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Comment by baash05 | Hacker News Reader

What is "lean muscle" regardless of fat?

Take a look at a sub elite/elite power lifter. They may be have a body composition of 20%+ fat, but they are also packing a lot of lean muscle. For the most part, I would call that a healthy individual, even though they're BMI (which is... problematic) would say that this person is overweight and in need of a diet. That doesn't even pass the sniff test for me.

Thinness is not the goal you want to achieve. It's a very easy goal to achieve when compared to being a fit individual. Starve yourself and you're done.

You can not starve yourself into being a fit individual.

As someone who follows too many fitness influencers, it sounds like you follow too many fitness influencers. Muscle is lean by definition. This guy isn't fit, but I don't think he claims to be. He's a software developer who seems to be uninterested in fitness as a concept, he just doesn't want to be obese, which he isn't.

Yes, being fit, strong, and lean is harder than not being extremely overweight. But not everyone cares about that.

We're actually not assessing him very differently. But I'm saying being "thin" and "weak" is just as big of a problem as, "fat" and "weak". The problem isn't being fat, it's being "weak". If I'm assessing someone and they have 30% bodyfat, but are as strong as an ox, I'm not worried about their long term health. I use the example of a advanced power lifter in a post, upstream - you know a someone that looks like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ywwZlESOU

Chiseled abs and a penchant for energy drinks isn't needed. If I was to be critical, I'd say that low of a body fat % for long periods of time is counter productive to overall fitness and ugh: the shit you find in some energy drinks.

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