Big Boned?

There’s no such thing as big boned

I was recently talking to a group of people, giving them my usual weight loss rants, when I was hit with a question I hear way too often.  I was going through my usual discussion of the body mass index when a well meaning but not well informed audience member asked the following question:

Her:  Does the BMI account for your bones?

Me:  What do you mean, exactly?

Her:  I mean, does it account for the fact that some people are big boned and others aren’t?

Me:  I have held a human skeleton in  my hands.  I had a box of bones I had to carry around my first semester of med school.  Bones aren’t that heavy.

She looked a bit aghast.  As if I had just destroyed her explanation for why she was overweight.  If it’s not the bones, what could it be!?!  I told her it was probably her lifestyle.  She seemed disappointed.

English: diagram of a human female skeleton, back view. the Red lines point individual bones and the names are writen in singular, the blue lines conect to group of bones and are in plural form. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The moral of the story is that the idea that differences in bone size or composition can account for variances in weight between people is nonsense.  It is true that people can have different body types and carry weight differently based on a host of genetic factors, but the bones don’t have a lot to do with that.Now that I have relieved you of this myth, you are one step closer to attacking the real challenges in weight loss – your diet and your exercise.  This blog and the book that inspire dis designed as a source of the information you need to be successful in creating a healthy lifestyle.  The biggest obstacle to success in this arena is ignorance (as evidenced by the big boned myth).

http://weightlosscounterrevolution.com/2012/09/19/big-bones-or-big-fat/