Does muscle weigh more than fat? Or is it the opposite? This is a question that has probably crossed your mind at one point or another during your health and wellness journey.
One of the reasons I see many runners not lifting is because they’ve heard that strength training makes you gain weight. What is often heard is that muscle weighs more than fat.
It’s no wonder we get confused about this topic because many of us have grown up using scales as a measure of progress with our health and fitness goals.
However, weight loss is not the same as fat loss.
And what most people are really striving for is fat loss. Let’s take a look at how the idea of gaining muscle mass started and what you really need to know about strength training and weight gain.
Does muscle weigh more than fat?
Debunking the Myths – Does Muscle Really Weight More Than Fat?
The answer is simply no, muscle does not weigh more than fat. There is definitely a distinction, but not in the way people make it out to be. Rather than weight, it’s more about volume.
Think about it: Would a pound of feathers weigh more than a pound of bricks? The answer is obviously no. Similarly, a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh exactly the same, one pound.
What we are talking about instead is that muscle tissue is denser than fat tissue. This means it will take up less space for the same weight.
Going back to our feathers and bricks example, a pound of features will appear larger because it is fluffier, while bricks are denser and more compact for the same weight.
Therefore, bricks will physically occupy less space than feathers of the same weight.
Muscles and fat work in exactly the same way. So, what we really need to consider is body size and body composition.
Interestingly, a pound of fat is taken. 15% more space More than a pound of muscle.
Again, it’s more dense so someone can actually be shorter and still weigh more than someone with less muscle mass.
@justget.fit The real world provides a great example of this. In both photos here she weighs 145, which shows that the scale isn’t telling the whole story.
This does not mean that one is inherently better than the other! We’re just debunking the idea that muscle weighs more than fat.
And that doesn’t mean strength training will make you heavier.
To bulk up like a bodybuilder, you need to do more than lift weights.
Why Runners Should Care About Building Muscle
Building muscle through strength training has many benefits for runners, including reducing muscle imbalances, improving running economy, and even reducing the risk of injuries.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t have some questions about the potential downsides of building muscle.
Let’s review and answer some of your most important questions to help you understand how building muscle will affect you as a runner.
What does it take to get bigger than strength training?
- Years of continuous strength training
- A high-protein, very high-calorie diet (rarely what someone who wants to look lean is eating)
- Heavy, heavy weight training with a focus on strength and hypertrophy
- When bulking, they are actually putting on muscle and fat because of the high intake of food, then they go into a lean phase, then bulk again.
- Supplements like creatine, protein powder and others.
Why am I gaining weight from strength training?
If you’ve started a new strength routine and are noticing that the scale keeps going up, it’s probably not what you think it is.
- The average newborn can’t put much more than that 2 lbs of muscle in a month
- This is consistent with strength training and enough calories to gain muscle (often not the case with dieters).
- People who have been strength training for a long time can only put on 5 to 1 pound per month.
This means that if the number on the scale has gone up by 10lbs since you started exercising last month, you haven’t packed on 10lbs of muscle.
- As exercise results in micro-tears and inflammation, the body retains water to repair the damage.
- You may be eating more because strength training increases hunger levels.
- You may need to add more protein to your diet to help with muscle building, fat loss and muscle repair.
- You may need to increase your daily water intake to ensure that you are not dehydrated which will also cause water retention.
Building muscle may increase your body weight, but you’ll lose inches from your waist or thighs because it’s helping you reshape your body.
Another great one Example About how he used strength training to build muscle, which increased numbers on the scale, but dropped his overall body fat resulting in a “toned” look that Many women are looking for
Worry less about scale and more about performance.
Or if you’re into measuring, focus on physical measurements and Body fat percentage
Does weightlifting make you gain weight?
Strength training results in increased muscle mass, injury prevention and more power in your stride. It should be part of every runner’s training plan and it’s an essential part of everyone I coach!
But if you’re still focused on scale, let’s break it down a little more.
Yes, strength training can cause weight gain, if you’re actually building muscle or if you’re eating more.
- If you replace 10lbs of fat with 5lbs of muscle, you lose weight and fat.
- If you lose 5lbs of muscle through strict dieting and don’t build muscle, the scale has gone down but your body fat has gone up and your metabolism has dropped.
- If you lose 5lbs of fat, gain 10lbs of muscle then the scale has increased, but your body fat has decreased and the overall appearance is very lean.
What happens when you have more muscle?
Muscles are attached to our tendons, bones, joints and ligaments, and thus are primarily responsible for the movement that occurs in the skeletal system.
Having more muscle is beneficial for a number of reasons. For one, it helps you burn more calories, and it also helps maintain bones and other organs in your body.
Additionally, muscle helps increase metabolism as it has a higher metabolic rate than fat. Simply put, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest.
The ratio of calories burned from a pound of muscle to calories burned from a pound of fat is about two to one.
As a result, building muscle can help you lose weight by increasing your resting metabolic rate and burning more calories even when you’re not active.
What happens when you have too much fat?
The main function of fat is as an energy reserve for your body. It also keeps your body warm and protects the organs.
There are three main types of fat, namely essential fat, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat. If you want to know more about them, I’ve written about them in detail in my guide on how to lose body fat which you might want to check out.
However, there are risks associated with having too much fat. Excess fat can accumulate on your organs, impairing their function.
For example, body fat percentage can be a good indicator of your overall health. A high percentage of body fat puts you at a higher risk of health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), a healthy body fat percentage for men ranges from 2% to 24%, and for women, it ranges from 10% to 31%.
How to determine body fat and lean mass percentage
As you can tell from what you read above, a poor muscle-to-fat ratio puts you at risk for many negative health conditions. Therefore, knowing and keeping track of your body fat and lean mass percentage is incredibly important.
Here are some of the top ways you can measure it:
Body fat calipers
Body fat calipers, also known as skinfold calipers, are an inexpensive way to measure body fat and look like large sets of tweezers.
The device works by separating muscle from subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that lies beneath the skin. A gauge measures the thickness of the pinch produced by the tweezers at several predetermined locations.
Skinfold thickness alone can be used to estimate growth or an equation can be used to calculate body fat percentage.
It is generally recommended that you contact a fitness professional at your local gym to get a reading for accurate measurements.
Bioelectrical Impedance Scales
A bioelectrical impedance device can help you determine how much body fat you have compared to how much lean muscle mass you have. It is also commonly referred to as the bioimpedance scale.
Many devices that use this technology are similar to standard bathroom scales, but they measure your body composition through electrical impulses.
Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)
Another method that can’t tell you exactly what your body fat percentage is but can provide a useful glimpse into your health is the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).
It is a method recommended by the World Health Organization and is said to be more accurate than body mass index (BMI).
Get a measuring tape to track your WHR. Take your measurements around the smallest part of the waist and the widest part of the hips and buttocks. Next, divide the waist circumference by the hip circumference.
WHO considers a healthy WHR of 0.9 or less for women and 0.85 or less for men.
A note on body mass index (BMI).
Body mass index is one of the most common ways people measure body composition. Honestly, this is an outdated metric and won’t work for you if you’ve gained muscle and want an accurate picture of your body composition.
This is why it is not recommended as an accurate measure of health or body composition, especially for active people who are building muscle.
If you want a quick calculation of your current BMI to see where you stand (keeping its limitations in mind), you can use this free BMI Calculator as a starting point.I hope this helped you understand why muscle mass is more than fat debate and what you need to focus on.
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