The muscle strength that has been confirmed again...The more muscle mass and the less visceral fat, the higher the lung capacity
Mar 10, 2025
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This is the result of analyzing the abdominal CT and lung capacity levels of 15,000 adults by a team led by Chung Young-joo and Kim Hong-kyu, a professor of health medicine at Asan Medical Center in Seoul. The study was published in the recent issue of the international journal "Chest" published by the American Thoracic Physicians Association.
According to the research team, the rate of lung function decline was up to four times higher than that of a healthy body with high muscle mass and low visceral fat if it corresponds to 'muscle-reducing obesity' with low muscle mass and high visceral fat. The rate of lung function decline refers to the case where the percentage compared to the standardized lung capacity level of Koreans is less than 80%.
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First, we calculated the amount of healthy muscles and visceral fat area with less fat, and corrected the age and body mass index and divided them into four groups, from the lowest group (lowest 25%) to the highest group (high 25%). Based on this, we analyzed how skeletal muscle mass and visceral fat affect the amount of effortful lung capacity (the amount of air exhaled after inhaling as much as possible, FVC), and the amount of effortful exhaled for one second (the amount of air discharged in the first second, FEV1).
As a result of the study, lung function was found to be the worst when it corresponds to 'muscle-reducing obesity' with low muscle mass and a lot of visceral fat. In the case of men, the rate of lung function decline in the sarcopenic obesity group was 19.1%, which was more than four times higher than the 4.4% group with high muscle mass and low visceral fat. Women also recorded 9.7% and 3.1%, respectively, with the rate of lung function decline in the sarcopenic obesity group more than three times higher.
On the other hand, the lung capacity of those in the top 25% of muscle mass and the bottom 25% of visceral fat were the highest among the entire group. Regardless of gender, it recorded the lowest muscle mass and 3% to 5% higher than the group with the most visceral fat.
The effortless lung capacity of the top male group with many healthy muscles was found to be 3.7% higher than the bottom group of 88.7%, with a normal predicted percentage of 92.4%. The effortless expiratory volume for one second also recorded 93.7% and 90.6%, respectively, with the highest group recording 3.1% higher lung capacity than the lowest group.
In the case of women, the effort lung capacity of the highest group was 95.6% and the lowest group was 91.9%, and the effort exhalation capacity for one second was 95.7% and 92.8%, respectively. The research team explained that the more healthy muscles, the more active the movement of muscles that directly affect breathing, such as the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, and the lung capacity also appears to have increased as the chest is sufficiently expanded.
In addition, the effortless lung capacity of the male group with the most visceral fat was 88.1%, which was 5% lower than that of the smallest group of 93.1%. Even in the case of women, the top and bottom groups of visceral fat showed a 3.4% difference in lung capacity.
The research team said this study is meaningful in that it suggested that not only smoking cessation but also body composition management such as muscle and visceral fat is important to protect lung health.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
