Swami Shraddhanand College
Swami Shraddhanand College
Swami Shraddhanand College
SHRADDHANAND
COLLEGE
OBESITY
MANAGEMENT
Submitted to:-. Submitted by:-
Mr. I.M. Dutta. Srishti Jain
B.A. Hons. English
Sem – 2
1119
University Roll no.:- 19081511070
MEASUREMENT
OF
BODY
COMPOSITION
FOR
CALCULATING
BOFY FAT
AND
LEAN BODY MASS
INTRODUCTION
Six major reasons justify an accurate appraisal of body
composition in a comprehensive program of total physical
fitness:
1. It provides a starting point on which to base current and
future decisions about weight loss and weight gain.
2. It provides realistic goals about how to best achieve an
“ideal” balance between the body’s fat and nonfat
compartments.
3. It relates to general health status and plays an important
role in the health and fitness goals of all individuals.
4. It monitors changes in the fat and lean components
during exercise regimens of different durations and
intensities.
5. It allows allied health practitioners (sports nutritionist,
dietician, personal trainer, coach, athletic trainer, physical
therapist, physician, exercise leader) to interact with the
individuals they deal with to provide quality information
related to nutrition, weight control, and exercise.
6. It provides the athlete, coach, and scientist with
objective information relating body composition
assessment to sports performance.
Many diverse methods, both complex and simple, assess
human body composition. Of the simpler methods, the
popular height–weight tables have become a frequently
used standard in the medical community and elsewhere to
assess overweight and obesity status.33,89,154
Unfortunately, this approach is of limited value as
“overweight” and excess body fat do not necessarily
coincide. Many large-sized athletes, for example,
typically exceed the average weight for height by gender
but otherwise possess relatively low levels of body fat.
Most of these individuals obviously do not require weight
loss, which might adversely affect their sports
performance. In contrast, a prudent weight loss program
would surely benefit the extreme number of overweight
men and women not only in the United States but
worldwide. This group spends nearly $50 billion each
year to purchase diet books, products, and services at
more than 1500 weight-control clinics in the hope of
permanently reducing excess fat. Medicaid and Medicare
finance almost half of the more than $100 billion spent
annually on obesity-related medical costs in the United
States.
Worldwide, more than 300 million people fall within the
definition of overweight, and this may be a conservative
estimate.
From antiquity to the present, regular physical activity
and dietary restraint have played an important role.
COMMON TECHNIQUES TO
ASSESS BODY COMPOSITION
Two procedures evaluate body composition:
1. Direct measurement by chemical analysis of the ani-
mal carcass or human cadaver
2. Indirect estimation by hydrostatic weighing, simple
anthropometric measurements, and other clinical and
laboratory procedures
Direct Assessment
Two approaches directly assess body composition. One
technique dissolves the body in a chemical solution to
determine its mixture of fat and fat-free components. The
other physically dissects fat, fat-free adipose tissue,
muscle, and bone.
Considerable research has chemically assessed body
composition in various animal species, but few studies
have directly determined human fat content.25,26,27
These labor-intensive and tedious analyses require
specialized laboratory equipment and involve ethical
questions and legal hurdles in obtaining cadavers for
research purposes.
Direct body composition assessment suggests that while
considerable individual differences exist in total body
fatness, the compositions of skeletal mass and the fat-free
and fat tissues remain relatively stable. Researchers have
developed mathematical equations to indirectly predict
the body’s fat percentage on the basis of the assumed
constancy of these tissues.
Indirect Assessment
Diverse indirect procedures assess body composition. One
involves Archimedes’ principle applied to hydrostatic
weighing (also referred to as hydrodensitometry, or
underwater weighing). This method computes percentage
body fat from body density (ratio of body mass to body
volume). Other procedures predict body fat from skinfold
thickness and girth measurements, X-ray, total body
electrical conductivity or bioimpedance (including
segmental impedance), near-in-frared interactance,
ultrasound, computed tomography, air plethysmography,
and magnetic resonance imaging.
Bioelectrical Impedance
Girth Measurements
Girth measurements offer an easily administered, valid
and attractive alternative to skinfolds.
Girth measurements should be taken at the following sites
using the Gulick tape. The sites commonly used for girth
measurements are: upper arm (biceps), forearm, abdomen,
hips (buttocks), thigh, and calf. The equations we will use
to estimate % body fat using girth measurements are
designed for young and old men and women, provided the
individual’s physical characteristics resemble the original
validation group. The equations should not be used for
individuals who appear excessively fat or thin, or who
participate regularly in strenuous sports or resistance
training that often increases girth without changing
subcutaneous body fat. Along with predicting % body fat,
girth measurements can also be used to analyze patterns
of body fat distribution.
Goal Body Fat Percentage and Target Weight
The following method can be used to determine goal body
fat percentage (GBF%) and target weight (TW).
1. Multiply total body weight (TBW) by the body fat
percentage (BF%) to determine fat weight (FW).
2. Subtract FW from TBW
3. The remaining weight is the fat free mass (FFM)
4. Determine an appropriate and reasonable GBF%
5. Divide the LBM by the (1-GBF%)
6. The answer will be the TBW at the predetermined
GBF%
7. Subtract the TW from the TBW to determine the
amount of weight loss (WL) required to achieve GBF%
Step 1: TBW x BF%-FW
Step 2: TBW – FW=LBM
Step 3: LBM/(1-GBF%) = TW
Step 4: TBW – TW = WL
Ultrasound Assessment of Fat
Ultrasound technology can assess the thickness of
different tissues (fat and muscle) and image the deeper
tissues such as a muscle’s cross-sectional area. The
method converts electrical energy through a probe into
high-frequency (pulsed) sound waves that penetrate the
skin surface into the underlying tissues. The sound waves
pass through adipose tissue to penetrate the muscle layer.
They then reflect from the fat–muscle interface (after
reflection from a bony surface) to produce an echo, which
returns to a receiver within the probe. The simplest type
of ultrasound (A-mode) does not produce an image of the
underlying tissues. Rather, the time required for sound
wave transmission through the tissues and back to the
transducer converts to a distance score that indicates fat or
muscle thickness. With the more expensive and
technically demanding B-mode ultrasound, a 2
dimensional image provides considerable detail and tissue
differentiation.
Ultrasound exhibits high reliability for repeat
measurements of subcutaneous fat thickness at multiple
sites in the lying and standing positions on the same day
and different days.67,74 The technique can determine
total and segmental subcutaneous adipose tissue volume.2
It has also shown validity for assessing FFM of high
school wrestlers, which may prove useful as a field-based
body composition assessment.
Ultrasound proves particularly useful with obese persons
who show considerable variation and compression of
subcutaneous body fat with skinfold measures. When
used to map muscle and fat thickness at different body
regions and quantify changes in topographic fat patterns,
ultrasound serves as a valuable adjunct to body
composition assessment. In hospitalized patients,
ultrasonic fat and muscle thickness determinations aid in
nutritional assessment during weight loss and weight gain.
Ultrasonic imaging also serves a clinical role in assessing
tissue growth and development, including fetal
development and structure and function of the heart and
other organs. With imaging devices, reflected sound
waves from the soft tissues convert to a real-time image
for convenient visualization or for computer digitization
(area, volume, and diameter) directly from the image.
Color and multiple-frequency imaging allows clinicians to
trace blood flow through organs and tissues or, with the
use of miniaturized probes, identify internal tissues,
vessels, and organs. In consumer-oriented research,
ultrasonic imaging of thigh fat depth provided evidence
that treatments using two topical cream applications to the
thighs and buttocks to reduce “cellulite” (dimpled fat)
failed to reduce local fat thickness compared with control
conditions.