Muscle vs. Fat: Clearing Up The Misconception
Muscle mass is denser than fat mass, and you will undoubtedly gain weight from lean muscle gains. While your clothes may feel looser, the scale may tell you otherwise. Common sense tells us that a pound of muscle and fat have to weigh the same but differ in density. If you look at five pounds of muscle and five pounds of fat side by side, the fat takes up more volume, or space, than the muscle. That's important when you're on a nutrition plan , and part of your goal is to have a lean look of muscle.
Muscle vs. Fat: The Benefits of Muscle
Muscle boosts a person’s metabolism, so a pound of muscle will burn more calories at rest than a pound of fat. What does this mean? Even when you’re not exercising — you could be sitting on the couch watching TV — you will be burning more calories just by having more muscle. Muscle has other benefits, too. It’s critical in improving bone density and helps prevent the loss of muscle mass that occurs with aging, allowing people to stay active as they get older.
Does Muscle Actually Weigh More Than Fat?
The short answer: Yes, muscle does weigh more than fat—by volume. The muscle will weigh more if you take a bowl of fat and compare it to a same-sized bowl of muscle. The catch: That number on the scale shouldn't matter here because the benefits of having more muscle in the body outweigh having more fat tissue.
How Having More Muscle Affects Your Health
Muscles are a star player in keeping your body happy and healthy long-term for several reasons. For starters, lean muscle mass can help manage blood sugar, keeping Type 2 diabetes at bay. "The number one consumer of blood sugar in the human body is skeletal muscle," explained Tim Church, MD, MPH, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. So, the more muscle you have, the greater your potential to stabilize your blood sugar. As a bonus, the blood sugar-regulating effect is instant and lasts after exercise. So, if you do a workout today, your muscles will utilize blood sugar better over the next 72 hours. Also, as you age, you'll want a healthy amount of muscle rather than fat. "Muscle is a commonly overlooked marker of healthy aging," Church said. You start losing muscle mass around age 40 or 45. This age-related decline in muscle is known as sarcopenia, one of the biggest reasons many older adults can have trouble doing simple tasks without help. Even better news is that muscle can help you maintain a healthy weight by raising your basal metabolic rate or the number of calories you burn at rest. Exactly how many extra calories you'll burn by adding muscle is unclear. We know that the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism. Lastly—and least importantly, in terms of health—the muscle density might cause it to weigh more, which also means it takes up less space in the body. "If someone gains 10 pounds of muscle, a lot of times they'll barely notice that on their body," Seedman said, "whereas, if you gain five or 10 pounds of fat, you definitely notice that."
How To Lose Fat and Gain Muscle in a Healthy Way
Strength training is the most effective way to build muscle and cut back on fat. "If you only have a limited amount of time to work out, strength training is exponentially more powerful," Seedman said and added that you could manipulate work and rest ratios to get more cardio benefits from your strength routine. It is recommended doing a full-body strength routine at least two- three times a week. Try lifting to the point of near-failure in each set—that means those last one or two reps should feel nearly impossible to do without breaking form.If you're trying to shed fat while building muscle, keep the rest periods short between sets (30 to 60 seconds) to increase the intensity of the session.
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