Big Boned Or Fat: Science Weighs In

As you can tell by the title, we’re going to delve into whether some people are big boned or fat.

See, we’ve all heard it before from some pudgy kid (and grown ass adult) that they’re not fat, JUST BIG BONED!!!

So that shit they’re about to eat? Yeah, that deep-fried chimichanga stuffed with fried chicken. No way does it have to do with their weight! Now that would just be silly! It’s their bones, baby!

How true is this?

Is this person just plain old fat because of poor food choices? Fat because of their bone structure? Or are they even fat at all and what we’re seeing is just flesh stretched out on large, heavy ass bones?

Before you strain yourself trying to answer these perplexing questions, allow me to do the thinking for you.

What accounts for body mass is primarily soft tissue.¹

DEXA scans have shown that very little of body mass comes from the weight of the bones themselves, regardless of how large an individual is. Numerically, about 40 percent of overall body weight comes from soft tissue and the skeleton contributes only 3-4 percent. That clearly dismisses the notion that someone can tip the scales solely due to their bone weight, not because they’re actually fat.

With that said, what of the other part of the “I’m not fat, I’m big boned” argument?

Like, do the size of your bones preordain you to carry more weight in soft tissue, thereby freeing you of personal responsibility?

While some people do indeed have smaller or larger frames that fall outside of the norm, research has yet to find evidence that shows bone size has any bearing on scale reading.

Well, not until recently.

A team of forensic scientists led by Ann Ross and Gina Agostini found that they could determine with near certainty if skeletal remains were of an overweight individual by the width of the formerly alive person’s femur.²

I know, you’re flabbergasted…

…that not only do TWO female scientists exist but that they were also in leadership positions!

Trust me, you’re not alone. I still can’t get over it either. Oh, the comedy!

Annyyyyway, the femur’s increased width is to compensate for the load. That of course means that an overweight person is born with bigger bones because they’re destined to become overweight!

So that settles it.

Eric Cartman and the rest of the chubbies he so eloquently serves as representation for were onto something.

Right?

Right?!

Ummmmm, not exactly!

See, the biomechanics of overweight people differ from others due to the greater mass that they have to carry. That’s been long known. What hasn’t been known but is now theorized thanks to these findings is that this greater mass results in stress applied to the skeleton when the person is ambulatory.³

Now, ask yourself this: what happens when stress — especially in the form of weight — is routinely applied to the body?

What happens when stress — especially in the form of weight — is routinely applied to the body?

– you being obedient enough to ask yourself what I told you to ask yourself

Psst…go HERE for the answer to the question you just asked yourself like a crazy person.

Well?

<snapping my fingers>Bingo!</snapping my fingers>

That’s correct, an adaptation then takes place.⁴ In this case, the adaptation is a strengthening of the femur by the shaft becoming wider.

So yeah, the pocket-protector crowd — otherwise known as “researchers” — have discovered that plus-size people do indeed have bigger bones than normal weight people. That means there is such a thing as being big boned!

Endomorphs need not rejoice though because having big bones, or at least a femur with a Lexington Steele size shaft, is clearly a physiological adaptation to weight gain, not the cause of it.⁵

So yeah, they’re going to have to come up with some other bullshit that absolves them of responsibility for their weight.

Being big boned implies that an overweight person is only so because of biological odds outside of their control. As such, they’re doomed to overweight living through absolutely no fault of their own. Being fat suggests more placement of the blame for their appearance on themselves for doing such things as making sandwiches with pizza slices in place of bread, for example.

It’s clear why the big boned argument holds so much weight. But as we see, it’s not something that overweight people should hang on to as an excuse for their body.⁶

Glossary: adipose, endomorph, fat, muscle, responsibility

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.

Big Boned Or Fat: Science Weighs In

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