How do you know if you are muscular or muscley?

[lljkk]

It's something MNers sometimes say about selves. They never say they have low body fat, just "I'm very muscley" type statements. Other than low body fat, is there an objective way to know if you're very muscley?

I think some bigger people look more solid even with fat on top of muscle. Like a rugby player with big, solid legs but no rippling six pack?

I wouldn't know as I'm just fat 😩. I'm on the strong side but that is mostly because I am quite chunky. Bigger people tend to be a bit stronger as they have more to carry, so when I lift weights I can lift quite a bit without too much training.

So, I don't know if being muscular is the same as being strong. I'm strong and not muscular

My gym has scales which measure your fat content and muscle content. Not sure how accurate they are but if I’ve been lifting heavy for a bit muscle content goes up and if I’ve been slacking it goes down? But I can also,see my biceps, traps, etc.

I would take it to mean visibly muscled. If you put your elbows out to the side and put your hands up, you should be able to see that you've built up bicep muscle, for instance. So it's fairly easy to tell if you are muscled or not.

I'm confused - surely people who are muscly... look muscly! Unless they are people who have a lot of muscle but also a lot of fat over the top, in which case you might not be able to tell by looking at them, but they themselves would know, because you don't get very muscly without doing physical activities which build muscle!

My body weight scales tell me I have over a stone more muscle than the average range. They’re not hugely accurate but they don’t say that for everyone. And I tend to weigh more than friends of the same size. And my legs are clearly muscular - arms sadly less so but working on it 😁

Yeah I dunno if it goes with facial blindness, but I can't really see when someone is "toned" or "muscley". I understand that others find those things easy to see, but I find it confusing, like this guy, to me he doesn't have well-defined muscles but he does have well-defined collar bones & isn't overweight, so is therefore obviously muscley? Google brought his image up when I typed in toned person. Some people also claim to be both muscley and overweight, like PP said, the 2 may not be mutually exclusive. It's easy to find a lot of images if I type "overweight but muscley" into google search.

What scales do you have, @Sparrow80? What does their summary statement look like to you?

I think he’s lean but not particularly muscly.

I’m short and not particularly lean woman but I do tend to build muscle easily and can look stocky and hench very easily- and not in a good way.

I lift weights 5 times a week, as well as doing quite a lot of other exercise. I say I'm muscly because, well, I am! I have clearly defined muscles all over and I work to look that way.

That guy is not very muscly. Why on earth do you think he is?

OP you seem to think muscly is the same as low body fat. They are not related. You can be muscly and have low body fat or high body fat just as you can be lacking muscles and have low body fat or high body fat. Being muscly doesn't mean the same as being ripped.

This man is muscly. In one picture he has more body fat. In the other he has shredded so looks more ripped but he is just as muscly either way.

I understand that others find those things easy to see, but I find it confusing, like this guy, to me he doesn't have well-defined muscles but he does have well-defined collar bones & isn't overweight, so is therefore obviously muscley.

No. 'Not overweight' is a completely different thing from 'muscly'. Lack of body fat doesn't make you muscly. Having well-developed muscles does. You can be as skinny as a rake and not muscly!

That guy is not very muscly. Why on earth do you think he is?

Because Google suggested that image when I typed in "toned person".

Google suggests these fellows if I type in "fat but muscley person".
I think you're right about this being hopeless for me, though. Everyone is deciding because of how someone looks, and I can't "see it" like you do and be confident I've got it right. At least with a body fat% threshold you can get bathroom scales to tell you (numbers) without deciding with just your eyes.

I presume something like "strong" could be measured by what kig weights someone could lift, which also isn't just trusting your eyes. Trusting your eyes is like deciding who is handsome or ugly, entirely subjective. I like numbers better.

Toned and muscular are different. Ballet dancers and yoga teachers would be toned- lean and flexible.

Muscular tends to be bulkier and less flexible.

So a marathon runner would be toned and fit but wiry. Probably not going to lift huge amounts.
A power lifter isn't going to be able to sprint or run a marathon.

I was assessed by a personal trainer who did a grip test and body fat test and said I'd always be at the top end of BMI because I was big boned and muscular.

My legs were always chunky, possibly from dance as a teen.

I also always carried extra weight to a greater or lesser degree.

I was quite unwell a few years ago and pretty immobile. When I recovered, my bum had fallen off. I went from having a
big muscular bum (with some fat) to being flat at the back.

I've lost a lot of weight, but building the muscle is proving much harder.

The less body fat you have the more muscle you can see. This is true of people who are muscular or not.
Very very lean people have visible muscle. But they are not muscular. Or even toned. They are just lean (skinny would be another less desirable term you could use)
The only people who are muscular are those who set out to grow muscle through exercise. You cannot accidentally become muscular.
I am muscular though you wouldn’t be able to tell at the moment because I’m just at the end of a long bulk so I just look a bit fat. But come the summer I will look very muscular and toned

The amount of body fat a person carries, and the amount of muscle on their frame, are two separate things. Different chemical reactions create each one.

Some people naturally have more muscle on them (mesomorph body type). Body fat will also 'cover up' muscle, so if a person loses an amount of body fat their muscle will become more visible.

Toned is not the same as muscular. The guy in your first image is toned; he does look physically fit (as in, could run a 10k or cycle at high intensity without too much trouble) but he doesn't have a huge amount of muscle on him.

The brand is Renpho - they’re obviously not as accurate as the expensive machines but a useful tool. I have a friend who is the same measurements / dress size and height as me but is always a stone ish less in weight. She tried them and got a muscle reading about a stone lower. Think it’s these

https://renpho.uk/products/elis-1-smart-body-scale

But scales aside I can see / feel the muscles in my legs.

@Gymmum82 an exception to not building muscle unintentionally- active overweight people have a lot of leg muscle. I was the kind of obese person that was always busy- good stamina, active lifestyle etc. My leg muscles were great, because they were transporting my bulk up and down stairs and running after the kids etc. So you can be unintentionally muscular.

When I became inactive through illness that all fell away and I now have to exercise more intentionally to try and get it back. I've lost most of the weight, but not managed to regain muscle yet.

I'm fat but muscle heavy
I can feel it, my quads are huge, I can see my hamstring muscles etc and I weigh heavy

Scales at the gym measure muscle and body fat. Apparently I am highly muscular... Yet I also weigh a ton and have high body fat 🙄

I'm quite muscley. My weight changes a lot according to how much I eat. My muscles change a bit according to how much exercise I do but I always retain extremely muscled thighs. I only have to do a little weight baring exercise to bring out stomach, arm and shoulder muscles too.

I can easily feel the hard muscle but how much this is evident when you look at me depends on how much extra fat I'm carrying. During fatter periods I look even fatter than I really am thanks to the muscle bulk that never quite goes away. When I'm carrying hardly any extra fat I still weigh quite a lot.

Those muscle/ fat analysis scales don't quite work on me- I think they take the reading from my legs only which have more muscle and less fat than the rest of me- they make me look fitter than I am.

Depressingly my ability to put on muscle easily doesn't mean that muscle is especially strong. My string bean partner with noodle shaped limbs is always stronger despite him doing less exercise.

I was told by a physio that although I'm muscular I won't be able to bulk up significantly because I have the wrong kind of collagen. Not sure what that's about!

Those pictures are of the same man, Eddie Hall former worlds strongest man. He just lost a lot of body fat in the second picture.

OP I'm not sure why you are giving so much headspace to the fact that you struggle to see with your eyes who is muscly and who isn't. This inability really isn't going to impede your life so just stop fretting about weird stuff