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South Dakota State University research shows that a child with leaner body mass, or muscle, builds bigger bones than a child who weighs the same but has a greater percentage of fat.

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."

"We looked at multiple measurements over time. We found that lean mass had a positive effect on rates of change," Wey said. "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."

[via: Medical News Today]

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