SparkPeople - Seriously?!?!

Taken from today's "Exercise of the day" entitled "Keep the Weight Off with Daily Weigh-Ins"

"Exercise Extra: Muscle weights more than fat, but takes up less space."

Next thing you're going to be telling us that muscle will turn to fat when we stop lifting weights.

Nothing irks me more than seeing a fitness 'myth' or outright false information being perpetuated by a "reliable" source.

No wonder people are confused - there's SOOOO much information available about health, exercise, physiology, nutrition, etc., and only a portion of it is useful. It's exceptionally difficult to know who to believe in the first place, but when "experts" keep spreading this kind of mis-information, it seems even more helpless.

Who cares if the rest of the article has 100% accurate, dead on information - people will focus on "Muscle weighs more than fat" and head down the road of "OMG don't lift weights! don't do exercises that will work muscles because I will "gain" weight!"

Grrr.

So let me ask you this age old question: Which weighs more? A pound of feathers or a pound of lead?

They both weight the same, right?! A pound is a pound is a pound.

Unless muscle has it's own special form of gravity it produces to make it heavier, a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat.

It's all about the density!

As to the muscle turning to fat/fat turning to muscle silliness - Does. Not. Happen.

CANNOT. Happen.

It's like saying if you don't use your lungs, they'll turn into intestines.

While these myths some how got started is one matter... and that some how they continue is another. It's the fact that it's been brought up as fact from a source that SO many look to for reliable, easy to understand information.

It's a great example and reminder to read things with a critical eye.