muscle gain

[bounceswoosh]

I understand that a pound is a pound is a pound, but -- serious question -- is the phrasing "muscle is heavier than fat" misleading or inaccurate? It seems accurate to me -- muscle is more dense; it takes up more space per unit of weight, which is why when you are not losing weight but you are noticing your pants getting looser, it's probably muscle gain and fat loss combined. But if I'm phrasing it in a way that sounds ignorant, I'd like to know!

[pinkychique]

I understand that a pound is a pound is a pound, but -- serious question -- is the phrasing "muscle is heavier than fat" misleading or inaccurate? It seems accurate to me -- muscle is more dense; it takes up more space per unit of weight, which is why when you are not losing weight but you are noticing your pants getting looser, it's probably muscle gain and fat loss combined. But if I'm phrasing it in a way that sounds ignorant, I'd like to know!

Muscle weighs more per unit of volume than fat, which means, that for say someone who is extremely athletic and weighs like 130, with 14% body fat, 18.2 pounds of her weight will be fat, someone of the same weight, but with 30% body fat, she'll have 39 pounds of body fat, and will wear larger clothes than her more athletic counterpart.

"muscle is heavier than fat" is inaccurate, it's more that "muscle is denser than fat" that is the case - so for the same volume, it will weigh much more than fat.

does that make sense?

[bounceswoosh]

"muscle is heavier than fat" is inaccurate, it's more that "muscle is denser than fat" that is the case - so for the same volume, it will weigh much more than fat.

does that make sense?

Yes! Absolutely. I will make an effort to use that phrasing in the future. Much more accurate, just as succinct.

[Veronica]

BMI can be a tricky way to evaluate yourself too. I'm 5'5" and a few years ago I went and had a body fat test done alone at the Davis Sports Medicine Facility. My BF was just under 21% then, but I weighed 152 pounds - just on the edge of being okay with BMI.

V.

[HillSlugger]

I saw it somewhere that a cubic centimeter (cc) of fat weighs 0.9 grams but a cc of lean muscle weighs 1.1 grams. (That's about a 20% difference) So, you can maintain the same weight while decreasing your volume!