Are there heavy bones in humans. Wide and heavy bone: myth or reality? The weight of the heaviest and lightest bones of the human skeleton

In the body of a newborn child, there are 350 soft and flexible bones, which grow together with age, and as a result, the human skeleton already has 206 of the strongest bones. Living bone contains 50% water, 15.7% fat, 21.8% non organic matter and 12.5% ​​organic matter. In fact, bones are made up of minerals - namely, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, barium, aluminum, fluorine, silicon, and so on. The density of all bones is the same, but some people have a thin skeleton with thin fingers, small feet and hands, as well as narrow shoulders and a narrow chest. In such people, the bones, respectively, weigh less than in broad-boned people.

The weight of the bones has almost no effect on the weight of the human body - just the size of the muscle attached to it, which weighs more than fat, depends on the width of the bone.

To determine the thinness or width of the bone, you can use a simple test - just measure the girth of the wrist. If it is less than 16 centimeters, the bone is thin, if it is 16-19 centimeters, the bone is normal, and if more than 19 centimeters, the bone is wide. At the same time, muscles and bones are saturated with liquids, which gives them a difference in weight in a particular person. In addition, the weight of the bones may depend on the type of physique, which is asthenic, normosthenic and hypersthenic.

Decrease in bone weight

Weight and bone density may decrease with age as minerals and calcium are leached out of the skeleton. As a result, bones become brittle, porous, and light, which greatly increases the risk of fractures and the insidious disease of osteoporosis. This is especially true of thin-boned people, and especially blondes, who are at risk of this disease.

Depending on growth, the skeleton has an average specific gravity of 7 to 10 kilograms.

To avoid age-related weakening of the bones, you should consume a large amount of dairy products and regularly exercise the body, since physical exercises strengthen the skeleton better than all dietary supplements with calcium. At the same time, it should be remembered that reduced bone weight is not always associated only with osteoporosis - various genetic diseases, improper or unbalanced nutrition, and even congenital defective composition of bone mass can affect it.

Is there a concept of heavy bone? There are different opinions about whether there are actually heavy bones or is it just an excuse for overweight people. Some people are convinced that they cannot lose weight because “their bones are wide,” while others begin to actively engage in sports, and this really leads to long-awaited results. Notes only in the second option will require a lot of effort and patience. And in order to come to terms with the already existing state of affairs, a lot of work is not necessary.

So is it true that bones can get heavy? It turns out that ordinary person bones weigh approximately 8-9% of the total body weight. If we imagine that a man or woman weighs 80 kg, then the bones in this case weigh only 7.2 kg. Could such a result be the reason for the appearance of excess weight? Hardly.

The weight of a bone depends on its size and density. And, I must say, different types of bones are characterized by different weights. Often in the fairer sex, the bones are thinner and lighter than in men. Bone density is also not the same, because it is influenced by healed bodily injuries, greater human mobility, and genetic predisposition. But these variations can be a maximum of 10% within the bone mass, and this is no more than a kilogram for a person.

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What makes people heavy?

So after all, are there heavy bones in humans? In fact, the cause of excess weight is accumulated fat in the human body. This is a consequence of an excess amount of food or the reason is an unbalanced diet, which tends to be stored as a reserve for a rainy day. It is clear that there are more reasons why one thin person is heavier than another. Compared to fat, muscle certainly weighs more. Muscular people weigh more than thin and unathletic people.

A heavy person is denser, therefore, over time, his bones become heavier. Since the body of a fat person needs more support, it does not really matter whether it is a large amount of fat or a rather large muscle mass. Thus, a slightly heavier bone causes excess weight.

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Does a woman's bone get heavier after childbirth?

By the way, about the fact that the bones become heavier after childbirth - this is not true. If a woman breastfeeds her child for at least four months, then its density bone tissue decreases. And this, as you already understood, leads to the fact that the mass of the skeleton also decreases.

What type of bone do you have?

There is also a method for determining the harmony of the human body. Using it, you will know how to determine if you and your friends have a heavy bone. This criterion is called the Solovyov index.

So, determine your constitution by measuring the size of your wrist.

1) If for women the result showed less than 15 cm, and for men - 18 cm, then the person is asthenic, he has a thin bone.

2) The girth of the girl's wrist is 15-17 cm, and young man- 18-20 cm? This indicates a normal physique and average bone thickness.

3) If the volume exceeds 17 cm (for ladies) and 20 cm (for gentlemen), then this is a wide bone. And people with such volumes are hypersthenics.

In general, it is not at all necessary to use a centimeter tape or ruler. You can determine the volume of the wrist with your own fingers, if you grab the wrist of your left hand with your right palm, paying attention to the location of the index and thumb.

  1. If a person has a normal physique, then the thumb and forefinger will touch.
  2. Can't connect your fingers? So you have a hypersthenic type.
  3. If the finger finds one on the other, then the person is an asthenic with a thin bone.

Where the excuse “I have a wide bone” came from is hard to say. But you can publish text about how much the skeleton weighs and how much its weight can vary from person to person.

Dry, fat-free and dehydrated human skeleton(that is, what will remain of you and me in this world) average weighs only about 4 kg in men and about 2.8 kg in women. In percentage terms, the skeleton occupies approximately 6-7% of the body weight in an adult.

Bone density makes adjustments

We all know from the course of the school curriculum what density is - and so, with the same volumes, the skeletons of different people of a person can have slightly different weights, i.e. Some people will have thicker bones, some less. How big a difference can there be and what does it depend on?

Bone mineral density can change with age (including due to osteoporosis), with concomitant diseases, nutrition (decrease with malnutrition, and vice versa - with sufficient nutrition). Also, bone density depends on weight loss or weight gain: scientists have calculated that for every 1 kg of body fat lost, an average of 16.5 g of bone minerals is lost, in fact, when gaining the same 1 kg of fat, about the same amount is restored (Jensen et al., 1994, ), against the background of existing training volume.

Here are typical normal values ​​for bone density, including data for athletes and athletes who develop bone tissue adaptation to impact loading, and an approximate calculation of the difference in grams between these values, so that you can clearly understand what is the general value for total bone / skeletal weight, has bone density.

Data on bone density in adults (173 people, 18-31 years), different kind sports: runners (R), cyclists (C), triathletes (TRI), judokas and wrestlers (HA), soccer and handball and basketball and volleyball players (TS), student athletes, non-specialized sports (STU), and non-training (UT ).

Average values ​​for bone mass density in adults are in the region of 1.0 – 1.2 g/cm2. Roughly speaking, this can be translated as +/-10% in different people depending on the factor.

These values ​​vary depending on age, gender, race, level and type of physical activity, nutritional status, body condition, presence of diseases, etc. But on average, something like this.

Data on skeletal weight and bone density of people of different age groups:

BMC is the skeletal weight in grams, BMD is the bone density in g/cm2. BF - black women, WF - white women. BM are black men, WM are white men.

Let's take the data of the last table as an example and take the borderline values: the lowest bone density (in white women, the case of the lowest density is 1.01 g/cm2) and the highest bone density (in a dark-skinned man, the case of the highest density is 1.42 g/cm2). This gives us the difference between the person with the lowest (lightest bones among hundreds of subjects) and the person with the highest bone density (the heaviest bones of all) of only about 0.7 kg at an average skeletal weight.

By the way, even growth hormone does not make significant adjustments to bone density. Scientists conducted a controlled 15-year study in which growth hormone injections were given to more than 100 people. Bottom line: over 15 years, the average increase in bone mass was only 14 grams.

Wide but light

In the end, what we have: that the total mass of human bones, excluding fat and liquid filling, is something around 4-5 kg ​​in adult men and 2-3 kg in adult women.

Within these same boundaries, the mass may fluctuate, depending on the density of the bone mass, but again, this difference will not be so significant, in any case - up to 1 kg, depending on the density of the bone mass.

By and large, talk about “broad bone”, “powerful backbone”, which drastically affect total weight human body, on “fat power” and genetic predisposition to increased weight gain, in fact, are not entirely comparable with the real state of affairs.

Yes, the difference in height and build certainly gives its shifts in various indicators of bone mass from person to person, but these indicators do not differ by 5-10 kilograms, but are on average no more than 2-3 kg from person to person.

1. Jensen, L.B., F. Quaade, and O.H. Sorensen 1994. Bone loss accompanying voluntary weight loss in obese humans. J. Bone Miner. Res. 9:459-463.
2. “Dear Lyle…”: Bone Density and Workout” by Znatok Ne.
3. Trotter M, Hixon BB. Sequential changes in weight, density, and percentage ash weight of human skeletons from an early fetal period through old age. Anat Rec. 1974 May;179(1):1-18.
4 Schuna JM Jr et al. Scaling of adult regional body mass and body composition as a whole to height: Relevance to body shape and body mass index. Am J Hum Biol. 2015 May-Jun;27(3):372-9. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22653. Epub 2014 Nov 8.
5. Wagner DR, Heyward VH. Measures of body composition in blacks and whites: a comparative review. Am J Clinic Nutr. 2000 Jun;71(6):1392-402.
6. Nilsson M, Ohlsson C, Mellström D, Lorentzon M. Sport-specific association between exercise loading and the density, geometry, and microstructure of weight-bearing bone in young adult men. Osteoporos Int. May 2013;24(5):1613-22. doi: 10.1007/s00198-012-2142-3. Epub 2012 Sep 26.
7. Petra Platen et al. Bone Mineral Density in Top Level Male Athletes of Different Sports. European Journal of Sport Science, vol. 1, issue 5, ©2001 by Human Kinetics Publishers and the European College of Sport Science
8 Rothney MP et al. Body composition measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry half-body scans in obese adults. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009 Jun;17(6):1281-6. doi: 10.1038/oby.2009.14. Epub 2009 Feb 19.
9 Tomlinson DJ et al. Obesity decreases both whole muscle and fascicle strength in young females but only exacerbates the aging-related whole muscle level asthenia. Physiol Rep. 2014 Jun 24;2(6). pii: e12030. doi: 10.14814/phy2.12030.
10. Human Body Composition, b.918, Steven Heymsfield, Human Kinetics, 2005, p-291.
11. Elbornsson M1, Götherström G, Bosæus I, Bengtsson BÅ, Johannsson G, Svensson J. Fifteen years of GH replacement increases bone mineral density in hypopituitary patients with adult-onset GH deficiency. Eur J Endocrinol. 2012 May;166(5):787-95. doi: 10.1530/EJE-11-1072. Epub 2012 Feb 8.
12 Locatelli V, Bianchi VE. Effect of GH/IGF-1 on Bone Metabolism and Osteoporsosis. Int J Endocrinol. 2014;2014:235060. doi: 10.1155/2014/235060. Epub 2014 Jul 23

A lot of people who suffer from being overweight today grew up in families where fullness was considered hereditary. Although in the process of communicating with nutritionists, it turned out that the reason for everything is the wrong lifestyle, to which all family members are accustomed.

Yes, most often to blame are rich borscht, in which there are spoons, fatty meatballs, as well as joint evenings at the TV under “something tasty”.

Often, what we think of as an irresistible genetic feature turns out to be just the result of overeating. Is it bad? Of course not, that means we can fix it!

Myth or reality: does it happen?

Pictured are two twin sisters. Those. parents, heredity and predisposition they have in common! They love to confuse genetics and wrong eating habits instilled in the family! “Everyone in my family is full” is correct: everyone eats dumplings with mayonnaise at night.


IMPORTANT POINT: yes, differences in skeletal structures do exist, it is foolish to deny it. There are girls with wide hips even with a low percentage of fat, and there are owners of a boyish figure and almost total absence bends.

But the amount of fat is absolutely not related to wide bone.. Let your hips be a little wider than others, but it will be two big differences: whether they will be with 10 kg of fat on them or with 2. Yes, a wide bone can give external massiveness (although you must admit, this is more than attractive), but not the extra 50kg of fat.

A photo



Look, in the left picture it seems that the girl has very broad shoulders, but after losing weight it becomes clear that these are not bones, but fat that makes her so square
Hips narrowed 🙂

How to determine?

How to understand if the bone is wide or not? Feel yourself 🙂 If you feel fat through the skin, then, alas, you won’t be able to blame it on the bones. But if under the skin you feel a hard surface with a slight fat layer, then you are the happy owner of chic, wide hips, which the vast majority of men consider sexy!

What means?

The search for a wide bone means one thing: that you clearly need to lose weight! Many people believe in the "big bone" more than the big bang theory. Except for the inside where the brain is located, bones are solid structures made of calcium.

Once you stop growing, the size of the bones cannot be changed without applying serious harm health. However, you can change the size of body fat. This is what will help you change your appearance. Therefore, read this article to the end and find out how to solve the problem.

So what if you don’t see a waist like that of a young Gurchenko? But they did not approach Krachkovskaya either. So love yourself and take care of yourself without any complexes!

Can they be heavy?

Very often, people also blame the large weight of the skeleton. But what does a heavy bone mean in general, is it a myth or truth? Let's turn to science and find out if a person has a heavy bone in nature?

In percentage terms, the skeleton occupies approximately 6-7% of body weight in an adult. Average values ​​for bone mass density in adults are in the region of 1.0 - 1.2 gr/sq.cm. Roughly speaking, this is about 10% in different people.

These values ​​vary depending on age, gender, race, level and type of physical activity, nutritional status, body condition, presence of diseases, etc. The total mass of human bones, excluding fat and liquid filling, is something around 4-5 kg in adult men and 2-3 kg in adult women.

Within these limits, mass may fluctuate with bone density, but this difference will be negligible at most. up to 1 kg! Those. in medicine and anatomy, even the concept of such a thing does not exist as a heavy bone!

More precisely, in the body there is the “heaviest” bone in relation to others - femoral. This is the main “lever” that can withstand a huge load when walking and running (up to 3 tons, stronger than concrete). Its length in an adult is 45 cm or more, and its weight is determined by the height of the person and the structure of the bones.

By and large, talk about a wide or heavy bone in a person is just myths, not reality, which is usually explained excess weight, the amount of fat in the body or a genetic predisposition to weight gain.


If you eat diligently and a lot, and move lazily and little, then it doesn’t matter what form of bone you have, the available average 3-4 kg of bones will easily accommodate hundreds of kg of fat.

How to lose weight?

What is body positivity in simple words?

Unfortunately, the true meaning of body positivity is now lost behind the showdown of fat ladies with clothing companies (as well as, by the way). The message is that a person (yes, not only women, but also men) is not obliged to be “attractive” for anyone according to some gloss standards.


If a person is satisfied with his own beauty, he is not obliged to chase after utopian newfangled trends. We are absolutely not against the overweight and support such a body-positive: you don’t need to be like someone else, you need to be better than yourself yesterday. Let a person decide for himself what kind of life he should live.

Love yourself the way you are. But do not harm other people with this, do not force them to love you - your freedom ends where the freedom of another person begins!

Body positivity is about diversity of beauty. About the ability to see it everywhere - in others, in yourself. Around. About your right to have a nose, not like the models in the magazine, and a couple of extra pounds. About the ability to enjoy the possibilities of your body - from running jumping into the water to sex.

Love yourself, but don't indulge yourself! There is a lot of talk today about love, especially about loving yourself first. But no one talks about what kind of love this should be. No one says that love can be painful: overprotective, destructive, pulling back, hindering progress.

No one says that love is not the satisfaction of all one's desires, it is not self-pity, it is not “wrapping oneself in cotton wool” and intentionally avoiding difficulties. True love is not about following your destructive habits, but about getting better, moving forward: taking care of your health and well-being.

Self love should make you a better person. If it's not, then it's a surrogate. Chocolate, cigarette, Bloody Mary - these are not manifestations of your love for yourself, but only an ersatz one slipped into your subconscious.

For example, you decide to go on a diet, but at the same time perceive it as a severe restriction, as a mockery. You suffer from refusing high-calorie, fatty, sweet foods. And in the depths of your subconscious, the conclusion is born that you do not love yourself, since you voluntarily doom yourself to such sacrifices.

Your subconscious thinks within the framework that you yourself have given it. Everything is mixed up in your life - it seems to you that self-love, true pleasure lies in following your emotions and the thoughts that you associate with them, and the slightest deviation from a given trajectory is stress and pain.

Remember, everything is in your head and everything is in your hands. Our article can help you deal with similar problems.

Funny video

Do not be upset because of the weight, but rather listen to the cool song “Oh, you are a wide bone”:

Content

The vast majority of overweight people, complaining about their problems, consider their own physique as an obstacle to their solution. Often you can hear the following judgments: “I am not complete, this is a natural feature - such a bone!”

Big bone or overweight?

Those who are unable to part with extra pounds blame the supposedly wide bone: “If I were, like a friend, thin-boned, then I didn’t have to lose weight, but here you’ll never become slim because of the wide bone!”

How to tell if you have a wide bone

So what is this bone? Who can be called its owner? And how does the complexion affect harmony?

To determine the harmony of the human body, it is customary to use a criterion called the Solovyov index. Determining the type of constitution is quite simple. You just need to measure the size of your own wrist.


In general, a ruler or centimeter tape is not even required. Measurements can be taken with your own fingers, clasping the wrist of your left hand with the second rook and paying attention to the position of the thumb and forefinger.

  • Fingers touch in people with a normal physique.
  • If you can’t connect your fingers, the person belongs to the hypersthenic type.
  • And the fingers that are one on top of the other indicate that we have an asthenic with a thin bone in front of us.

A mirror can also tell about your type.

In asthenics, vertical dimensions prevail over horizontal parameters. Such people have long limbs and necks, elongated phalanges of the fingers, and often weakly expressed musculature.

People of normal build are proportional.

And hypersthenics are characterized by the predominance of transverse parameters over longitudinal ones. The backbone of such people is heavy, the legs are often short, and the hips, chest and shoulders are wide.

But a heavy bone is not a diagnosis, much less a sentence. The way a person looks, whether he is obese or slender is 4/5 dependent on lifestyle, and not on innate characteristics.