# 21 Grams (dead body stuff)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 5, 2002, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680 "2002-12-05T13:20:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2002, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/1 "2002-12-05T13:20:19Z")
I’ve recently heard that it was a “proven fact” that within the first seven minutes of death, a body loses 21 grams of weight. So, is this true, and if so, why?
Fruitless searches have not yielded me any type of an answer, but there _are_ 22 pages of search results on the SDMB using the word “gram.” Google similarly let me down :(.
I ask this because a new film has just begun shooting which is called “21 Grams,” and the explanation for the title is the question that I’m asking. Granted this explanation came indirectly from a clown called Broso, but when a high-budget film is made about the very subject, I feel I’ve got to ask.
(FWIW, the director of this film seems to be a guy with some real talent – “Amores Perros” was great and done on a budget. Hopefully the attention didn’t ruin him, and he won’t use money to substitute for quality on this new film).
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### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/2 "2002-12-05T13:39:43Z")
A body frequently loses more than 21 grams in the first seven minutes after death.
Often, anything in the bowel or bladder is let loose at the end. This would account for the weight loss.
Otherwise, it is probably total crap. What would be the mechanism of the weight loss, other than by making a mess in ones pants?
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### Author:  [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/3 "2002-12-05T13:47:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scotth \*
> \*\*Often, anything in the bowel or bladder is let loose at the end…Otherwise, it is probably total crap \*\*
Sounds to me like there’s no “otherwise” involved at all! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2002, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/4 "2002-12-05T14:26:45Z")
In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, published an article titled: Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together with Experimental Evidence of The Existence of Such Substance in the jornal American Medicine. In it he claimed that upon dying, a man loses three-eighths to one-half ounce in weight.
[Art Bell’s site](http://www.artbell.com/duncan.html) has the article, but there are also [several other sources](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=%22Duncan+MacDougall%22+death+weight) for the information.
I don’t know if anyone has _recently_ tried to reproduce the work, but even if they had, you can be assured that many people’s minds are made up on this one without regard to the presentation of any actual evidence.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/5 "2002-12-06T00:18:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, published an article titled: Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together with Experimental Evidence of The Existence of Such Substance in the jornal American Medicine. In it he claimed that upon dying, a man loses three-eighths to one-half ounce in weight.
I would question the results of anyone who claimed they could accurately measure the the weight of a human being to within an eighth of an ounce. As long as the patient is alive and breathing, their movements are going to cause the reading on the scale to fluctuate. The air in your lungs at any given moment probably weighs more than three-eighths of an ounce.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/6 "2002-12-06T11:38:49Z")
Thanks for all the answers – I suspected that there was no real merit. And I still suspect there’s no real merit to the statement.
I hope the movie’s good, though.
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### Author:  [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/7 "2002-12-06T12:40:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Smapti \*
> \*\*I would question the results of anyone who claimed they could accurately measure the the weight of a human being to within an eighth of an ounce. As long as the patient is alive and breathing, their movements are going to cause the reading on the scale to fluctuate. The air in your lungs at any given moment probably weighs more than three-eighths of an ounce. \*\*
I can just see it:
Doctor to dying patient “So, hold still now and don’t breath. OK, here we are 83.35Kg. Right. Now, please go on and die but please don’t inhale or exhale while doing it. Ah, good. (checks pulse) Dead. 83.14Kg. That settles it. The soul weigh 21g.”
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### Author:  [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/8 "2002-12-06T12:57:45Z")
Ooops. That should be 83.035Kg and 83.014Kg, respectively.
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### Author:  [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/9 "2002-12-06T13:08:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mort Furd \*
> \*\*Ooops. That should be 83.035Kg and 83.014Kg, respectively. \*\*
Yeah, either that or the poor slob had ten souls!😃
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### Author:  [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/10 "2008-04-16T12:00:22Z")
[QUOTE=Squink]
In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, published an article titled: Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together with Experimental Evidence of The Existence of Such Substance in the jornal American Medicine. In it he claimed that upon dying, a man loses three-eighths to one-half ounce in weight.
[Art Bell’s site](http://www.artbell.com/duncan.html) has the article, but there are also [several other sources](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=%22Duncan+MacDougall%22+death+weight) for the information.
I don’t know if anyone has _recently_ tried to reproduce the work, but even if they had, you can be assured that many people’s minds are made up on this one without regard to the presentation of any actual evidence.
[/QUOTE]
For the weight to be lost it would have to be material becasue if it was spiritual it would have no weight, just as some people believe spirits can come through a wall or make the sounds of foot prints it is not spirit.
Monavis
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/11 "2008-04-16T12:23:38Z")
And what you had left then would be a zombie, right? 😛
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/12 "2008-04-16T12:23:54Z")
If a corpse is reanimated (as a zombie) after, say, six years… does it _gain_ 21 grams?
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/13 "2008-04-16T12:48:38Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
If a corpse is reanimated (as a zombie) after, say, six years… does it _gain_ 21 grams?
[/QUOTE]
Maybe 21 posts. Overwhelming curiosity to say the most.
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### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-grams-dead-body-stuff/140680/14 "2008-04-16T13:15:11Z")
::aims shotgun at thread::