Does muscle really weigh more than fat?

CharlieJG

I seem to have hit a bit of a wall recently. My "happy" weight is normally around 9stone 7 and if i am eating ok and keeping fairly active I can easily maintain this however - I did have a bit of a slump there a few months ago where i went up to almost 11.....just by eating better I got down to 10stone 4 but I wasn't happy with how untoned I'd gotten to three weeks ago I started going for a brisk 5km walk every single day. This was three weeks ago. I've combined it with healthy eating and I just seem to be stuck at 10stone 1. I feel great, i *look* like I have lost weight and am a lot more toned but the scales ain't budging. It's really annoying me. Can anyone make sense of it?

gnolan

To answer your question, technically they weigh the same, like 1 ton of feathers weighs the say as 1 ton of iron. Muscle, however, is slightly more dense than fat.

So if you shoved as much muscle as possible into a 5 litre bucket, it would weigh more than if you shoved as much fat as possible into the same bucket. Hope you get what i mean

TommyKnocker

CharlieJG wrote: »

I seem to have hit a bit of a wall recently. My "happy" weight is normally around 9stone 7 and if i am eating ok and keeping fairly active I can easily maintain this however - I did have a bit of a slump there a few months ago where i went up to almost 11.....just by eating better I got down to 10stone 4 but I wasn't happy with how untoned I'd gotten to three weeks ago I started going for a brisk 5km walk every single day. This was three weeks ago. I've combined it with healthy eating and I just seem to be stuck at 10stone 1. I feel great, i *look* like I have lost weight and am a lot more toned but the scales ain't budging. It's really annoying me. Can anyone make sense of it?

Hi There

No. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. Muscle is more dense than fat.

If you have 5kg of muscle tissue and 5kg of fat tissue, both weigh 5kg.

However say that you put each type of tissue into a 5lt container. Where the 5kg of fat tissue might fill the 5lt container, the 5kg of muscle tissue may only take up 2/3 of the space.

Also IMHO if you say you are stuck at 10 st 1lb, then this is because you are eating the required number of calories to maintain this weight. If you want to drop down further, then you will need to create a small calorie deficit to facillitate this.

I would also advise to judge your body by how you look in the mirror and how your clothes fit, rather than some arbitary number on the scales.


Best Regards,

M

Frogdog

CharlieJG wrote: »

I seem to have hit a bit of a wall recently. My "happy" weight is normally around 9stone 7 and if i am eating ok and keeping fairly active I can easily maintain this however - I did have a bit of a slump there a few months ago where i went up to almost 11.....just by eating better I got down to 10stone 4 but I wasn't happy with how untoned I'd gotten to three weeks ago I started going for a brisk 5km walk every single day. This was three weeks ago. I've combined it with healthy eating and I just seem to be stuck at 10stone 1. I feel great, i *look* like I have lost weight and am a lot more toned but the scales ain't budging. It's really annoying me. Can anyone make sense of it?

Ok, so the 2 posters above have answered your question in the thread title. I'd like to address the question you asked in the last sentence of your post.

You say you feel great. You say you've lost weight (I presume you mean fat). You say you're a lot more "toned". So what's the problem? You want your bathroom scales to say some number that you've stuck in your head as your "happy" weight!?!

The sense I can make of it is that people (and in the vast majority of cases, women), including you in this case, place too much emphasis on "weight" on a scales, when more emphasis should be put on muscle mass, body fat, etc. I've 2 female friends the same height. Both are around 11.5 to 12 stone. One has a very attractive body, the other is fat. The moral of my story is, weight means nothing.

JJayoo

I feel great, i *look* like I have lost weight

This is all that matters, well done keep up the good work:)

Cookie_Monster

gnolan wrote: »

So if you shoved as much muscle as possible into a 5 litre bucket, it would weigh more than if you shoved as much fat as possible into the same bucket.

that is a disgusting image to imagine