Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Dumb

Does it really bug anyone else when people say "Muscle weighs more than fat".

That's like the stupid little riddle "Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?"

A POUND IS A POUND!

I understand the benefits of having muscle on your body, and I understand that it takes up less space on your body than fat does, so in that respect, you would have a smaller mass but possibly weigh more because of the added muscle. But I just think that statement up there is irritating!

I'm enjoying the Dr. Phil book, but he said that in one of his paragraphs, and it's just one of my pet peeves I guess! Oh, I'll get over it, I just had to have a random little hissy fit:)

6 comments:

Princess Dieter aka Mir said...

I think what they mean to say is that the SAME WEIGHT of muscle takes up less space than the SAME WEIGHT OF FAT. Density, not weight. They get the terms mixed up.

But yeah, I know what you mean. :)

The Princess

Heather said...

Lol I agree with you completely. However I would rather have muscle than fat any day!

Daniele said...

I'm with you on that one. I have heard that this statement IS true when you are building muscle at a bodybuilders' level, professionally and to a ridiculous degree.

I've heard people use this statement when they haven't lost any weight in a particular week, and they thought that it was because they exercised more hence built up muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat. Now that is just silly. Unless you are already pretty slim and your muscles are well developed, at an athlete's level.

Angela Power said...

People use this "well known" tidbit to justify their weight loss slow downs when they've been exercising. You are right, a pound is a pound and this kind of excuse isn't justified until you're very lean and THEN start to bulk up.

Anonymous said...

I have to kindly disagree with some of what the other posters have said. If you have a tennis size ball of fat and a tennis size ball of muscle the muscle will way more than the fat even though it's the same size ball of stuff. So it isn't like "which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead".

But I do agree the use of that saying is annoying. It takes many many many months for people (women especially) do add even a few pounds of muscle to their bodies so using it as an excuse to not lose isn't ecaxtly 100% true.

BUT when you do lift weights you make tiny tears in your muscles which then hold onto water until the muscle repairs itself. It's not unusual to gain a little or not lose when you lift regularly because of this water retension in your muscles.

AND the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn while just sitting around doing absolutely nothing, that's a pretty big bonus.

Ok, I'm done. LOL

Diana Swallow said...

inch for inch, muscles do weigh more than fat (sorry) but when it comes to the scale, a pound is a pound is a pound.

I think the best reason for me to want more muscle is so I can EAT more and still lose weight LOL