Two Common Gym Ideas That Piss Me Off

Ok, it’s the start of the new year.  I’ve been wishing everyone well, smiling (sort of), and generally been cheery as long as I can.  Now I’m done.

In the gym today I heard two of the statements (from one trainer) that piss me off regularly.

The first one is “A pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat”.  What?  That might be the stupidest crap I’ve heard in a long time.  No… a pound of muscle does not weigh more than a pound of fat.  A pound of muscle weighs just as much as a pound of fat, feathers, steel, or sea cucumber.

I’ll go ahead and assume that they mean that a pound of muscle is more dense and thus takes up less space than a pound of fat.

The other thing I heard that chapped my rear end was that a pound of muscle uses 50 extra calories per day just to be around.  Again, horse pucky.  Yes, having more muscle mass does increase one’s metabolic rate.  However, let’s do some math:  Let’s say that I gained 20 pounds of muscle mass.  That would mean that my resting metabolic rate went up by about 1000 calories.  That’d be pretty cool.

I’ve gained about 40 lbs of muscle mass since I started exercising.  Therefore my resting metabolic rate should be somewhere around 4000 or more, and that doesn’t include activity.  In reality, I gain weight on 3000 or more calories per day if I’m not active. 

Let’s use science.  We’ll check out the Harris-Benedict Formula, which is one of the more accurate metabolism calculating formulas out there.

Harris-Benedict for men:
66 + (13.7 x wt in kg) + (5 x ht in cm) – (6.8 x age in yr) = BMR

Ok, so for me at 240 pounds (109.09 kg) we’re looking at:

66 + (13.7 x 109.09kg) + (5 x 185.42cm) – (6.8 x 27yrs) = BMR
66 + (1494.53) + (927.1) – (183.6) = 2238.033 kcal

Hit me with 20 lbs of muscle and it looks like:

66 + (13.7 x 118.18) + (5 x 185.42cm) – (6.8 x 27yrs) = BMR
66 + (1619.066) + (927.1) – (183.6) = 2362.566 kcal

2362.566 kcal – 2238.033 kcal = 124.533 kcal difference.

124 kcal.  Wow.  Sure, the added muscle will have some effect on your activity calories consumed, but it’s not going to be 875 calories worth.

Remember, if you hear something then pass it through the logic test before you believe it.