Riddle: Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?

Come on you know you have heard this and may have said it yourself:  Does muscle weigh more than fat?

When asked immediately I come back with the snarky answer: of course not! Five pounds of muscle weighs the exact same as five pounds of fat. Five pounds is five pounds, yes?

I’m being obnoxious, I know. The riddle is actually a play on words.

The following picture can illustrate a more accurate answer much better than I can:

What you are looking at is a replica of 5 lbs. of fat and 5 lbs. of muscle. When put on a scale, they do weigh exactly the same. HOWEVER, they look a whole lot different. And they do on our bodies as well.


The fact is, the five pounds of fat has a whole lot more VOLUME than muscle. Although they weigh exactly the same, the amount of space fat takes up is significantly greater (and it’s a lot bumpier!). Just look at it! Holy cow. Whenever I think I don’t want to do lunges, I just think of that glob of fat hanging off my backside and I start lunging away.

It has always interested me when two people weighing exactly the same, one who has a low percentage of body fat and one who has a high percentage of body fat, stand side by side. Typically, the one with the lower amount of fat and higher amount of lean muscle will be much smaller. Their clothes sizes will often be 2-4 sizes smaller as well.

With lean dense muscle, the inches are reduced. Losing fat and adding lean muscle will change the composition of your body and sculpt like nothing else out there.

I’ve always said, I don’t care if I weigh as much as a two ton semi truck, if my clothes are fitting well and measurements are where I know they should be — then who the heck cares what the number on the scale says!

My point is this: we’ve got to choose — do we want more muscle or fat? It’s one or the other. Of course, I’m not talking about walking around looking like some ultra masculine version of ourselves with muscles busting out of our sleeves, veins popping out in our necks and traps up to our earlobes. NO! I’m just talking about the long, lean, healthy muscles we were born with. We might as well put them to good use by strengthening them regularly and getting them to work for us instead of letting that fat take over.

The benefits of lifting weights and building lean muscle are many. Not only do muscles rev up the ole’ metabolism and give your body the strength it needs to function optimally, they are are INCH REDUCERS to boot!