Washington, June 29 (IANS) A child with leaner body mass or muscle, builds bigger bones compared to one who weighs the same but has a greater percentage of fat, says the latest research.
“We were interested in the relative influence of lean mass, which is muscle, versus fat mass on how bone grows as kids grow,” said Howard Wey, professor at South Dakota State University (SDSU).

Wey and colleagues analyzed data by taking bone and body composition measurements of rural children in South Dakota.

“A larger child is going to have larger bones just because he’s heavier,” Wey said. “But if you have two kids at the same weight, the one whose weight is dominated by fat mass is more likely to have smaller bones than the one whose weight is dominated by lean mass. Smaller bones are weaker than larger bones.”

The project has already tracked more than 1,700 individuals over a three-year period to evaluate how lifestyle affects bone density in three groups of people.

To study fat mass versus lean mass as a factor in bone development, SDSU researchers gathered two to three measurements over a 36-month period on about 150 male and about 200 female children aged eight to 18.

Because they are growing children, all the children in the study showed increases in bone mass, area and density, Wey noted. But there were clear differences in rates of change.

“Kids with higher lean mass, or muscle, tended to have greater rates of change, and kids with higher fat mass tended to have lower rates of change,” Wey said, according to a SDSU release.

These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Paediatric Academic Societies in Baltimore.