Muscle Weighs More than Fat: Why this is Both a Myth and a Fact.

Just Google "How much does muscle weigh?" or "Does muscle weigh more than fat?" and you'll come up with a plethora of websites that call the belief that muscles weighs more than fat a myth. Even more so you'll find websites that compare the pound of muscle and a pound of fat to a pound of feathers and a pound of bricks, saying a pound is a pound regardless of what it is, which is true. However, that's not really what we're asking when we are trying to figure out if the lack of weight loss or even at times weight gain was caused by the fact that we have put on muscle rather than, or in addition to burning or not burning fat.

This is why: If you would take the same volume of fat. Let's say one milliliter of muscle and one milliliter of fat and put them both on a scale, the side of the scale that has the milliliter of muscle on it would be the side that dips down, because muscle has more mass than fat. It has more density because it is packed more tightly than fat cells.

So, it is possible to build a small amount of muscle and have it show up on the scale as not losing weight or even gaining weight if the amount fat that was burned during the muscle building process was the same volume or less than the volume muscle you gained.

The reason I chose milliliters for my example is because the only websites I could find that talk about the actual weights of muscle and fat identify muscle as having a mass of 1.06g/ml (that's grams per milliliter) and fat as having a mass of 0.9g/ml which is actually its mass, not its weight, but when we step on the scale the two seem almost interchangeable. So one liter of muscle weighs about 1.06 kg and one liter of fat weighs about 0.9kg. For those of us who still use the Empirical system of measurements you would multiply 1.06 x 2.20462262 to get how many pounds that is. 1.06kg is about 2.3369 pounds. and 0.9kg is about 1.98 pounds. Which is a difference of a little more than a third of a pound. Which is why we and other well meaning friends and family try to comfort ourselves when we have worked our butts off (sometimes literally) trying lose weight, only to step on the scale to see it hasn't budged, but saying, "just remember, muscle weighs more than fat."

So yes, to all you neigh-Sayers out there, a pound of fat and a pound of muscle both do weigh a pound, but the chances are, when you don't see a difference in the scale after working out and dieting it is probably because you did not burn the volume of fat needed to exceed the weight of the volume of muscle you put on and THAT dear friends is why we say "muscle weighs more than fat."

This is also why many weight loss programs encourage you to measure different parts of your body along with stepping on the scale weekly. I have stayed around 143 lbs for the past several weeks, partially because I let myself stray outside of my calorie goal for a two weekends in a row due to special occasions and partially because I've been lifting and doing more strength training than cardio work lately, but I have lost an inch around my waist which shows that I must have burned some fat.

So, don't get discouraged if you don't see the scale budge. Keep fighting the good fight and you'll keep looking and feeling better!