Evaluation of anthropometric equations to assess body-composition changes in young women
Open Access
- 1 February 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Elsevier BV in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- Vol. 73 (2), 268-275
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/73.2.268
Abstract
Background: Healthy young women who engage in an exercise program may lose fat that is not reflected in body weight changes because of concurrent gains in fat-free mass (FFM). Objective: This study addressed the question of how well anthropometry-based predictive equations can resolve these changes. Design: Several widely used skinfold-thickness- or circumference-based equations were compared by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to study 150 healthy young women before and after 8 wk of Army basic combat training (average energy expenditure: 11.7 MJ/d). Results: Women lost 1.2 ± 2.6 kg fat (x̄ ± SD) and gained 2.5 ± 1.5 kg FFM. Fat loss (r = 0.47), but not FFM gain (r = 0.01), correlated with initial fatness. Thus, for many women who lost fat, body weight did not change or increased. Fat loss was associated with a reduction in abdominal circumference but this alone was not a consistent marker of fat loss. One circumference equation and one skinfold-thickness equation yielded the smallest residual SDs (2.0% and 1.9% body fat, respectively) compared with the other equations in predicting body fat. The sensitivity and specificity of the best equations in predicting changes in percentage body fat were not better than 55% and 66%, respectively. Conclusions: These data suggest that for women, anthropometry can provide better estimates of fatness than body mass index but it is still relatively insensitive to short-term alterations in body composition. Not surprisingly, the circumference equation that includes the most labile sites of female fat deposition (ie, waist and hips instead of upper arm or thigh) proved to be the most reliable.This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Lower limit of body fat in healthy active menJournal of Applied Physiology, 1994
- Body Fat Assessment in WomenSports Medicine, 1992
- Reliability of body-fat estimations from a four-compartment model by using density, body water, and bone mineral measurementsThe American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1992
- Androgenicity in relation to body fat distribution and metabolism in 38-year-old women—the European fat distribution studyJournal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1990
- Validity of skinfold thickness measures of formerly obese adultsThe American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1986
- Fat cell metabolism in different regions in women. Effect of menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and lactation.JCI Insight, 1985
- Body fat assessed from total body density and its estimation from skinfold thickness: measurements on 481 men and women aged from 16 to 72 YearsBritish Journal of Nutrition, 1974