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Muscle Does Not Weigh More Than Fat

Published on September 13, 2023

Lori Boxer
Weight★No★More℠ Diet Center

 

 

Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat!  
 
 
Let me clear up this misconception. 
 
 
As you can see from this graphic, 5 lbs of fat is much bulkier than 5 lbs of muscle but 5 lbs is still 5 lbs whether it’s 5 lbs of fat, muscle, books, marbles, potatoes, rocks, coins, etc. 
 
 
Fat is bulky and lumpy, so if you carry an extra 5 lbs of fat, you’ll be lumpier than with 5 lbs more muscle, and a 5 lb pile of fat will take up more space (volume) than a 5 lb pile of muscle. 
 
 
A woman weighing 150 lbs with 19% fat will look much smaller than a woman of 150 lbs with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different because muscle is more dense than fat. 
 
 
Another way to visualize this: One pound of fat is roughly the size of a small grapefruit; one pound of muscle is about the size of a tangerine. That tangerine, however, is 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒, meaning that it burns more calories at rest than fat does. 
 
 
In other words, even when you’re lounging on the couch watching TV, your muscles are burning up energy much faster than the fat cells in your body. The more muscle tissue you have, the more energy you’re burning. The more energy you burn, the faster you’ll lose weight.