If a muscular and a slim person of the same age mount on a scale, it may come as a shock that the slim person weighs more. You may think that a muscular person will weigh much more, but does muscle weigh more than fat? The truth is that a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat.
Some myths say the muscle weigh more than fat. Usually, when a person is putting on weight, he or she believes that it is excess fat in the body. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat are the same in terms of weight. The difference is the volume (density).
The fact is that muscle has a low percentage density but more volume, while fat has a higher percentage density with a large volume. What this means is that a pound of muscle will occupy a smaller area than a pound of fat in your body.
To build muscle, the body needs certain amounts of nutrients—protein in particular—and calories. At first, when you start a physical exercise program, you will notice that some parts of your body are increasing, like the chest, shoulders, etc.
Men who desire a broad chest or arms will like to see those areas shooting out; however, this might not go down well with females, as it makes some develop a masculine physique. This can be quite demoralizing at times. But you need to understand that what matters most for you is to be fit and healthy.
Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat
Intramuscular fat, or muscle fat, is the fat deposited in the muscle. This can affect your ability to exercise and make it a challenge to meet your fitness goals. When it comes to muscle fat, all fats are not created equal. The fat just beneath the skin is known as subcutaneous fat.
Excess muscle fat hinders your muscle function; this therefore affects your performance during exercise. It can also reduce your body’s ability to respond to insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar; this might expose you to developing other diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
However, there is still hope. So, what can you do to get rid of muscle fat? In essence, you can achieve a low level of intramuscular fat by engaging in cardiovascular activities, weight training, and eating a healthy diet. In addition, you can use high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to target stubborn muscle fat.
Body fat is the total amount of fat in our body. There are two main types of body fat, they are subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Though, we need fat in our body, we must avoid excess fat as they can cause diseases like obesity, heart issues, and diabetes.
It is therefore advisable to monitor your fat percentage. Note that a person may look slim and be within the recommended BMI, but their body fat percentage can affect their health.
Some of the most common ways to check fat tissue are skinfold calipers, bioelectrical impedance analysis, and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Nonetheless, these methods are not always accurate.
The question does muscle weigh more than fat comes up often because people want to take good care of their health. Fat and muscle are different in terms of volume. Muscle tissue is more compact than fat tissue; in other words, considering its weight, it has a lower volume.
It may be surprising to see a person with more muscle mass look leaner than one with a higher BMI, even if they both weigh the same. The body mass index (BMI) measures height and weight to get the exact amount of fat in the body.
Muscle tissue consists of protein fibers called myofibrils. In a healthy adult that weighs 70 kg (150 pounds), the muscle makes up around 40% of the total weight, with muscle protein making up 20% of this weight.
On the other hand, fat tissue consists of adipocytes, they may be larger in volume, but they occupy less mass than muscular fibers.
Muscle And Fat Body Composition
Even if weight loss is your main goal, you need to know your body composition. Body composition is the amount of fat, muscle, and other tissues in our body. If you depend on a measuring scale to check your weight, unfortunately for you, that wouldn’t give you an accurate body composition.
For example, you can have a healthy body mass index (BMI), but your body fat is still high. When such a situation occurs, you could be prone to heart disease or diabetes.
Muscle mass is very important when it comes to health. It helps the body’s metabolism function at its best, and when it does, it burns more calories and also enables us to carry out our daily activities without experiencing fatigue.
Research shows that people with a higher muscle mass tend to enjoy better health as they age. Body fat percentage is the ratio of body fat to lean mass, this includes bone and muscle. A healthy body fat percentage is between 7 and 25 percent for males and 16 and 33 percent for females, however, it depends on factors such as age, gender, and diet.
Many use body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage to check how fit they are. A person’s BMI does not mean his or her status is okay. However, body fat percentage is more accurate when assessing the health condition.
Read also: How To Get Rid Of Face Fat: Tips You Should Try
How To Calculate Your Body Fat Percentage
Some rely on the scale; however, there are other methods available. Here are three practical tips on how to monitor your body fat percentage.
1. Body Measurements
The most common way to calculate a body fat percentage is to measure your body. How can you do that? You can focus on some parts of your body, for instance, your waist, hips, arms, and thighs, among others.
You may find that even if the scale’s weight has not changed after exercising, you feel a difference in those areas you measured. For example, you can tell whether you gained weight or lost weight through your thighs.
When your thighs clap together, it shows weight gain, and if it doesn’t, it means you didn’t accumulate extra fat. However, you take measurements at intervals to assess your progress using this method.
2. Fitness Assessments
It is always important to schedule fitness tests so that you can monitor your fitness goals. Are you looking for short- or long-term fitness goals? Whatever your reasons are, you should keep track of things. Specific exercises such as push-ups, squats, and planks and then counting the number of times you do them will help assess your fitness goals.
This way, you can track your results in these crucial areas after having put the necessary baseline measurements in place.
3. Energy Levels and Performance
The other non-scale way of evaluating your progress is through the energy levels and performance in your workouts. If you start to notice that you can endure more in terms of stamina and strength when you exercise, it is clear that your body is adapting and getting stronger.
So, you should keep a workout diary to record any changes in performance or feelings before, during, and after exercise.
If you want to monitor fluctuations in body composition, here are some techniques you can also use:
One method is to use a caliper to measure the thickness of skin folds at specific parts of the body. Also, there are over-the-counter devices called bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) that can give the amount of the fat percent.
Other methods include dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans, where one is given a detailed breakdown of fat, muscle, and bone mass; and hydrostatic weighing, it involves assessing the body density when submerged in water.
It is advisable to combine one or two methods so that you can get a reliable result. The debate on whether muscle weigh more than fat doesn’t seem to end anytime soon.
The myth most people have is that muscle weighs more than fat. This is not true because one pound of muscle and one pound of fat are the same. The only difference between them is the volume.
Muscle is more compact than fat, which means it occupies less space in the body. This is why a person who is thin and has muscles will weigh the same as a person with more fat around them but look much smaller and have more muscles.
Still, on the argument of which is heavier, muscles or fats, people must stop focusing on figures on the scale and start focusing on the fat percentage.
Regarding muscle gain, it is denser than fat, which means that one pound of muscle would take less space than one pound of fat. This means that even if you have the same amount of muscle as fat, it will have a different appearance on your body.
Instead of focusing on what is better or worse, you should pay more attention to your overall health. Check what you eat, avoid unhealthy fat, and exercise regularly.
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