# What is the volume of a pound of fat **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865 "2005-01-03T18:39:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [January 3, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/1 "2005-01-03T18:39:30Z")
Is it the same as the volume of a pound of lard or butter that you buy at a store or does bodyfat have more water than store bought fat. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/2 "2005-01-03T18:46:38Z")
It depends if you actually mean “fat” or “adipose tissue” [Adipose tissue](http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/adipose/adipose.html) is composed of fat cells - called adipocytes, which store fat, but also contain quite a bit of water, and so is slightly more dense than pure fat alone. What most people mean when they say body fat is adipose tissue. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/3 "2005-01-03T18:48:10Z")
See [Re: How big is human fat? (volume/weight)](http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/feb98/885577949.An.r.html) > [@](#): > > Dear Nathan, > I’ll have to answer your question by assuming that > “big” and “volume/weight” is a question related to > the specific gravity of human fat, i.e., the > weight of human fat per unit volume (its density) > as compared with the density of water (in the same > units). I hope this is what you would like to > know. > Both references provide measurements of a variety > of animal fats, of which human fat is but one > example. In the following list the capital letter > fat values were obtained from reference #1, while > the small case measurements came from reference > #2. > > Source of fat------------Specific Gravity > HUMAN DEPOT FAT— 0.918 > human fat—0.903 > BEEF BUTTER FAT—0.911 > beef butter fat—0.907-0.912 > NEET’S FOOT OIL, BEEF—0.910 > MUTTON—0.945 > LARD, SWINE—0.919 > lard oil—0.913-0.915 > chicken fat—0.924 > deer fat—0.962-0.967 > horse fat—0.919-0.933 > > This list illustrates at least two scientific > “truths:” 1)variation in results inspite of > repeated accurate measurements; 2)similar things, > i.e., animal fats, are often surprisingly > similar! A question: Will fat float or sink in > water? Remember these handbooks; they can be > immensely valuable when looking for values, > formulas, conversions, and tabular data. Good > luck in your lifelong learning. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/4 "2005-01-03T19:49:13Z")
So, I’ll go ahead and do the math for fun: Water is 62.4 lbs/ft^3 so 1 pound of fat is: x ft^3/1 lb \* (1 ft^3/62.4lbs) \* 0.91 (note: I used an average) \* (1728in^3/1ft^3) = 25.2 in^3 (approximately) This equals a cube of about 2.9 inches per side or a sphere with a diameter of 3.6 inches. Sigh, doesn’t really seem like all that much does it? ---
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/5 "2005-01-03T20:35:37Z")
Also, given that the surface area of your skin is about 1.8 square meters (2790 square inches), it would be a layer of fat .009 inches thick all over. ---
**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:** [January 3, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/6 "2005-01-03T21:14:52Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > So, I’ll go ahead and do the math for fun: > > Water is 62.4 lbs/ft^3 so 1 pound of fat is: > > x ft^3/1 lb \* (1 ft^3/62.4lbs) \* 0.91 (note: I used an average) \* (1728in^3/1ft^3) > > = 25.2 in^3 (approximately) > > This equals a cube of about 2.9 inches per side or a sphere with a diameter of 3.6 inches. Sigh, doesn’t really seem like all that much does it? That doesn’t make sense to me, I just saw something on TV where a kid was trying to lose weight and a nutritionist gave him a latex model of 5 lbs of fat and it looked like a large loaf of bread [ie this](http://www.lww.com/product/?WA4313) . Five 2.9" blocks wouldn’t come near the size of that. It specific gravity would be less than 1 though since fat floats. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/7 "2005-01-03T21:33:48Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > That doesn’t make sense to me, I just saw something on TV where a kid was trying to lose weight and a nutritionist gave him a latex model of 5 lbs of fat and it looked like a large loaf of bread [ie this](http://www.lww.com/product/?WA4313) . Five 2.9" blocks wouldn’t come near the size of that. It specific gravity would be less than 1 though since fat floats. Well, I’m pretty sure my math is correct (maybe someone could double check). Too bad there’s nothing to use for scale in that picture you linked. I think five 2.9" cubes would be the size of a _small_ loaf of bread which is kinda what that picutre looks like. Lesse, I’m guessing the average loaf of Wonder Bread is something like 4"x4"x12" which is 192 in^3. Five times 25.2^3 is 126 in^3, about a third smaller than the loaf. Isn’t bread usually sold in one pound loaves? I can’t find a site that lists the average density of bread tho’… ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/8 "2005-01-03T21:37:10Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Well, I’m pretty sure my math is correct (maybe someone could double check). Looks good to me. ---
**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:** [January 3, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/9 "2005-01-03T23:17:30Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Well, I’m pretty sure my math is correct (maybe someone could double check). Too bad there’s nothing to use for scale in that picture you linked. I think five 2.9" cubes would be the size of a _small_ loaf of bread which is kinda what that picutre looks like. > > Lesse, I’m guessing the average loaf of Wonder Bread is something like 4"x4"x12" which is 192 in^3. Five times 25.2^3 is 126 in^3, about a third smaller than the loaf. Isn’t bread usually sold in one pound loaves? I can’t find a site that lists the average density of bread tho’… [Here](http://usads.ms11.net/petfat.html) is a scale picture. The original site says the dimensions are 15x6 (it says under the ISBN and price in the right column). 15x6 sounds similiar to the size of the 5 pound fat log that the kid on TV was holding. If you took four 2.9" cubes and put them together you’d get a square that is 5.8x5.8x2.9. Add in the volume of the fifth cube to the 5.8x5.8 square and you get something that is 5.8x5.8x3.625. This isn’t close to the 15x6 that the 5 pound model claims. I have no idea what the 3rd dimention for that model is but looking at the picture Your math is correct, I just don’t believe that bodyfat is as dense as the numbers astro listed because if they were those models would be wrong and those models are likely alot closer to the actual volume of fat and were probably designed by health professionals since they are sold by legitimate companies that deal with models for anatomy and physiology. You also have to take into account the volume of things like blood vessels to supply the fat. I once heard (I don’t know how true it is) that every pound of fat requires 2 miles of blood vessels, so adding in the volume of capillaries as well as other cells and tissues which may be necessary to assist the adipocytes could give a bigger volume. ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/10 "2005-01-03T23:52:52Z")
In my Weight Watcher’s class, the teacher always had us visualize sticks of butter. According to **astro’s** cite, butter and human fat have approximately the same density. So wouldn’t a pound of fat look pretty much like four sticks of butter? That’s 2.5" x 2.5" x 4.75" or about two cups of fat. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/11 "2005-01-04T01:38:41Z")
Next question, from **billshakespeare** : How much does a pound of _flesh_ weigh? (Merchant of Venice) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/12 "2005-01-04T01:59:00Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > [Here](http://usads.ms11.net/petfat.html) is a scale picture. The original site says the dimensions are 15x6 (it says under the ISBN and price in the right column). 15x6 sounds similiar to the size of the 5 pound fat log that the kid on TV was holding. If you took four 2.9" cubes and put them together you’d get a square that is 5.8x5.8x2.9. Add in the volume of the fifth cube to the 5.8x5.8 square and you get something that is 5.8x5.8x3.625. This isn’t close to the 15x6 that the 5 pound model claims. I have no idea what the 3rd dimention for that model is but looking at the picture > > Your math is correct, I just don’t believe that bodyfat is as dense as the numbers astro listed because if they were those models would be wrong and those models are likely alot closer to the actual volume of fat and were probably designed by health professionals since they are sold by legitimate companies that deal with models for anatomy and physiology. > > You also have to take into account the volume of things like blood vessels to supply the fat. I once heard (I don’t know how true it is) that every pound of fat requires 2 miles of blood vessels, so adding in the volume of capillaries as well as other cells and tissues which may be necessary to assist the adipocytes could give a bigger volume. Umm… not to burst your bubble, but that yellow cheese log o’ fat model is being sold primarily as a novelty item, and I’m going to bet that less math went into that model’s “best guess” construction than termorviolet went through in his/her calculations. Plus the model is full of valleys and twists. Get an empty gallon milk jug and fill it with 5 lbs of water then add 10% to the height. I think you’d be surprised how compact it is. Finally here is another reference for human fat listing it as .903 [Engineering reference tables- constants of oils and fats](http://www.engineeringreference.com/H-Data/Tables-PDF/Table-1110.pdf) (pdf file) **Human fat :** Fat or oil Solidification point, = 15 °C Specific Gravity @ (15°C/15°C) = .0903 Refractive Index = 1.460 Saponification Value =193-200 Iodine Value =57-73 ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/13 "2005-01-04T03:01:05Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > You also have to take into account the volume of things like blood vessels to supply the fat. I once heard (I don’t know how true it is) that every pound of fat requires 2 miles of blood vessels, so adding in the volume of capillaries as well as other cells and tissues which may be necessary to assist the adipocytes could give a bigger volume. You would be surprised just how little volume two miles of (primarily) capillaries will take up. Remember, capillaries are extremely thin, and they’re packed in such a way to make the total volume per unit length very small. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/14 "2005-01-04T03:38:09Z")
I’m not gonna argue (beyond this post, anyway 🙂 ) about it but if you go to the [My Pet Fat](http://www.mypetfat.com/) website (what a weird concept, BTW) and look at the [bigger picture](http://www.mypetfat.com/5lb_details.asp), it looks to be about the size we figured (that’s definitely smaller than a loaf of Wonder bread). The [one pound](http://www.mypetfat.com/1lb_details.asp) model looks to be about the size (3.6" in diameter) calculated, as well. I’m satisfied anyway… ---
**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:** [January 5, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/15 "2005-01-05T04:16:07Z")
Ok you guys are right. I saw a 3lb jar of crisco, which is 12g/tablespoon. A tablespoon is 15ml so that is a little less dense than bodyfat at 0.8 but still a 3lb canister is very big and I can see how 1.7 of those containers could have the same size as the novelty item I keep referring to. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-volume-of-a-pound-of-fat/282865/16 "2005-01-05T09:02:57Z")
**tremorviolet** Using this online calculator: [http://www.1728.com/density.htm](http://www.1728.com/density.htm) the volume I got was 30.417 cubic inches I’d say you multiplied by .91 instead of dividing by it. If a **cubic foot of water** weighs 62.4 lbs then 1728 cubic inches of water also weighs 62.4 pounds. Dividing we get: water = 1728/62.4 OR 27.69 cubic inches per pound. Since fat is _less_ dense than water, it would take a _greater_ volume of fat, to equal 1 pound. 27.69 / .91 = 30.43 cubic inches which is in fairly good agreement with the online calculator. I’d say the small variation between 30.43 and 30.417 is due to the fact that a cubic foot of water weighs 62.428 pounds.