Body Composition Assessments Flashcards
What are some health risks involved with excess body fat around the abdomen?
Reduces life expectancy by increasing the risk for many chronic conditions (hypertension, T2DM, stroke, CVD, cancer, etc)
Def: Essential fat
Fat required to keep body functioning efficiently. Males is 3-5%, women 8-12%
Def: Storage fat
Fat that accumulates in the adipose tissue
Def: Fat Mass
Essential + storage fat
Def: Lean Body Mass
Usually includes essential, but NOT storage fat, and includes muscle, bone, connective tissue etc
Def: Fat Free Mass (FFM)
Body mass devoid of all body fat -> LBM - essential fat
What are the two versions of body comp assessments?
2 compartment (skinfold, BIA) and multiple compartment (DEXA)
3 methods of assessing body composition
Direct (taking a cadaver and chemically analysing it)
Indirect (Measuring against direct)
Doubly indirect (Measuring against indirect)
What principle does hydrostatic weighing use?
Archimedes Principle - When a body is immersed in water, it is buoyed by a counterforce equal to the weight of the water displaced
BMI equation?
Weight (kg) / Height (m) squared
What does waist circumference measure?
Visceral (abdominal) fat
Why is waist circumference important?
It has been shown to be the single strongest anthropomorphic predictor of visceral fat - regardless of age, sex or race
What are the cutoffs to evaluate obesity as a risk factor for CVD + metabolic disease?
> 102cm for men
88 cm for women
What are skinfold measurements and what do they do?
Estimates BF% by determining thickness of several folds of skin across the body
Principle is that the amount of subcutaneous fat is proportional to total amount of body fat
What are the sources of error for the skinfold measurement technique?
Technician skill and repeatability
Type of caliper
Client factors
Environment
