A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline
We’ve all heard the phrase that muscle weighs more than fat, but where does that even come from and is it true
The other day I was at a friend’s house for dinner and someone was talking about weight. Of course my ears perked up…this is my thing after all. In case you’re new here, I’m a health coach who focuses on weight management. They were telling another person about all the stuff they’d been doing lately and trying to share everything they knew. Then came those five words: muscle weighs more than fat, said to explain the scale. Inside my head I told myself to keep my mouth shut. I hear this all the time, but when it’s not asked of me I’ve learned to bite my tongue. Still, it signals what we need to talk about here
Muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound. Think about feathers and bricks. A pound of feathers and a pound of bricks both weigh a pound. Pounds are just a unit of measurement for weight. People say muscle weighs more than fat because the amount of feathers versus bricks to get to a pound is very different. Your body works the same way when you compare muscle and fat. The space taken up by a pound of one versus the other is dramatically different. Muscle is the brick. Fat is the feathers
If we look at the same surface area of fat compared with the same area of muscle, this explains what people mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat. A cubic centimeter of muscle can weigh more than the same cubic centimeter of fat because it is denser
Here’s why it gets confusing. A pound of muscle is smaller than a pound of fat. You might look in the mirror and feel like what you see is tighter or smaller, so the number on the scale feels higher than expected. The scale doesn’t lie, it just doesn’t match what your eyes are showing you. That’s why people say muscle weighs more than fat, but think of it as the difference between looking at a brick and a bag of feathers
This is why I also say BMI is BS. Body Mass Index is based on the total number on the scale rather than looking at body fat percentage or the amount of lean muscle on your body. When it comes to tracking wellness or assessing progress, weight alone doesn’t give the full picture. I’ve shared this with my clients before: whenever we look at the scale, we also track body fat percentage and use a tape measure to check the chest, waist, hips, biceps, thighs, and sometimes the neck and wrists. Looking at all of these measurements together helps us understand muscle, fat, and strength and gives a more accurate sense of what we see in the mirror. On top of that, I encourage tracking daily progress with energy levels, sleep, confidence, and stress management. All of these pieces are what truly create overall wellness.
Focusing only on weight is why people believe muscle weighs more than fat. Now you know a pound is a pound and the space it occupies is the difference. More importantly, you have better ways to measure your progress through muscle, fat, strength, and overall wellness. Small consistent measurements and attention to all of these areas give a clearer picture of how your body is really doing