increased bone mass?

nibbynoo

hi,
I'm doing a weight loss challenge and I'm a little confused about my progress!
I've gained 4% muscle and lost 3% fat which is great but I've also gained 3% bone mass.
how the hell can my bones get bigger?! Sorry if this sounds really stupid to people in the know, but google hasn't turned up much so I'm a little confused!!

Thanks

neandermagnon

they didn't get bigger, they got denser, i.e. heavier for their size

for an example of density, if you have a piece of gold and a piece of wood the same size, the gold will be heavier, because it's denser. So that's what's happened to your bones, they stayed the same size but got heavier because they got denser. This is a really good thing health wise, because denser bones = less risk of osteoporosis.

Noor13

Higher bone density is awesome Reduced risk of osteoporosis.
Also congratulations on packing on some muscle and shedding the fat-way to go

joshdann

hi,
I'm doing a weight loss challenge and I'm a little confused about my progress!
I've gained 4% muscle and lost 3% fat which is great but I've also gained 3% bone mass.
how the hell can my bones get bigger?! Sorry if this sounds really stupid to people in the know, but google hasn't turned up much so I'm a little confused!!

Thanks

Just to be sure... how did you measure these changes?

JesterMFP

Yeah, that's a good thing! But, if you're measuring using a body composition scale, just be aware that they can be very inaccurate.

nibbynoo

I go for weigh in's on a big fancy set of scales with a handlebar thingy. It tells you the water, fat, muscle, bone masses also metabolic age, bmi and all that stuff. I have a tracking sheet with it all written down, trying to learn what it all means so I can track it better!!
That is interesting about bone density, I never knew that could be affected with exercise!
Back to the kettle bells I go!!

Huffdogg

I don't know that I'd trust what that scale tells you, regardless of how fancy it is.

albionjen

I've heard that those scales can be pretty unreliable, though I suppose if you are repeating the measures using the same equipment it could reflect real changes. Increasing bone mass happens when you do weight bearing exercises (like kettlebells!). See this link to read a bit more:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000492.htm

As a random asside, bone size can also increase through use. If you have the left and right arm of a skeleton you can often tell whether they were left or right handed due to differences in size of the arm bones. For a more modern example, in professional tennis players the arm bones on their dominant hand are often larger than on the other side.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10962345

Greater bone density = less fracture risk, so it is all good

nibbynoo

I've always been a bit skeptic of these scales myself (how the hell can they tell what my bones are like?!)
. . . but from what you guys have told me; I have been getting a lot more calcium and doing kettle bells everyday for the last couple weeks, so its all good

Thank you

Mokey41

Those scales are wildly inaccurate. I wouldn't place too much stock in having gained 3% bone mass. You may find out next week you've lost 5%!