Which Weighs More,
a Pound of Muscle or a Pound of Fat?

Trick question? I think not. Well, obviously a pound weighs a pound so literally speaking I guess it’s a trick, but this question is intended to help me make a very profound point. As you strength train to condition and grow your muscle while simultaneously losing fat, the number on the scales may not show a big change. Here’s the thing though, your body’s appearance will change, your clothes will begin to fit better, and your friends and loved ones will begin to notice how awesome you are looking!

That’s because you are doing much more than losing weight. You are manipulating and improving your “body composition.” You see muscle is denser than fat and so it takes up less space. That is why a 140-lb person with 18% body fat will look thinner and healthier than a 120-lb person with 30% body fat. Make sense?

This is also why I tell my clients not to freak out over what the scales say, especially in the beginning phases of implementing strength training into a total fitness plan that includes cardiovascular/aerobic exercise and proper nutrition. In fact, you should pay more attention to your body fat percentage than you do the scales. At the very least you should never weigh more than once a week and consider girth measurements along with your body fat percentage to better track your progress.

So just what is body composition, you ask? Body Composition is the makeup of the body in terms of the relative percentage of fat-free mass and body fat. Your weight on a scale consists of two dimensions: (1) body fat or adipose tissue; and (2) fat-free weight or muscles, bones, blood, organs, etc. Fat-free weight represents all the rest of the body’s weight, excluding fat, i.e., muscles, bones, organs, and nervous tissue.

Body fat is the body’s primary reserve of stored energy and is stored as triglycerides both in fat (adipose) cells located between the skin and muscles all over the body, as well as within skeletal muscles. Percent body fat represents the percentage of total body weight that is carried as fat.

In my humble opinion, this information renders the height-weight tables of yesteryear obsolete, or at the very least inconsistent and inaccurate, since they do not take a person’s body composition into consideration. For instance, a bodybuilder could be considered obese according to those charts. Likewise, a person who is well within the accepted range may be over-fat by body composition standards.

Perhaps equally unreliable is the BMI (Body Mass Index). I rate that a close second when it comes to numbers that freak people out. Like the height-weight chart, the BMI uses total body weight in its calculation, and, therefore, does not discriminate between over-fat and athletic or more muscular body types, rendering it an inaccurate number as far as I am concerned.

So we have three widely used standard assessments, all utilizing the same flawed protocol. The scales (unless they are the kind that give body fat percentage), the height-weight charts, and lastly the BMI do not take body composition into account; consequently, they DO NOT give an accurate picture of your level of health and fitness.

However, these numbers can serve a very useful purpose. They can give you a baseline number to use to track your progress. In some instances if they are way high, they can also serve as a wake-up call that you need to get yourself in gear and start a health and fitness plan. If they get your attention and help prod you into action, then maybe they're not all that bad. And like I said, they can be used as a number to watch change as you implement your new and improved lifestyle choices, i.e., cardio training, weight training, healthy food choices and such.

If you’d like to know what your BMI is, you can go to my Body Composition page and check your BMI by entering your height and weight.

How much fat does one need? In general, the body-fat percentage of a fit individual falls in the range of 21% to 24% for women and 14% to 17% for men. For a more specific range see the charts on the aforementioned page by clicking on the body composition link above. As you can see, achieving and maintaining a healthy body composition is an important part of health and fitness.