Bone Structure

I've been reading a lot of posts where people mention that they have a certain type of bone structure (small, medium or large).  My question - how do you figure this out?  Is this something a nutritionist or trainier or maybe your PCP can calculate for you?  I'm trying to set some goals for my weight loss and I guess bone structure comes into play.  

Thanks!

Sarah

"Bone structure" is a shortcut for lean body mass. There are tables that help you figure out if you're small framed, medium framed or big framed. Here's an example:  http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/fsz

But that only tells part of the story. Lean mass is the big issue here. The idea is that bone and muscle are "good weight" and fat is bad weight. If you have very small bones, I have very large bones (which I do) and we are the same height and weight, much of your extra weight is probably fat - but not necessarily. What if you exercise a lot and I don't - you may have a lot more muscle than me.

That's where lean mass comes in. Lean mass is the total weight of your bones/muscles vs. fat. I had this done last week. I weighed 193 lbs at the time and 137 lbs of that was lean mass.

Imagine Joe and John are 6 feet tall and weigh 225 lbs. By the weight charts, that's obese. Joe is a bodybuilder, John is a couch potato. Joe could have a healthy body fat percentage even though he's obese by the charts...John, not so much likely. So lean mass really matters.

There are lots of ways to measure your lean mass and body fat percentage - calipers, certain scales and (accurate but expensive) a DEXA scan. Talk to your doctor or nutritionist about having yours measured.

i had a DEXA scan done & went in thinking i was a medium frame - turns out i have a small bone structure.

because of that, my height (4'11) & a combo of fibro and OA - my PCP wants me as low as possible (100-105).   i prefer how i look 10lbs+ more than that & that's my plan of late to stick to.

Thank you so much Mom4Jazz!  I hadn't realized there was another piece of the puzzle I was missing.