Being Thin and Being Lean: Is There a Difference?

Often people will look at a thin person and think to themselves; now that person is nice and lean. But is that really always the case? Does being thin have a direct relationship with being lean? In order to answer these questions we must examine what it means to be thin verses what it means to be lean.

Now you can define being thin as having a small circumference size. This would be denoted by small waist, arm, leg, and chest diameters as well as a low body weight all in relation to overall height.

The definition of being lean however is measured by overall body composition. This would be denoted by a low percentage of body-fat verses percentage of lean mass (muscle and bone). You may be surprised to know that thin people quite often are not lean at all. In fact, many thin people have a much higher body-fat percentage than you might think!

Now you may be thinking; how is that possible? Thin people don