muscles are pretty mushy right now, they weren’t always like this and I used to be very strong. I have the build for it.
As I exercise and work to increase my strength, I will be replacing that lumpy fat with some nice, lean muscle. I will become fit and healthy, regardless of what the scale says. I am working hard to keep that in mind during my weekly weigh ins.
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Comments
“How many times have you heard that muscles weigh more than fat? I hear that all the time, but it is not true. Pound for pound, they weigh the exact same. The magic is in the volume.”
Well, yes, “pound for pound” they do weigh the same. But this is as informative as saying that a pound of feathers and a pound of lead weigh the same. It doesn’t tell us anything except that a pound always equals a pound.
Yes, “the magic is in the volume.” But that’s what it means for one substance to weigh more than another substance.
Eh. I hope that didn’t come across too harshly. Intro statements that aren’t quite right is one of my pet peeves. 
Don’t worry, not harsh. I was trying to go along the lines of the weight shouldn’t concern you - but the composition should.
I have to quit blogging when I’m tired.
” Well, yes, “pound for pound” they do weigh the same. But this is as informative as saying that a pound of feathers and a pound of lead weigh the same. It doesn’t tell us anything except that a pound always equals a pound.
Yes, “the magic is in the volume.” But that’s what it means for one substance to weigh more than another substance. ”
- I agree with this person. I know that in chemistry, each molecular WEIGHT is measured by grams per mol. In this case, if the molecular weight of a mole of fat is the same as a mole of muscle, then yes, they DO weight the same!
BUT, saying that a lb of muscle is the same as a lb of fat says nothing since all “pounds” really tell is how much gravity pulls on you, which really just depends on the mass, neglecting how many moles there really are of the substance.
But yes, muscle is more DENSE than fat. But if you cut up the exact same VOLUME (volume is how much the substance takes up) (neglecting density)of fat and muscle, then muscle will weight more than fat!
e.g. if you fill a Liter soda bottle with fat.. and you fill another Liter bottle (meaning same exact volume) with muscle, then the bottle filled with muscle will weight more.
haha…sorry about getting all technical with it. I’m the same as “In Debt” lolz….
plus,I was watching beauty and the geek one night and one of the geeks got all defensive, arguing that muscle doesn’t weight more than fat (one of the beauties said that muscle weight more than fat)… and the geek really annoyed me. lolz. so i ended up putting everything on this blog. lolz
but i get your point 
Just another thing to remember is that more muscle will help you burn more calories (thus helping you get rid of more fat / keep it off).
Can you please consider deleting this blog entry since it will probably confuse readers. A pound of anything weighs the same as a pound of anything else. A pound of grapes weights the same as a pound of apples, a pound of feathers weights the same as a pound of steel, and a pound of fat weights the same as a pound of muscle. It’s all a pound. When people use the expression you are writing about, they are including volume. So, if you lose or gain the same volume of fat and of muscle (a certain number of inches, let’s say), the muscle will weight more. Gaining 1 inch of muscle on your arm weighs more than if you gained 1 inch of fat on your arm. Get it?
I think that when people say that muscle weighs more than fat, they are actually saying that for the amount of room it takes up in the body, the same size chunk of fat would weigh less than the same size chunk of muscle. It’s just a reversal, but my physics guy husband would agree, you cut to the meat of it.
My thing is that people don’t get that although fat is less dense than muscle, pound for pound, that WATER weighs more than both of them and significantly so.
That’s how we can drop five pounds in a day and not see it. It’s just water playing with us.
Some people play the “guess how much my colon weighs” game. They drop two pounds and are so thrilled and all they have done is to empty their bowels. Real fat loss manifests itself in loose pants and falling down underwear. The scale is a tool that doesn’t tell half of the story.