Ever heard of "Heavy Bones"?

24

Replies

  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,221 Member
    I've heard it many times. It was usually about people with larger/broader frames.
  • sarahthes
    sarahthes Posts: 3,252 Member
    Most cases it's used as justification for staying overweight rather than losing down to a healthy weight. Bone mass/density does vary by individual but fat and muscle both contribute more to body mass, I would assume, unless a person is extremely lean.
  • Crafty_camper123
    Crafty_camper123 Posts: 1,440 Member
    I think that larger frames can definitely run in the family. But often times the terms "big boned" or "heavy boned" Is just an excuse to be overweight. My DH is a good example of what a large frame is. On his side, they often talk about being big boned. When I first met him he was firmly in the center of the "overweight" category. But he looked skinny. He wore size 30/ 32 jeans if that helps paint the picture. But his wrists and ankles are large (and bony. No fat there) . So he really is "large framed". Now, at around a size 34/36 he is pushing "obese" according to BMI. He is probably a good example of why BMI is just one indicator of health. But I have heard it from other people, "oh so and so just has a large build".. Where they may very well have broad shoulders, but their waist to hip ratio is terrible. These people are in denial.

    Me on the other hand, I was just told that being fat runs in the family... lol. So in other words we get fat easier then other people. Weather that's really true or not, I have no idea. Maybe we're all smaller framed and it looks different on us? I dunno. BMI Does hold true for me though.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,215 Member
    thelegendofsakura89 wrote: »
    I mean unless y'all have an adamantium skeleton or something, you're probably just overweight.

    To make a giant leap into the weeds, Wolverine's skelton is often referred to as having a thin, latice-like coating of adamantium over his bones or having his bones infused with adamantium, not specifically having pure adamantium bones. However, your statement is correct that having a skeleton of adamantium would be prohibitively heavy with a speculative density of at least 100 g/ml (100x that of water).
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    Heavy boned or big boned is another term for overweight lol
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    When I expressed concern about my future bone health once, my mom, who is obese, said her bone mass is above average. I do think carrying extra body weight, not unlike having a 50lb weight plate strapped to your back every step you take, will stimulate bone growth over time.

    While this might sound incredibly obvious weight is weight and resistance is resistance. Your body will adapt to the demand and load you place on it over time, including bony density. So yeah, your Mum may well be right!



  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    CarvedTones wrote: »
    It amazes me how heavy/big bones shrink when people lose a lot of weight. Up to a point, I carry weight pretty well; it is pretty evenly distributed until I get about 25 to 30 pounds overweight. At 20 pounds over I started getting questions about why I was still trying to lose more.

    There are big boned people. If you can feel the bones right under the skin on each side of your wrist (in other words, not a lot of fat there) and you grab the wrist with the other hand and cannot touch the thumb to the middle finger (really trying) then your bones are "big" - a higher than average diameter compared to the length. If there is a lot of fat around the wrist and/or your fingers are like sausages then you need to lose some weight before it's valid (or even meaningful, for that matter). At my current weight (BMI ~24) I can touch my thumb to my ring finger, so I can't use the big boned excuse.

    Not necessarily. Maybe you just have short fingers and average/small wrists. I have whalloping big wrists, and giant man-hands, even though I'm a li'l ol' lady (truly pretty li'l, elsewhere). I can easily touch my thumb/middle fingers around my wrists - I require very large bracelets, very large gloves, and my ring finger is size 10 (very unusual for a woman) even at BMI 20.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
    skinnyrev2b wrote: »
    We use 'heavy bones' too. Hadn't realised it wasn't widespread as a saying. As you say, it's widely used as an excuse for being overweight. However I will say that whilst I am overweight (25.4 bmi), I carry my weight in such a way that I LOOK like I'm much lighter than I am. Maybe your family is similar?
    I don't think it is widespread as a saying (er, is your "heavy-boned" family from South-Central Kansas, by any chance?).

    And yeah, we do all tend to look about 20 lbs lighter than we are, so that's probably what the "heavy bones" thing really means. (I sure wish I understood exactly how the business of "carrying ones weight well" works. I mean, I guess I do it, but where is it? Tucked around my kidneys or something?)

    What’s your frame size? http://www.myfooddiary.com/Resources/frame_size_calculator.asp

    I have a large frame and the only time I've had a BMI as low as 24 was after 6 weeks of undereating and overexercising during boot camp. (When I first arrived there, I had to get boots and hats from the men's side of the uniforms room because there weren't any big enough in women's. At 5'6", I'm not especially tall. I've always had a hard time buying bracelets. I wear men's shoes as often as I can get away with it.)

    My goal is to get back into my skinny jeans from when I was a full time yoga teacher, which will have me at a Low Overweight BMI, and I'm ok with that.

    I just used your calculator. Previous ones I used put me in the larger frame category. This one said "Unfortunately, the wrist and elbow methods do not agree with each other. The wrist method says that you have a medium body frame while the elbow method says that you have a broad body frame." I take that to mean I'm more medium framed with long limbs.

    Healthy BMI for me would be a weight range of around 125-159 (I'm right in between 5'7-5'8 female) I have found BMI still applies even though my frame is somewhat larger and I have long limbs. I look healthiest in the 150-155lb range. I also lift heavy so my muscle mass is slightly above most females my age and height. BMI works for most of us but definitely not everyone will feel and look their best in the given weight ranges

    - I was around 165lb in the boxing shot I used for my profile
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
    skinnyrev2b wrote: »
    We use 'heavy bones' too. Hadn't realised it wasn't widespread as a saying. As you say, it's widely used as an excuse for being overweight. However I will say that whilst I am overweight (25.4 bmi), I carry my weight in such a way that I LOOK like I'm much lighter than I am. Maybe your family is similar?
    I don't think it is widespread as a saying (er, is your "heavy-boned" family from South-Central Kansas, by any chance?).

    And yeah, we do all tend to look about 20 lbs lighter than we are, so that's probably what the "heavy bones" thing really means. (I sure wish I understood exactly how the business of "carrying ones weight well" works. I mean, I guess I do it, but where is it? Tucked around my kidneys or something?)

    What’s your frame size? http://www.myfooddiary.com/Resources/frame_size_calculator.asp

    I have a large frame and the only time I've had a BMI as low as 24 was after 6 weeks of undereating and overexercising during boot camp. (When I first arrived there, I had to get boots and hats from the men's side of the uniforms room because there weren't any big enough in women's. At 5'6", I'm not especially tall. I've always had a hard time buying bracelets. I wear men's shoes as often as I can get away with it.)

    My goal is to get back into my skinny jeans from when I was a full time yoga teacher, which will have me at a Low Overweight BMI, and I'm ok with that.

    Without disputing your self-assessment in the slightest, I don't find this calculator particularly helpful. It assumes the person is some way proportional.

    Some of us are not. At 5'5", I'm BMI 22 right now (134 pounds), which is heavier than ideal for me. 20 (around 120 pounds) is pretty good. The calculator says my wrists are "medium" and my elbow is "broad". But I'm built like a 14 year old boy, not a 62-year-old woman, with a narrow pelvis and no breasts. I have a "small frame" in the important ways. This was inobvious when I was obese: My wrists/elbows weren't a lot larger than now, but my hips were hidden inside a substantial fat layer. (I knew even then I was small framed, BTW, but others didn't.) When obese to substantially overweight, it's hard to assess the actual skeletal size of the important parts for determining a sensible weight, such as pelvic width and shoulder breadth.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,893 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    The real issue is not the pure size of bones, it's their overall configuration. Someone with broad shoulders (at the skeletal level) or a wide spacing between the pelvic bones is going to need geometrically more "meat" to wrap around that frame than someone with narrow shoulders and narrow pelvic spacing. At the same body fat percent and relative muscularity, the broader person will need to have more non-fat meat just to enclose their bone structure, thus need to be heavier to achieve the same "look".

    Actual weight of bones can differ, but not by that much. The differences in meat can be pretty material.

    Thanks - I was trying to figure out how to express exactly this and you saved me the effort :smile:
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
    People on my mom's side of the family often seem to be about 20 lbs heavier then most people with the same height and general shape. Mom has also said that this is because we all have "heavy bones." OTOH, people on my mom's side of the family also tend to be overweight, so it might be an excuse/lie/familial urban legend. Has anyone ever heard of people having "heavy bones"?

    As others have said, most of the time it is a euphemism or an excuse for being overweight. Having said that, there are all kinds of frame sizes (which basically the size of your bones) which help determine what is an ideal weight for an individual, which is why the charts always give a range. I suppose the density of your bones can add or subtract some from your ideal weight but not enough to be significant for anyone except the elderly or someone who has a bone density disorder.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    SCoil123 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
    skinnyrev2b wrote: »
    We use 'heavy bones' too. Hadn't realised it wasn't widespread as a saying. As you say, it's widely used as an excuse for being overweight. However I will say that whilst I am overweight (25.4 bmi), I carry my weight in such a way that I LOOK like I'm much lighter than I am. Maybe your family is similar?
    I don't think it is widespread as a saying (er, is your "heavy-boned" family from South-Central Kansas, by any chance?).

    And yeah, we do all tend to look about 20 lbs lighter than we are, so that's probably what the "heavy bones" thing really means. (I sure wish I understood exactly how the business of "carrying ones weight well" works. I mean, I guess I do it, but where is it? Tucked around my kidneys or something?)

    What’s your frame size? http://www.myfooddiary.com/Resources/frame_size_calculator.asp

    I have a large frame and the only time I've had a BMI as low as 24 was after 6 weeks of undereating and overexercising during boot camp. (When I first arrived there, I had to get boots and hats from the men's side of the uniforms room because there weren't any big enough in women's. At 5'6", I'm not especially tall. I've always had a hard time buying bracelets. I wear men's shoes as often as I can get away with it.)

    My goal is to get back into my skinny jeans from when I was a full time yoga teacher, which will have me at a Low Overweight BMI, and I'm ok with that.

    I just used your calculator. Previous ones I used put me in the larger frame category. This one said "Unfortunately, the wrist and elbow methods do not agree with each other. The wrist method says that you have a medium body frame while the elbow method says that you have a broad body frame." I take that to mean I'm more medium framed with long limbs.

    Healthy BMI for me would be a weight range of around 125-159 (I'm right in between 5'7-5'8 female) I have found BMI still applies even though my frame is somewhat larger and I have long limbs. I look healthiest in the 150-155lb range. I also lift heavy so my muscle mass is slightly above most females my age and height. BMI works for most of us but definitely not everyone will feel and look their best in the given weight ranges

    - I was around 165lb in the boxing shot I used for my profile

    I just did it and got broad frame based on the wrist and thin frame based on the elbow. In reality, I have long bones and a short torso. I have long legs, long arms, broad shoulders, and a wide rib cage. The distance between my hip socket and my shoulder socket is small compared to the average for my height.

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