Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?
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Does muscle really weigh more than fat? And will it make you heavier? Here is how muscle and fat work and why you don’t have to fear the weight of muscle.
Muscle Vs. Fat
Good Morning America did it again: saying that muscle weighs more than fat. Just in August they had a “fitness expert” in the studio stating it, now it was anchor Robin Roberts herself who imparted that pearl of wisdom on her viewers.
Maybe these people oversimplify to get a message across on TV. Maybe they just don’t understand physics.
But no matter what, they hugely confuse all those who want to work out and lose weight. And it’s actually so very easily explained:
Measure Your Body Fat
As I said in the video: as long as your body fat is going down, everything is going in the right direction, even if the scale looks like it’s almost stalling.
Simply check how your clothes fit or, for more accuracy, use a body fat caliper like the one I show here.
A hearty thank you to Dr. J for tipping me off about Mrs. Roberts!
Picture courtesy of Nathan Jones.
Tags: does muscle weigh more than fat, is muscle heavier than fat, muscle, video, weight loss
6 Comments
HaHa – I was laughing at your 1 pound of feather vs 1 pound of steel being a complicated formula!!! And even before the video I was going to say that 1 pound of fat and 1 pound of muscle weigh the same!!!
You really were that girl sitting in front of me in math, weren’t you? 😀
As far as I know, a kilogram is a kilogram, but then again I flunked a Physics class, LOL
What I can say is that muscle will make you sink, and fat will make you float. Watch me go! Blub blub blub (picture J at the bottom of the pool)
This was our lesson in practical physics today, ladies and gentlemen 🙂
I emailed GMA and asked Robin to correct her statement.
I really like her! I met her years ago when she spoke at my university. She was a sports broadcaster at the time and was not a news anchor.
I wonder if they’ll react. From my experience with news people, they hardly ever let reason get in line of a good catch phrase.