Body size largely depends on the percentage of fat it contains.

The higher it is, the greater the health risk associated with excess weight.

When you measure your body fat at the club or at the doctor's office, the device shows your percentage of fat, water and muscle. Together they make up 100%.

While the body's water content remains virtually constant, the variables are fat and muscle content.

The more muscle mass you have, the less fat you have (and vice versa).

What's heavier: fat or muscle?

The specific gravity of muscle tissue is three times the specific gravity of fat tissue.

The ideal body fat percentage is

Why does the body need fat?

If the fat percentage is lower, this is not always good for health. Fat is essential for the body, protecting internal organs such as the kidneys and keeping you warm in cold weather.

Turn fat into muscle?

You can't turn fat into muscle. Because you can burn fat and build muscle mass. It is foolish to believe that one thing leads to another!

If you decide to reduce your weight and do strength training, the percentage of body fat decreases and muscle mass increases. This is good because:

Increases physical strength

Energy is added

Metabolism increases

Improved muscle configuration

Cellulite is reduced

The figure becomes better (in men the muscles become more distinct; in women the outlines become smoother)

Weight increases

Reduces the risk of diseases associated with overweight or obesity

A large percentage of fat is harmful to the body. It leads to the following:

Increased risk of diabetes or other diseases associated with being overweight or obese

Energy decreases

Metabolism slows down and obesity occurs

The body becomes sluggish

For determining desired size Fat percentage cannot be used as an indicator.

Eg, Katya's body fat percentage was 19%. She wore size 46 clothes. But this woman's waist was too wide, and her muscles were so large that her clothes did not fit well. Her jeans didn't fit on her. She had the ideal body fat percentage, but wanted to wear a smaller clothing size. She was advised to change her diet.

Body fat percentage can be used as a guide, but not the only one.

Let's just say that I'm already sick of questions about weight. A kilogram of fat = a kilogram of muscle, but muscle is actually bulkier and denser than fat. Just look on the Internet for a picture comparing 500g of fat and muscle. The difference will amaze you.

You've probably noticed how different girls of the same age, height and weight look. So I post a girl who is 164 cm tall and weighs 60 kg, and in the comments “wow? 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 the 10 kg difference?” But because the latter’s muscle mass can be as big as a piece of cake, just like the difference in the ratio of muscle to fat among the first commentators.

All you need to remember are general numbers that you can apply to yourself. They were not invented by me, of course. In the first year of lifting weights, a woman can grow approximately 4-5 kg ​​of muscle mass (all this must be done regularly and monitored by body composition analysis). The second year of regular exercise 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 extensive 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 are not capable of regularity. No amount of steroids will help if you are undernourished, sleep deprived and train only once every 2 weeks. If you are used to starving and always losing weight, if for you a beautiful body is thin in a dress, and not elastic and smooth when undressed on the beach, 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 jerk off your coach with questions “why haven’t I changed in 3 months,” then you have a chance.

There is another nuance in mass gain. It deals specifically with plateaus 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, glorified 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 ass pumpers with a rubber band, smarter people will support what exists, but it also has its own subtleties.

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

If you don’t understand why 2 girls of the same age, height, weight look different, re-read the first paragraph. Once again: the ratio of water, muscle and fat may be different for them. You can find out everything about yourself by doing a body composition analysis. The only way. Therefore, do not pay attention to the weight, unless it is 80-100kg, of course.

Many people who decide to lose weight correctly, that is, with the help of fitness, often explain the fact that the scales have frozen by saying that muscles are heavier than fat. Allegedly, their weight is due to the fact that when they exercise, they replace fat with muscles that weigh more.

Is it really? Let's figure it out.

After a month in the rocking chair, you begin to look arrogantly at the chickens that keep running to the scales.

You are not like that. You understand that weight loss and fat loss are two different things. Weight loss can occur not only due to fat loss, but also due to the loss of muscle mass, water, and feces.

You robotically repeat that you are “flooded” with PMS and milk, and “the scale arrow is not an indicator, because muscles are heavier than fat.”

Chill out, chickens. The scale arrow is an indicator even for me. Not to mention your flabby asses.

Yes, I really don’t like the question: “Lena, what is your weight?”

For this very reason:

Yes, we have all seen this picture, but only fools understood it this way: “If I go to the gym and my weight stays the same, this means that I am losing fat, and instead I am building muscle, the weight of which is equal to the weight of the lost fat.” .

Such an arrangement is impossible in principle.

Losing fat is always much easier and faster than gaining muscle mass. Muscles grow very slowly.

Fat also - especially at a certain stage - goes away slowly. And, nevertheless, fat loss and muscle gain are incomparable in their speed. Muscle growth in both women and men always occurs slower than fat loss. In women it is twice as slow as in men.

A woman who is not new to the gym and who trains there conscientiously can gain about 50 grams of muscle mass per week. And this is an excellent indicator.

A healthy person, if he sets a goal to lose weight and does everything right, can easily lose from 500 grams to 1 kg of fat per week.

So if the needle on your scale stays the same for a long period of time (weeks 3-4), this does not mean that by training you are replacing fat tissue with muscle tissue, but that you are unable to lose weight. fat.

Chickens, forget the statement that muscles are heavier than fat, and never try it on yourself. Don't embarrass yourself.

You have no idea how ridiculous it sounds coming out of your mouth, considering that fat loss happens in one way and only one way: when you burn more calories than you consume. With a calorie deficit, there can be no talk of any increase in muscle mass.

Exceptions:

1) Those who have just started to lose weight. This is a matter of the first two weeks, not four or more.

2) Those who use steroids.

If you're working out and the weight isn't coming off, you're probably just eating too much. Even if you exercise a lot, you eat even more. That's why your weight doesn't move.

Do you want a beautiful body? Be smart. Use your head, and don’t replicate misinterpreted truths by flapping your wings.

It often happens that a well-fed person weighs one hundred kilograms, and a bodybuilder - fit and pumped up - also weighs one hundred kilograms. At the same time, the first man does not look very aesthetically pleasing with a hanging belly, but the second one looks beautiful. These people have the same weight, but different shapes. The mystery lies in the fact that fat and muscle do not weigh the same.

What a beginner needs to know before starting to lose weight

Before you start losing weight, a beginner should know that it is impossible to transfer fat into muscle. This means that if a person is overweight, then when he starts working out in the gym, he will not achieve the effect of muscle accumulation and fat breakdown.

In other words, in order to remove fat tissue, you need to use some processes, and in order to build muscle, others.

If the goal is to lose weight and get pumped up, you won’t be able to do it at the same time. It is impossible to drive one cell into another, as some people think. First you need to lose weight by losing excess weight, and only then build muscle.

Wraps, massages, rubbing will not help you lose fat mass. Fat from the triglycerides in which it is found in the body will be broken down into fatty acids and glycerol will enter the bloodstream. But if you don’t use it, for example, don’t give physical activity or don’t reduce calorie intake, these cells will return to their original place, accumulating on the sides. They can also deposit plaques on blood vessels in the form of cholesterol.

Eating right is very important

You can only get rid of excess fat if you eat right. This is exactly what a beginner who has decided to say goodbye to extra pounds should know. To do this, you can play sports, run, jump, swim, that is, do cardio exercises, but only slowly and for more than an hour at a time. You should train every other day. This will be enough, but if problems with obesity are serious, then it is better to exercise every day.

Having lost the hated kilograms, you can move on to gaining muscle mass. Then, perhaps, the kilograms will return, but the person’s body will look many times more beautiful. It will become slim and fit

To lose fat and gain muscle, you need to eat differently. In the first case, the amount of carbohydrates should be reduced to a minimum or completely abandoned for some time. In the second case, you should eat a limited amount of carbohydrates in the first half of the day, and increase your protein intake in the second half of the day. The general thing is that you need to eat little by little and in fractions.

Important! Only by knowing what 1 kg of fat and 1 kg of muscle looks like can you build up the former and fight the latter.

Human Fat Density and Muscle Density

Muscle has a higher density than fat. It turns out that higher density takes up less volume of the same weight than lower density, and a person who has a lot of muscle tissue looks slimmer and prettier. And this despite the fact that they will have the same weight.

Important! It is wrong to think that a woman weighing 60 kilograms, living without exercise and being overweight, will look fatter than a pumped one.

It has been proven that fat density is 0.9 and muscle density is 1.06 grams per cubic centimeter. It turns out that the difference between them is small. It is only 15 percent and it is difficult to visually notice the difference. That is, both girls weighing 60 kilograms - one fat, the other pumped - will look approximately the same. The only difference is that one of them has visible muscle relief.

Important! It is easier for a person who has a lot of muscles to lose weight.

It is possible to understand the truth that fat density and muscle density have little difference through experiment. You need to take meat and lard, which look the same in volume, and if you weigh them, it turns out that the meat weighs 99 grams, and the lard is only 98.

It is easier for a person who has a lot of muscles to lose weight

The following conclusions suggest themselves:

• It is not true that fat takes up ten times more space than muscle.
• Muscles grow unevenly during training. Mostly where work is being done on them. Adipose tissue is distributed evenly in particularly vulnerable areas. In men in the abdominal area, in women on the buttocks, thighs, and abdomen.

What is heavier: fat or muscle mass: compare a kilogram of fat and a kilogram of muscle

It is wrong to think that kg of fat and kg of muscle are very different in volume. In fact, the figures are approximately the same. As proof, they cite a comparison of lard with meat - a kilogram of the former looks much larger than the same kilogram of the latter. In fact, their density is slightly different, so meat weighs about one and a half times more than lard.

Important! If a person starts working out, and the scale needle suddenly suddenly stops, this does not mean that he has stopped losing weight, his muscles are just growing.

So, which is heavier, fat or muscle? Of course, muscles! During training, they grow, but the weight remains, although body volume decreases. If you don’t play sports, your figure will deteriorate with age, because in youth there is always more muscle tissue than fat. In adulthood, getting rid of excess fat is a difficult question, because fat cells do not degenerate into muscle cells.

Heavier muscles

Advice from experienced trainers and nutritionists on building muscle mass and removing excess fat from the body

In order to gain muscle mass, you need not only to go on a diet, but also to exercise. Body change occurs only through regular training and accurate calorie counting.

Experienced trainers give advice on how to gain muscle mass:

• To begin with, you should pay attention to how muscles grow. Every day, protein is synthesized and broken down in them. If the process is balanced, muscle mass is not lost, except in cases of aging. For muscle growth to occur, synthesis must predominate over breakdown.
• Maintaining and increasing muscle requires a good metabolism, which requires energy. The process of muscle training itself is important. When static strength exercises are performed, muscle cells are torn, so immediate protein synthesis is required to repair them. Moreover, the body tries to create more muscles and make them stronger and more resilient so that they do not tear.

Important! The load should increase and become more intense, which will speed up the metabolism.

It is difficult to build a beautiful body with training alone. You need proper nutrition, in which protein predominates, as well as a sufficient amount of calories to provide energy for metabolism.

• No need to diet.
• You need to eat carbohydrates and other foods.
• You should not eat strictly specified portions.
• There is no need to manipulate hormones.

The only way to get rid of extra pounds is by consuming fewer carbohydrates, but maintaining the amount of protein so as not to lose muscle.

Many athletes and people far from this are wondering what is heavier: muscles or fat. There is a sufficient amount of controversial information on this matter.

Fat or weightlifter?

You can often find a common example in the comparison of fat and muscle: a well-fed person can weigh 100 kg and not look very beautiful, and a bodybuilder who also weighs 100 kg, but has a low percentage of fat, nevertheless looks quite aesthetically pleasing. Same weight, but different shape. In the first case, the person will seem much larger in size than the second, but meanwhile they have the same weight, so what is the mystery?

Having understood the question “Which is heavier: muscles or fat in a person,” everyone can clearly understand what actions they need to take depending on their goal of building a figure. After all, only having certain knowledge in a certain matter can you competently approach solving a problem.

Fat or muscle - which is heavier?

Having understood this topic, you can clearly understand why such dramatic differences in weight and appearance arise. If we consider the question “is muscle or fat heavier?” from the point of view of cellular structure, the clear answer is that muscles are heavier, since their cells have a higher density compared to fat cells.

Muscle cells contain protein and water, while fat cells contain only fat, or lipids. You don’t need to have any special knowledge of body structure to understand that protein and water, aka muscles, will be much denser in composition than fat.

Functions of fat deposits

Fat is not a useless phenomenon; its critical level poses a threat to health, so you need to take a responsible approach to the process of losing weight. Layers of fat protect internal organs and create an additional source of heat in cold weather, which explains the decrease in metabolism in winter as the body tries to conserve fat reserves.

Having learned the answer to the question “fat or muscle - which is heavier”, many try in every way to get rid of fat, which exceeds in volume; however, it is worth understanding that there is a limit beyond which it is not advisable to go.

The lowest fat level threshold for a woman is 12%, after which problems may begin with both appearance and womanhood. Men can feel great with 5% body fat.

However, a high percentage of fat is harmful to the body, since the likelihood of developing diabetes increases, energy decreases, metabolism slows down, and lethargy sets in.

Why doesn't the weight change?

Due to the difference in the weight of muscle and fat, when losing weight, your weight may stay the same. In the process of sports activity, both fat is burned and muscle mass is built. Because the proportion of body fat may be lower than the proportion of muscle, the effect of stagnant weight change can be created. In other words, two processes occurred simultaneously - fat went away and muscles increased.

Based on this, you should not attach great importance to the numbers on the scales. Visually you can see changes, a decrease in volume in certain areas, but remain at the same weight.

Many people believe that if they work out in the gym, their figure will in any case become athletic, whether they initially have fat or muscles. What is harder - burning lipids or increasing lean mass?

You need to understand that fat does not transfer to muscle. Intense exercise, of course, reduces body fat in a sense, but good results can only be achieved by limiting carbohydrates.

Heavy bones?

An overweight person has a large proportion of body fat, while the proportion of muscle and bone tissue changes slightly. It is inappropriate to believe that weight can increase due to bone growth, since a change of even 10% in the proportion of bone tissue leads to only 1-1.5 kg.

You can achieve dramatic weight gain with exercise and proper nutrition, since muscles are heavier than fat and bones. Because of this, the athlete will have large muscle mass and weight, respectively. Although, according to the classification of acceptable parameters and weight, he will belong to the overweight group, while having a low percentage of fat reserves.

Today there is a so-called bioimpedance analysis, which allows you to calculate the percentage of muscle mass in the body. Based on this, we can conclude whether a person needs to lose weight or gain weight.

When wondering whether fat or muscle is heavier, you need to consider many factors that influence weight gain.

In some cases, for example, during premenstrual syndrome in women or with heart disease, weight may increase due to fluid retention in the body. In this case, you need to consult a doctor. But almost everyone is associated with excess fat.

When understanding the question “Which is heavier: muscle or fat?”, it is important to pay attention not only to weight, but also to the distribution of fat across parts of the body. Thus, a woman, even if she is overweight, can look harmoniously built, which is due to the uniform distribution of fat deposits throughout the body.

The ratio of hips to waist volumes, taken as the norm, for women is 0.7, for men - 1.

Body types

There are two for the female type - "pear" and for the male - "apple".

People belonging to the first type have a concentration of fat in the buttocks and lower abdomen.

Those in the second type have deposits, usually in the upper part of the body. These people are susceptible to obesity, diabetes, ischemia, and atherosclerosis.

You need to be aware that weight does not play a big role; what this weight consists of is much more important. The same weight of fat and muscle will look different. How? - many will ask. For example, 1 kg of muscle occupies a volume 2 times less than 1 kg of fat.

To replace fat with muscles, you need to eat protein and give up unhealthy foods, then you will no longer worry about what is heavier - muscles or fat in a person.