Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Muscle vs Fat



What's the first thing you think of when you look at that image?

The object on the left is muscle. On the right, fat. Which one do you think weighs more? If you guessed one over the other, you're wrong. Fat and muscle weigh the same.

One pound of muscle, one pound of fat, one pound of rocks, one pound of water. It all weighs one pound.

So why does it appear that there's more fat than there is muscle? One pound of muscle takes up less space than one pound of fat. It also feels less lumpy. Above all else, muscle has more density than fat. By 22% actually.

It's a common misconception that muscle weighs more than fat, and, unfortunately, those who spout information without researching what they hear, those that focus on weight loss without researching the proper methods of weight loss and how nutrition and their bodies work, only further misinform others who are willing to follow just as blindly.

And until people start properly informing themselves and thus properly informing those who choose not to research, we cannot expect others to be more accepting of those who do not fit into society's standards of size. Because of that, the ignorance will continue.

As for the picture? See for yourself.

2 comments:

  1. I think maybe what people mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat is that if you had one pound of fat and then you had the same volume of muscle, the muscle would weigh more. That would be true for anything (rocks and water). But I don't know that it ever happens where we would gain so much muscle that we'd actually gain weight. It does happen where we STS on the scale and lose inches since that one pound of fat can be turned into one pound of muscle.

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  2. Yes but then you'd be comparing size with weight, and this is not an accurate form of comparison.

    The only time you should be gaining weight all in muscle is when you're already in shape and a healthy weight and are bulking up muscle, but you'd also be doing different exercises.

    For example, although walking helps build muscle, you will lose more fat than you will gain muscle. This is because walking isn't targeting your muscles like push ups or crunches do, for example.

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