UNDERSTANDING THE BODY COMPOSITION:
A FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT
BY:
RAMANANDA NINGTHOUJAM
BODY COMPOSITION
 Body Composition is
the distribution of fat
and fat free mass in the
body.
 Fat is the total weight of
fat mass (in kg , lb) in
the body.
 Fat Free Mass is
comprised of muscle,
bone, tissue, water, and
all other fat free mass in
the body.
WHY BODY COMPOSITION IN SPORTS?
 It is considered to be an important physical development especially in
sports, where there is an advantage of being tall (e.g. basketball) or
small (Libero, weightlifting), heavy (sumo wrestling, Shot Put) or light
(gymnastics), etc.
 A tall runner’s longer limbs will enable longer step length (Winter,
1990).
 Height, Body Mass and BMI seems to be important anthropometric
parameters for sprinters (Niels Uth, 2005)
 Indians have shorter height, lower BMI but higher body fat content.
Waist circumference is lower but the chest & abdominal fat is higher in
comparing with Caucasians (Misra et al, 2004)
 Excess fat among Indians generate more inflammatory molecules which
significantly contributes to heart diseases & diabetes (Joglekar et al,
2003)
BODY COMPOSITION MODEL
 2 compartment system;
 Fat
 Fat free Mass
 Assessment methods using this
model:
 Skinfold thickness
 Hydrodensitometry
 Bioelectric impedance
CHEMICAL AND ANATOMICAL MODEL
Chemical Model
 2- compartmental (Fat and
Fat free mass)
 3- compartmental (Fat,
Bones and Mineral)
Anatomical Model
 4- compartmental (water,
protein, fat , minerals)
 Dual emmision x-ray
absorptiometry (DEXA)
 Computed tomography (CT,
CAT)
FIVE COMPARTMENT MODEL
 Fat,
 Bones Tissue,
 Extracellular water,
 Intracellular,
 Metabolic Tissue
Example: Tanita Body
Composition Analyser
ATHLETIC BODY TYPE
 Athletic or Muscular Body
Type who has normal or low
body fat even though they
are overweight according to
the standard chart.
Example: Body Builder
LINEAR BODY TYPE
 Lean, thin or Linear Body type
with low amount of fat free
mass who can be underweight
according to the weight chart
and extremely low in body fat
yet physically very healthy.
Example: Endurance runners
AVERAGE HEALTHY WEIGHT BODY TYPE
 People of average weight and
average body fat
Example: Active People
OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE BODY TYPES
 Big, heavy and soft body types
who are overweight and obese
with large amount of fat mass
and body weight.
Example: Inactive elderly
OBESE NOT OVERWEIGHT BODY TYPES
 People who have too
much fat mass and are
obese but not overweight
due to inactive and
sedentary life style.
Example: Elder people
DESIRABLE LEVEL OF FAT % FOR
DIFFERENT SPORTS
BODY FAT PERCENTAGE BY ACEG
BODY FAT CHART
MEASURING OF BODY COMPOSITION
1) Skinfold caliper
 Most commonly used in the
field of sports for testing body
fat.
 Measures double thickness of
skin and subcutaneous fat
 The common sites for
measuring skinfold are triceps,
biceps, subscapular, illiac crest,
abdominal, thigh, calf
HYDRODENSIOMETRY
2) This method is also quite
accurate and considered a
gold standard method.
 Two compartment model
 Archimedes principles:





volume of submerged object =
volume of water displaced
weight in air - weight underwater
= weight of water displaced
Wt of water displaced = vol of
body
Density = Body weight/Body
volume
% BF = (495/BD)- 450
DEXA
(DUAL ENERGY X-RAY ABSORPTIOMETRY)
 3 body components (fat,
muscle, bone)
 It allows fat distribution
throughout the entire body to
be read in a single scan.
BIA
(BIOELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE ANALYSIS)
 It uses a very small electrical




signal to measure body
impedance.
Fat causes impedance or
resistance to the signal.
The entire procedure takes less
than one minute.
No need for a trained
technician to operate the
equipment
BIA produces very accurate
results.
BOD POD
 It uses the whole-body
densitometry to determine body
composition.
 It is similar in principle to the
underwater weighing
 Body density can then be
calculated
Density = Mass/Volume
CONCLUSION
 An athlete can be overweight according to their height – weight table
but yet have very little body fat (Welham and Behnke, 1942).
 Being overweight is usually not a problem, but being over-fat typically
has negative impact on the athletic performance.
 The Health/Fitness practitioners need to educate the general
population about the desirable level of fatness.
 Every technique has there advantages and disadvantages. A
combination of these methods may reduce the likelihood of
misdiagnosis of Body Composition.
REFERENCES:
 Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis in Body Composition Measurement
(1994), National Institute of Health Technology Assessment Conference
Statement, Dec 12 – 14
 Niels Uth. (2005), Anthropometric Comparison of World-Class
Sprinters And Normal Populations, Journal of Sports Science and
Medicine 4, 608-616
 Siri, W. E. (1961). Body composition from fluid space and density. In J.
Brozek & A. Hanschel (Eds.), Techniques for measuring body
composition (pp. 223-244). Washington, DC: National Academy of
Science.
HAVE A GREAT DAY!