Lean Body Mass & Longevity
Lean Body Mass (LBM) is the combined mass of muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, skin, internal organs, body water and essential fats found in bones/organs. This is often confused with lean muscle mass, which is just a component of LBM - all muscle is lean. LBM is strongly correlated with your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is the amount of calories burnt at rest. Greater LBM means greater BMR, which has a plethora of benefits for longevity and overall health. Optimal healthy lean body mass is 70-90%, with females being on the lower end of this range due to their body type.
Today, we will be going over why you should take a bone composition test to measure lean body mass, how to improve your lean body mass, and why lean body mass is important for longevity.
Disclaimer: Please note that the contents of this blog do not count as medical advice. We are not legally responsible or liable for any actions you take based on this blog. Please consult a physician before using any of this advice.
Measuring Lean Body Mass
The most effective and accurate way to measure lean body mass is through a DXA scan (body composition test). This is important to determine overall body health, as well as determine what your body type is. As your body composition is related to your body type and sex, it is important to measure lean body mass to ensure you find the most effective way to improve lean body mass and overall health based on your body type.
Undergoing a body composition test allows you to monitor your lean body mass, determine likelihood of disease/risks, determine goals for how much to improve, and find a personalised way to improve your lean body mass.
You can get a bone density test through Bodycomp Imaging by Jevitty with no waitlist. BONUS: With a Lifespan Membership, you can get a free DXA body composition scan, worth $150, that includes a bone density test.
Improving Lean Body Mass
Exercise
Exercise is important to strengthen bone density, improve lean muscle mass, and strengthen organ functioning - all of which contribute to improving lean body mass.
Whilst cardio-based exercises should be performed at least once a week, resistance training is the best way to improve lean body mass. This causes muscle fibres to break down, which leads to them repairing to become larger and stronger. By performing progressive overload training, i.e. consistently changing intensity, duration, volume or weights, your body challenges muscles to encourage greater gains in mass and strength. To grow bulky muscles, perform less with longer rest times (effectively 3 minutes) for heavier weights. For building lean muscles by removing fat, try to do more reps with less rest time (1 minute). These techniques will ensure hypertrophy (growing of muscles).
Some alternate forms of resistance training that do not involve weight lifting, you could try yoga, barre, Pilates and boxing. Try to incorporate balance training into your exercise regimen as that has been known to improve lean body mass and longevity. It is important to start improving muscle mass and lean body mass early, as it becomes more difficult to develop lean muscle with age.
Diet
Diet is important for improving lean body mass. Hydration, correct types and amounts of macronutrients, and supplements are important to allow for this.
To build lean muscle by reducing fat, a calorie-deficit diet can be used. This is done by consuming slightly less than your daily calorie needs. This can be calculated online or with the help of a dietician. Note that this isn't below the eating threshold for maintaining optimal body compositions, otherwise your muscles will break down and your BMR will get reduced. There are other diets for bulking as well, such as keto diet, or eating above the daily limit to ensure muscle building.
The correct quantity and types of macronutrients must be consumed to ensure muscles are getting enough important nutrients to function optimally. Ensure that the correct amount of protein is taken, as this is crucial for maintaining and developing muscles. The amount of protein one should be consuming is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day. Some examples of protein are meat, dairy, tofu/soy based products and protein powder. Additionally, avoid highly refined carbohydrates like white wheat flour and consume complex carbohydrate foods with additional minerals and vitamins, such as quinoa and sweet potatoes. Healthy fats are important for muscles and bones, so ensure that you eat food like fish, eggs, dairy, and olive oil to maintain a healthy fat intake.
Hydration is key - drink lots of water.
Supplements or key vitamins found in foods naturally must also be consumed. Increasing antioxidants reverses muscle degeneration, protects muscles and restores/preserves lean muscle mass. Foods higher in selenium, magnesium, vitamin B6 and vitamin C, such as fruits, vegetables, proteins, contain antioxidants. L-carnitine has been known to improve lifespan, energy, regeneration of muscle and maintain physical function. Astaxanthin supplements can also help with improving neuromuscular function, suppressing muscle death, improving muscle growth, reducing free radicals and improving mitochondrial function.
Rest
It is important to have at least one rest day in between exercising to ensure your body has the time required to heal and regenerate muscle. At least 8 hours of sleep a day is also recommended so your body can regenerate. This also improves stamina and capacity for your body to exercise further.
Consult an expert
Experts include physicians, dieticians, personal trainers, and body composition specialists.
A lower lean body mass could be due to certain medications, diseases like sarcopenia, or genetic contributions. Understanding these factors are also important to prevent/treat diseases related to lean body mass, and improve muscles. To understand if and how your DNA plays a role on your health, consider taking a DNA test or whole genome sequence test. With a Lifespan membership, you can get a 5% discount on Nebula Genomics' whole genome sequencing package. You can read more about this here.
Additionally consulting a dietician or physician with a routine blood test could be helpful to know if you have any current vitamin deficiencies or problems. This is important as risk of hormonal imbalance can be high when changing exercises so frequently. Consulting a professional is the best way to tackle such issues.
Lean Body Mass & Longevity
Consult Figure 1 to see the relationship of muscle mass and strength with age. Improving muscle mass allows people to surpass the disability threshold, improving longevity.
Figure 1
Lean body mass is closely correlated with improving longevity. Building muscles strengthens and protects bones from osteoporosis and arthritis, by preventing thinning of weakening of bones. Osteoporosis is bone brittleness caused by aging and other factors. Additionally, lean body mass decreases the likelihood of sarcopenia, by preserving muscles throughout aging. Sarcopenia is muscle degeneration caused by aging, due to a decrease in muscle strength, muscle loss and impaired mobility. Preventing these age-related disorders decreases chance of fall and injuries as well, which increases healthy lifespan and allows people to perform daily functioning with age. Risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes is also prevented as a high muscle mass helps control blood sugar levels.
Many of the steps taken throughout your life to ensure a higher lean body mass in turn help with longevity themselves. Just one hour of resistance exercise each week is correlated with a decrease in all-cause mortality! Additionally, exercising when we are younger, results in epigenetic changes that can improve lifespan. This means that these healthy habits lead to genes being turned on that help with decreasing risk of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, premature aging and neurocognitive decline. Exercising also increases metabolism, which allows fats (including visceral and subcutaneous fats) to burn while asleep, lowering morbidity. Having a higher lean muscle mass ensures a strong core, which protects tendons and ligaments, and improves coordination, lessening the chance of injury.
A higher lean body mass ensures that there is an increase in protein reserves in the body, improving your immune system. This allows the body to fight illness, infection and stress. Muscles are the organs of longevity, and healthy muscles release anti-inflammatory compounds to allow immune system performing properly.
Overall, an increase in lean body mass has a cyclical positive feedback function, where exercise helps with sleep and mental well-being, which further allows greater capacity for exercise, all resulting in improved lean body mass. This all helps with increasing longevity.
