# how many muscle cells does the human body have

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 31, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559 "2003-10-31T01:00:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559/1 "2003-10-31T01:00:13Z")

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If we are 40% skeletal muscle by volume and roughly 50 trillion cells (thats excluding the 50 trillion bacteria that live on us that some people include in their guaging of how many cells there are in the human body) how many muscle cells are there? how many are there of each type (skeletal, smooth, cardiac)?

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**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559/2 "2003-10-31T03:41:55Z")

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0.4 x 50 trillion - 20 trillion skeletal muscle cells.

I don’t know the breakdown of percent skeletal, smooth and cardiac, but if you know those, just multiply the percent by 20 trillion (or 50 if you find data telling you the percent relative to all tissue).

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559/3 "2003-10-31T11:51:38Z")

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yeah but thats 40% by weight. That is no indication of the size of the muscle cells.

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**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559/4 "2003-10-31T23:01:23Z")

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17,279,023,188,692

I counted.

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**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-muscle-cells-does-the-human-body-have/210559/5 "2003-11-01T00:15:34Z")

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Uh, you said it was by volume in the OP, not weight.