Lean kids have bigger bones

A child with leaner body mass or muscle builds bigger bones compared to one who weighs the same but has a greater percentage of fat, says the latest research. “We were interested in the relative influence of lean mass, which is muscle, versus fat mass on how bone grows as kids grow,” said Howard Wey, professor at South Dakota State University. “A larger child is going to have larger bones just because he’s heavier,” Wey said. “But if you have two kids at the same weight, the one whose weight is dominated by fat mass is more likely to have smaller bones than the one whose weight is dominated by lean mass. Smaller bones are weaker than larger bones.”