What Mass Actually Means

Here's the twist: the Higgs field explains only a tiny slice of your body's mass. The quarks inside protons and neutrons account for less than 2% of a proton's mass. The other 98% comes from the binding energy of the strong nuclear force that holds those quarks together, turned into mass through Einstein's E = mc².

• Your mass is mostly energy, not particle weight
• The strong force packs so much binding energy that it shows up as mass
• The Higgs mechanism gives quarks and electrons only their base mass

So when you step on a scale, you're mostly weighing the energy of the strong nuclear force. Mass is energy in different clothing.