Lean Bodies

Lean bodies belong to those whose weight consists mostly of muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, tissues, organs, blood, and water. Basically, this means that lean body mass is comprised of everything in the body except fat. Although easy to define, lean bodies are not always that easy to identify.

This is primarily because an equal volume of fat only weighs half as much as muscle. For this reason, a thin person with a lot of lean muscle mass might step on a scale and find out that they weigh the same or even more than a more heavyset person who has a lot of stored up fat. In order to get a more accurate measurement of lean body mass, assessments called body fat composition test have been developed.

Normal Body Fat Levels

There are several different tests used to determine body fat levels and they all employ different methods for determining the ratio of a person's lean body mass to fat. However, all of the tests take age, height and gender into account. Optimally, a normal woman will have a body fat level between thirteen to twenty percent, whereas a man's body fat should range between eight to fifteen percent.

Unless you are an athlete, you should strive to keep your lean body mass in the normal range. Of course, for those people who are above the recommended levels, there are several products on the market that promise to assist you in burning excess fat. When they are used as directed, these products can assist people in developing the lean bodies they've always dreamed of.