Overall, the question of whether muscle weighs more than fat hinges more on the size of what's being weighed—taking it back to the bricks versus feathers example, a pound of feathers will look much larger in size than a pound of bricks.

That's what's really at the root of this question: size—and for people, this centers on body composition, the proportion of fat versus non-fat mass in your body (which actually includes muscle, bones, and organs). While it should be said, first and foremost, that body size or weight is not necessarily an indication of health, there is some truth behind the saying that muscle weighs more than fat—here's what you need to know.

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The short answer: Yes, to a certain extent muscle does weigh more than fat; if you simply take a bowl of fat and compare it to a same-sized bowl of muscle, the muscle will weigh more. But that's only an explanation in the simplest of terms—there's much more that goes into that question, particularly how your body responds to these two tissues, body fat and muscle.

Muscle can weigh more than fat because it’s denser, says Joel Seedman, PhD, neuromuscular physiologist and owner of Advanced Human Performance in Suwanee, Georgia. So, as previously explained, if you hold a fistful of muscle it will weigh more than the same fistful of fat because you technically have more of the compact tissue in your hand. The catch: That number on the scale shouldn’t really matter here, because the benefits of having more muscle tissue in the body outweighs having more fat tissue.

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Muscle is a star player in keeping your body happy and healthy in the long-term, for several reasons. For starters, lean muscle mass can help manage blood sugar, keeping type 2 diabetes at bay. In fact, one 2017 cohort study published in PLoS One found a negative association between muscle mass and risk of developing of type 2 diabetes—specifically that a higher muscle mass meant a lower chance of type 2 diabetes. “The number one consumer of blood sugar in the human body is skeletal muscle,” says Tim Church, MD, MPH, PhD, professor of preventive medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. So, the more muscle you have, the greater your potential to metabolize blood sugar. As an added bonus, the blood sugar-regulating effect is instant and lasting after exercise. So if you do a workout today, your muscles will utilize blood sugar better over the next 72 hours, Church says.

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 says. You lose about 1-2% of muscle mass starting around age 40 or 45, he adds. This age-related decline in muscle is known as sarcopenia, and it’s one of the biggest reasons many older adults can no longer do simple tasks without help. “You can’t put your jacket on, you can’t push yourself off the toilet, and you can’t get yourself off the ground after you fall,” Church says. “It all comes down to strength and muscle mass.”

What’s even better news is that muscle can further 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: “That number has been widely discussed and argued over the years,” says Seedman. “But we do know the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism.”