CATCH WEIGHT: MUSCLE VS. FAT

We received an e mail from a reader looking for clarification on the often debated and confusing weight difference of fat and muscle.

 Hi, I was hoping you could settle a debate for me. Over Christmas my sister and I had a disagreement about muscle weighing more than fat. She claims that muscle weighs more than fat. I tried to reason with her that a pound is a pound regardless, but she maintains I’m wrong. Could you please explain the difference if any in the weight of muscle and fat?

Thanks

 Martin D.

 To answer your question, Martin. Yes and no, was that vague enough? I’ll explain why it can be viewed different ways. Ultimately one is right.

Does a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same? You’ll find a variety of different answers to this question. The simple answer is a flat YES. One pound of muscle and one pound of fat weighs exactly the same, one pound. That does not mean they are total equals.

Let’s use this example, a pound of gravel and a pound of cotton. On the scale they will weigh the same. However it is a matter of density. Gravel is denser than cotton. So a cup of gravel may weigh in at one pound. However a pound of cotton may take up an entire truck.

So back to the fat and muscle. While they weigh the same their volume can differ greatly. This is why a person with low body fat will look leaner, less volume. Fat has a greater volume than muscle. Remember volume is not weight. Volume is the amount of space a substance takes up. So it should be better stated that a pound of fat takes up more space than a pound of muscle.

This confusion is one of the reasons I like to suggest using the term “lose fat” instead of “lose weight” People will jump on a scale after working out for a few weeks, and see little or no decrease in their weight and believe that their efforts are wasted. The fact is they could be gaining muscle while losing fat.

This also goes to debunk the rumor that muscle will turn to fat if you stop lifting weights. This is physically impossible as they are two different substances. Does your car turn into a couch if you don’t drive it? And now since you know that muscle has less volume than fat, this rumor can’t be true either.

And you may want to factor in that muscle helps burn calories. Repair and building of muscle tissue requires energy which burns calories. Fat on the other hand is the body’s way to store excess calories.

So Martin hopefully this helps you out in your debate.

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