Big Bones: Do Obese People Have Skeletons that are Different from Thin People?

[Fear_Itself]

Is there any truth to the notion that there are “big boned” people who are predisposed to obesity? Also, when one becomes obese, does it cause changes to the bone structure as a result of larger body mass? I have seen really obese people, and really thin people, and it is hard to imagine the same skeletal proportions would support both morphologies. For instance, does the rib cage expand at all as a result of large fat deposits in the torso, and would this be permanent? Can you tell from looking at skeletal remains if the person was obese or thin at the time of death?

[Lamia]

@Fear Itself

Is there any truth to the notion that there are “big boned” people who are predisposed to obesity?

I think you’re misunderstanding the expression. “Big boned” is supposed to be a way of saying that someone is larger than average but that their extra size is not due to fat (or muscle). When it’s applied to people who really are fat it’s a euphemism; it’s not intended to be an explanation of their obesity.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

While I’ll bet that some CSI program will soon come up with some magic test that will show living weight from a skeleton, there’s not much that can be done now.

Obesity does not seem to directly affect the skeleton, but may do so indirectly because of obesity-related diseases.

COMMENTS REGARDING DRY BONES:

7. A major goal for the Dry Bones research project was to find commonalities and differences between the past and the present that might help explain some disease patterns in the regional twentieth-century Native Americans.

Diabetes mellitus and obesity.
At the present time in Aberdeen Indian Area and other Indian people both diseases are serious problems and appear to be increasing in frequency (294-199). Today, the Pima Indians have one of the highest rates of diabetes and obesity in the world (294-199).

The antiquity of these problems in the Indian people is unknown, (294-199). Frank Linderman (Pretty Shield. University of Nebraska Press,1972, p. 139) indicated that Pretty Shield saw only four obese women in all the Montana Crow tribe. In Southwestern U.S. Hrdlicka reported that pathological obesity did not exist. He related obesity he observed to reservation living (167-156,157,191). The only reference he made to diabetes was in a duplication of a 1902 resident physician’s report relating to a Pima woman (167- 182).

The greatest effect of both of these problems is upon soft tissue, and for this reason it has not been possible to search for anatomic evidence in regional skeletons. However, in the future some characteristic skeletal modification may be discovered. Clinical reports have indicated that alveolar bone resorption accompanies diabetic disease (87-41). During research, this might conceivably be an indicator to be used in the search for evidence of this disease in peoples of the past. Finances and time constraints have precluded our investigation thereof.

Medieval monks and the missing minister

Ms Patrick, who is studying for her PhD in the subject at the moment, has been trying to find out why, at a time of plague and famine, monks were so fat.

“The answer is that they ate too much - up to 6,000 calories a day of venison, cows, sheep, deer, dolphin, herring and cod washed down with walnuts and peaches and strawberry seeds,” she says. “They would eat huge amounts of saturated fats - it would be a dietician’s nightmare.”

Ms Patrick has examined over 300 skeletons at the Museum of London to see whether monks suffered from diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (Dish) a disease characterised by stains on the spine which affects obese people.

[citrus_x_paradisi]

Surely, the burden of extra weight would produce noticeable effects on the knees, ankles, or possibly hips? I guess these three, as I have personally known many obese people to have problems in these areas.

[astro]

'Big boned" (in my experience) usually means not only that you are fat, but that your frame is powerful with large hips, thighs wrists, and powerful muscles and that you are heavy as well.

There are people who are naturally more robustly built, and given a height of say 6 feet, there are men who can can carry 220+ lbs on a 6 foot frame and look fine, and others will seem to be quite overweight.

In the past the word “rawboned” was used (when obesity was less known) to describe a large boned person who was not heavy.

raw-boned (rô’bohnd’) adj.
1. having the flesh seemingly stretched over
a large-boned frame.

[ZipperJJ]

Here’s a calculator to find out once and for all if you’re fat or just big boned.

Ha! I am just big boned!

[astro]

You are Male with a height of 6’ 3" and a wrist circumference of 8 inches. You are considered to have a large frame.

And yet… I… I feel so delicate.

[Epimetheus]

Well, weight lifting and playing sports that require abnormal stresses on the bones will increase bone mass. (such as Squash or basketball) I don’t see how carrying around an extra 100 lbs all the time wouldn’t be considered abnormal stresses and cause the bones to adapt.

I suppose it would only be a noticible increase if the weight was pretty extreme. I imagine being 300-400lbs, your bone mass isn’t going to be much greater than the average persons, but that person that weighs 600lbs might have a signifigant difference. (I am guessing here, just pointing out that if it is possible to increase bone mass with moderate exercise, it should increase if body mass increases)

[ultrafilter]

Yeah, but if you weigh 600 lbs. and go around telling people you’re big-boned, nobody will believe you.

[Epimetheus]

Good one.

[tomndebb]

Well, there are “big boned” people (inasmuch as people tend to come in a lot of shapes and sizes, there will be people who have heavier bone structures just as there are people who have lighter frames).

However, I have always understood “big boned” to be a euphemistic comment on people who were overweight, with the understanding that the speaker was either being polite by finding an “alternative” explanation for a person’s weight–or being ironic with no politeness intended.

My Dad’s side of the family really is big boned; for years before I began putting on middle aged weight, I was able to stump carnival and amusement park weight guessers for stuffed toys by weighing many pounds more than I “looked.” (I do not ascribe my current weight to the mass or density of my bones.)

So, while some people are heavier boned than others, I doubt that bones really account for people appearing overweight.

[FilmGeek]

I have a large frame, and 180 pounds on me looks very different on me than it does on someone with a small delicate frame, but the same height.

[mmmiiikkkeee]

At the college I went to there was a full body X-Ray (or some kind of image where you could see the skeleton and shadow of the body) on a door I always walked by. It was of a very fat person by the outline, but the bones looked completely normal in shape and placement - no expanded rib cage or huge shoulders or wide hips. It was just like you took a normal skeleton/body and started layering about 8" of paper mache all over the outside.