Which is lighter fat or muscle. Fat and muscle weigh differently! Full or weightlifter

If you are actively exercising, but you can’t burn fat and the numbers on the scales remain motionless, as if you have been lying on the couch all this time, don’t be upset and read this material - we will tell you why this happens.

Any load, be it cardio or power training, may contribute to the recruitment muscle mass and loss excess fat, so the fact that the scales are frozen does not mean that all efforts are in vain. The thing is that muscles have a greater density than fat. Thus, one kilogram of muscle is significantly smaller in volume than one kilogram of fat, but they have the same mass.

Which is heavier - muscle or fat

Have you ever heard the statement that a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat? Here we should immediately make a reservation that in this case we are talking about comparing the mass of two bodies, and not about weight, as is commonly believed. Thus, the mass of two bodies is identical, and it's all about volume, since one kilogram of fat takes up four times more space than muscle tissue. That is, you can look and feel slim even if your body weight remains the same. Alas, the same thing “works” in the opposite direction - you can look and feel plump, while the scale needle will remain motionless. This is especially true for older people, since muscles tend to decrease in size with age, because the process of repairing damaged muscle cells is much slower than in youth. In addition, with age, a person, as a rule, begins to move less, and this, in turn, significantly affects the increase in adipose tissue in the body.

In any case, excess fat can be a factor contributing to the development of serious diseases such as stroke, ischemic disease and diabetes. It is difficult to determine the optimal ratio of fat and muscle in the body for each person - for this it is necessary to conduct special studies, since the final figure will depend on the lifestyle of a person, and on the characteristics of his body, and on the sport he is engaged in. However, insufficient body fat is also undesirable, since a lack of fat can cause serious damage to the body, including reproductive function in women. At the same time, it should be remembered that the ability to lead an active lifestyle largely depends on the realization of the fact: the body needs both muscle and fat.

Igor Zavialov

Do not forget that body weight is made up of not only muscle and adipose tissue - there are also bones, internal organs, liquid, glandular and nervous tissue. Therefore, I am against frequent weighing when it comes to determining the effectiveness of training and rational nutrition. Instead, use a measuring tape and your feelings - whether the clothes become looser or, on the contrary, narrower. Yes, you can weigh as much at 50 as at 25, but only in your youth in these conditional 65 kilograms did muscles prevail, and now fat, although the mass remained unchanged. And do not believe the claims that if you do not exercise, the muscles will turn into fat. No, muscle doesn't turn into fat, fat doesn't turn into muscle, bones don't turn into brain. Can a wooden house become stone? Same here - different materials, which cannot transform into each other. If a person stops taking care of himself, the fat mass naturally begins to predominate. Plus, with age, the body somehow gains fat mass and lose muscle - after 30 years, muscle cells become smaller, metabolism slows down, a person spends less energy. This is a natural mechanism, but not a sentence. If you want to continue to be active, keep leading healthy lifestyle life and play sports, and the older you get, the more time you have to devote to maintaining your own physical fitness. Only you need to do this consciously and under the guidance of a professional who can competently plan the load, taking into account your age.

Modern scales allow you to measure body composition and determine the percentage of muscle and fat mass. If you are not prepared for professional competitions, such weights will be quite enough to track not only muscle growth and fat burning, but also control fluid loss. This is important to keep in mind to prevent dehydration. For example, many people wear special rubber suits to training, run for hours in them and then proudly say that they have lost three kilograms. Only now they lost not fat, but water. At professional athletes there is even such a rule - they are weighed before the match and always after. This allows them to determine exactly how much fluid the body has lost. In order to restore the water balance, they must drink water in the calculation of 150% of the lost body weight within two hours - they “lost weight” by two kilograms, which means they need to drink three liters of water. If this is not done, the recovery process will take a long time and be less efficient.

The average person can safely lose 500 grams of fat per week, that is, no more than two kilograms per month. Yes, you can lose weight faster, only it will not be safe, and you may be waiting for the “reverse wave” that is inevitable with sudden weight loss. Remember, the body will always take its toll. The main thing in this business is to know your own characteristics and trends and not go to extremes.

Yes, the numbers on the scale can remain stationary for a long time, but the ratio of muscle mass to fat will still change. So don't give up swimming or daily workouts at the gym just because the scale isn't moving in the direction you want. For the time being, give up weighing and try to start measuring the result in other units, such as centimeters or minutes that you spend in the plank.

Any activity, whether it be cardio or strength training, can contribute to the growth of muscle mass and the loss of excess fat, so the fact that the weights are frozen does not mean that all efforts are in vain. The thing is that muscles have a greater density than fat. Thus, one kilogram of muscle is significantly smaller in volume than one kilogram of fat, but they have the same mass.

Which is heavier - muscle or fat

Photo: flickr.com

In any case, excess fat can be a contributing factor to the development of serious diseases such as stroke, coronary disease and diabetes. It is difficult to determine the optimal fat content in the body for each person - for this it is necessary to conduct special studies, since the final figure will depend on the person's lifestyle, and on the characteristics of his body, and on the sport he is engaged in. However, insufficient body fat is also undesirable, since a lack of fat can cause serious damage to the body, including reproductive function in women. At the same time, it should be remembered that the ability to lead an active lifestyle largely depends on the realization of the fact: the body needs both muscle and fat.

Igor Zavialov

honored coach of Russia, a specialist in sports and space medicine, a legendary doctor who works not only with athletes (he was a doctor and functional coach of the Russian national basketball team, PBC CSKA, football Dynamo), but also with people from the list Forbes - Do not forget that body weight is made up of not only muscle and adipose tissue - there are also bones, internal organs, fluid, glandular and nervous tissues. Therefore, I am against frequent weighing when it comes to determining the effectiveness of training and rational nutrition. Instead, use a measuring tape and your feelings - whether the clothes become looser or, on the contrary, narrower. Yes, you can weigh as much at 50 as at 25, but only in your youth in these conditional 65 kilograms did muscles prevail, and now fat, although the mass remained unchanged. And do not believe the claims that if you do not exercise, the muscles will turn into fat. No, muscle doesn't turn into fat, fat doesn't turn into muscle, bones don't turn into brain. Can a wooden house become stone? It's the same here - different materials that can't turn into each other. If a person stops taking care of himself, the fat mass naturally begins to predominate. Plus, with age, the body somehow gains fat mass and lose muscle - after 30 years, muscle cells become smaller, metabolism slows down, a person spends less energy. This is a natural mechanism, but not a sentence. If you want to continue to be active, continue to lead a healthy lifestyle and exercise, and the older you get, the more time you need to devote to maintaining your own physical fitness. Only you need to do this consciously and under the guidance of a professional who can competently plan the load, taking into account your age.

Modern scales allow you to measure body composition and determine the percentage of muscle and fat mass. If you are not preparing for professional competitions, such weights will be quite enough to track not only muscle growth and fat burning, but also control fluid loss. This is important to keep in mind to prevent dehydration. For example, many people put on special rubber suits for training, run for hours in them and then proudly say that they have lost three kilograms. Only now they lost not fat, but water. Professional athletes even have such a rule - they weigh themselves before the match and always after. This allows them to determine exactly how much fluid the body has lost. In order to restore the water balance, they must drink water in the calculation of 150% of the lost body weight within two hours - they “lost weight” by two kilograms, which means they need to drink three liters of water. If this is not done, the recovery process will take a long time and be less efficient.

An excess amount of adipose tissue in the body of any person not only makes his figure unaesthetic, but also threatens with dangerous diseases. Our today's article is not about this, but about the ratio of muscle mass and fat. You have probably heard the statement that muscle is heavier than fat. This is true, but there is not such a huge difference between the volumes of fat and muscles, as is usually shown in photographs and pictures.

So, we will help you to thoroughly understand what is heavier - muscles or fat, we will analyze specific numbers and tell you how the bulk fat mass is replaced by heavier muscles.

General information about fat and muscle mass

Overweight people who start exercising in order to lose weight sometimes get upset looking at the numbers on the scales. At the same time, they do not understand why the body weight remains the same, but the figure becomes slimmer? Everything is explained very simply. Heavy strength training and cardio to burn fat burn calories, and with it comes an increase in muscle mass. At first, for beginners who go in for sports, muscles grow quite quickly due to the implementation of new physical exercises.

It turns out that muscle tissue grows, and the percentage of fat decreases, but at the same time, the arrow of the scales stands still or even shifts upwards. This is due to the fact that a kilogram of muscle is not as voluminous as a similar amount of fat. When exercising regularly, it is better to weigh yourself not daily, but once every 2-4 weeks, but in any case, weight should not be the main criterion for evaluating results. Take body measurements once a month and focus on them, and also look at your reflection in the mirror.

Slowly but surely, fat loss and muscle growth will occur, and the body will be transformed. Muscle is definitely heavier than fat, so two people of the same height and weight can look different if one plays sports and has a good physical form and the other has a lot of extra fat.

Why is muscle heavier than fat?

How much heavier muscle is than fat can be determined by their density. On the Internet, there are pictures that clearly demonstrate how many times muscle tissue is heavier than fat. Usually this difference is amazing - a kilogram of fat is 4-5 times more voluminous than the same amount of muscle. In fact, everything is greatly exaggerated.

Muscle tissue does weigh more than fat tissue, but not at times. How much muscle is heavier than fat becomes clear in numbers:

muscle density - 1.3 g per centimeter;
the density of fat in the human body is about 0.9 g per centimeter.

Accordingly, fat weighs less than muscle by about one and a half times. The difference is noticeable, but not as significant as many people think. So it turns out that if you started training, and the mass according to the weights stands still, maybe you are just building muscle while burning calories. At the same time, body volumes hardly change or even decrease.

Due to the fact that muscles weigh more than fat, women and men lose their figures over the years if they do not play sports. The fact is that the body weight of 45-50 years old can be the same as in 20-25 years old, but the complexion will be radically different. In youth, muscles predominate, and over the years, adipose tissue begins to grow, and it is always more difficult for mature people to burn fat.

Many are mistaken that proper workouts allow you to turn fat into muscle. This is a gross mistake. The fact is that fat and muscle are built in the body according to completely different principles. When playing sports, the level of fat gradually decreases, and the muscles grow - these are two separate physiological processes, since the tissues have a different structure and structure.

How are fat and muscle redistributed?

To the question of how much muscle is heavier than fat in the human body, we answered you in detail, but for the sake of completeness, we will understand the redistribution of these tissues in the body. It is impossible to say exactly how much muscle and fat should be in the body of a man or woman. Each body contains an amount of water, people have different lifestyles and metabolisms. Be that as it may, a thick fat layer is not needed, but a lack of fat is harmful. Moreover, a low percentage of body fat for women is especially dangerous.

The mistake is made by people who go on low-calorie mono-diets without playing sports. The body begins to destroy the muscles on its own, since it is the muscles that consume calories. It turns out that the smaller the muscles, the fewer calories are needed for their work. When the diet is over, the body will return to its original weight, but for this will be accumulated body fat and not muscles. Muscles simply cannot grow without exercise.

Since fat weighs less than muscle tissue, after some time after the diet, you may notice the opposite effect: the body will become fatter, and the figure will become even less attractive! Hiking and even jogging in the park will not improve the situation, since the body needs muscles to burn fat. Only proper strength training allows you to pump them up.

When we talk about big weight, we increasingly condemn the presence of extra pounds and fat reserves. Yes, the size depends on the percentage of fat in the body in many ways, but still, there are no exact indicators. normal weight, since muscles also affect size and weight. They also have weight.

Usually, experts for determining excess weight do not take into account the actual weight, but the percentage of fat in the human body. The higher this percentage, the greater the risk of health complications.. This percentage can only be determined using a special device or well-thought-out scales, which are usually found in nutritionists' offices. You can find such scales in fitness clubs. They show the percentage of fat, muscle and water that are contained in the body and all three indicators will add up to 100%. Since the percentage of water in the human body usually does not change (at least it should), changes in the percentage of muscle and fat can occur. Needless to say, the greater the advantage in the direction of the muscles, the better for human health.

What's harder?

It is noted that muscle tissue specific gravity is three times the weight of adipose tissue. Long marked indicators perfect percentage fatty and muscle mass for women and men. Values change depending on age.

So, for women under the age of 20 years, 14-21% is considered a normal indicator of the amount of fat, but already from 20 to 50 years old, it is permissible for women to have a fat mass of 17 to 27%. After thirty, the percentage of 20-3o is considered the norm.

As for men, the norms are somewhat lower for them. At the age of 20 years, fat mass can be 9-15%, and at the age of 20 to 50 years, 14-21% is considered the norm. After 50 years, as for women, the norms increase, and the value of fat can reach 19-23%.

By the way, if the percentage of fat is higher, this, of course, indicates obesity, but even lower values are far from always good for human health. For a person, fat is necessary, because it helps protect internal organs. And in cold weather, fat still performs the function of heating.

So it’s better for women not to go too far in getting rid of fat in order to prevent an indicator of less than 12%. At lower values, a variety of problems are noted, including often stopping the menstrual cycle. Men need at least 5% for normal well-being and health.

How to turn fat into muscle?

Fat cannot be turned into muscle, because in order to reduce its amount, body fat must be burned. Muscle mass, on the contrary, increases. So the two processes are completely incompatible. But if you practice strength exercises, then the fat gradually disappears, and at the same time muscle mass increases. This happens due to the fact that physical strength increases, energy is added, muscle configuration noticeably improves and metabolism increases. An excellent result of active training is an improvement in figure and weight, a reduction in the appearance of cellulite and a reduction in the risk of diseases that are associated with obesity or excess weight.

But a high percentage of fat is very harmful to the human body. It can lead to a decrease in energy flow and slow metabolism, the body becomes noticeably more lethargic and increases the risk of developing diabetes and some other unpleasant diseases.

But, in any case, using the percentage of body fat to determine the size of a person is unreasonable. There are women with a low percentage of body fat, but with wide hips by nature and an insufficiently pronounced waist. Of course, the clothing size in this case cannot be too small, even if the weight seems small. Or, with a percentage of fat above the norm, people look quite good for themselves - they cannot boast of a model appearance, but it is also difficult to put obesity on them. So the percentage of body fat can be an indicator, but it is far from the only guideline.

Let's just say, I'm sick of questions about weight. A pound of fat = a pound of muscle, but muscle is actually bulkier, denser than fat. It is enough to search the Internet for a picture comparing 500g of fat and muscle. The difference will impress you.

You have probably noticed how different girls of the same age, height and weight look. Here I am posting a girl with a height of 164 cm, weight 60 kg, and in the comments “hoaaa? Why do I weigh the same but look completely different? Or I post a girl who lost weight from 73 to 63, and they write to me “why can’t you see a difference of 10 kg?” But because the latter can have muscle mass with a gulkin nose, as well as the difference in the ratio of muscles and fat among the first commentators.

All you need to remember is the general numbers that you can apply to yourself. Of course, they were not invented by me. In the first year of weight training, a woman can grow about 4-5 kg of muscle mass (all this must be done regularly and monitored by analyzing body composition). Second year regular classes this is only 2.2-2.7 kg of muscle mass per year. In the third year, even less: 1-1.5 kg of muscle. And if you have a huge training experience plus 4 years in the gym, you have an inevitable "plateau" compared to the potential of a beginner - 400-700g of muscle per year.

Muscle mass requires dedication, regularity and good recovery. It's easier not to even start if you're not capable of regularity. No steroids will help if you are malnourished, sleep deprived and train once every 2 weeks. If you are used to starving and losing weight forever, if for you beautiful body- thin in a dress, and not undressed on the beach elastic and smooth, then I have bad news for you - you will not succeed. If you are ready to change, accumulate fat along with muscles, gain gradually and not masturbate the trainer with questions “why haven’t I changed in 3 months”, then you have a chance.

There is another nuance in the mass collection. It concerns just a plateau or slow growth with experience. The point is that our body is not rubber, and it also has a limit. Genetic potential, blah blah blah, unlimited possibilities, sung by NIKE, but the body gets tired. If you push yourself through cycles of bulking and cutting for years, your body will probably give up. Stupid people with a deformed psyche will resort to farming to constantly sell assholes with rubber band, smarter people will support what is, but there are subtleties there too.

In short, to recap: building muscle is hard work. If you cannot train regularly, have problems with sleep, food, are not psychologically ready to gain muscle and fat (which is inevitable), then mass is not for you.

If you do not understand why 2 girls of the same age, height, weight look different, reread the first paragraph. Once again: the ratio of water, muscle and fat they can be different. You can learn everything about yourself by doing a body composition analysis. The only way. Therefore, do not pay attention to weight, if it is not 80-100kg, of course.