Hi guys, can someone please help with the above myth, I have a fitness program at the gym and this includes resistance weights, but people are telling me that when you build muscle it weighs heavier than fat, so although you loose fat you don't loose weight due to the additional muscle you are building, and in the same breath I've been told that it's a myth muscle isn't heavier that fat, can someone who knows for sure answer this rather than someone guessing..
Thanks guys..
Myth-pound for pound it weighs the same. It takes time to build up and apparently takes up less space.
I am sure someone will post up links that demystify said myth
Yes, a lb of muscle will weigh the same as a lb of fat !
If you are beginning to build up muscle strength through exercise (both cardio or weights) then you are probably going to be enlarging your muscle mass somewhat, which means that although you are losing fat, you are gaining muscle, so your weight loss might be 'slightly' affected by this (but in a good way - lean muscle is a good thing to have !)
Unless you are training for Mr/Ms Universe, then you aren't ever probably going to be getting to the stage where you are putting on weight due to increasing muscle size
Muscle weighs the same as fat but muscle is more dense so fits into a smaller space. So if you had replaced fat with muscle to the same size of space it would weigh more. If that makes sense?
I have gained muscle through resistance training, but I have also lost fat (nearly 4 stones worth!), so strength training has done me no harm at all.
In fact, muscle helps regulate your insulin and also increases your metabolism - both very useful for weight loss.
easiest way to visualise is to think of fat like a sponge and if it is turned into muscle it weighs the same but is scrunched up to a small ball (or as small as it can possibly go) so still weights the same but takes up less space therefore you would lose inches but not actual weight.... hope that make sense
I needed to get fit after a knee op. So I hit the gym practically every day for a month. I did not lose weight that month. The trainer said that I would have to train every other day for the weight to go down because my muscles were building and retaining water and they needed a day's rest to shed this. I carried on because getting fit was my priority. So I weighed the same at the end of the month as I did at the beginning, but I went down 2 clothes sizes. So something good was going on. And it must have boosted my metabolic rate because I went on a cruise, but managed to lose half a lb over the 3 weeks of the holiday, when I sort of watched what I ate, but only to the point of picking the best option at each point. Not to the point of actually saying no! Don't know if that gives you any insights?
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