Understanding Body Composition

Learning Outcomes
• Articulate the difference between body weight and body
composition.
• Discuss how body composition is related to lifelong fitness and
wellness.
• Evaluate your BMI, body circumferences, and body shape.
• Describe the tests used to assess body composition.
• Set and continually reevaluate goals to reach your healthy body fat
percentage.

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 How Do Body Weight and Body Composition Differ?

• Body Composition
– The relative amounts of lean tissue and fat tissue in the body
• Lean Body Mass
– Body mass that is fat-free (muscle, skin, bone, organs, and body fluids)
• Fat Mass
– Body mass that is fat tissue (adipose tissue)
• Percent Body Fat
– Percentage of total weight that is fat tissue
• Essential Fat
– Body fat that is essential for normal physiological functioning
• Storage Fat
– Body fat that is not essential but does provide energy, insulation, and
padding

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 Body Composition for Men and Women

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 Why Do My Body Size, Shape, and Composition
Matter?

• Knowing your body composition can help assess health

risks.
– More people are now overweight or obese.
– Estimates of body composition provide useful information for
determining disease risks.
• Evaluating your body size and shape can motivate healthy
behavior change.
– Changes in body size and shape can be more useful measures of
progress than body weight.

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 How Can I Evaluate My Body Size and Shape?

• Calculate your body mass index, but understand its

limitations.
– Scores do not differentiate between fat and lean body mass.
• Measure your body circumferences.
– Use waist and hip measurements to determine your waist-to-hip
ratio (WHR).

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 Estimating BMI
BMI and Health

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 Waist Circumference, BMI, and Disease Risk

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 How Can I Evaluate My Body Size and Shape?
continued

• Identify your body’s patterns of fat distribution.

– Android Pattern
 “Apple” shaped
 Excess body fat on upper body and trunk
 Associated with greater disease risk
– Gynoid Pattern
 “Pear” shaped
 Excess fat mainly on lower body (hips and thighs)

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 Android and Gynoid Body Fat Distribution

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 What Methods Are Used to Assess Body Composition?
• Skinfold Measurements
– Use calipers to measure skinfold thickness
– Accurate assessments require experience and practice
• Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA)
– The “gold standard” for assessing body composition
– Uses low-radiation X rays to distinguish body components
• Hydrostatic Weighing (Underwater Weighing)
– Requires an equipped facility
• Air Displacement (Bod Pod)
– Measures total body air displacement
– Used with other measures for a full assessment
• Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)
– Measures resistance of tissues to electrical currents
– Accuracy depends on machine quality and participant cooperation

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 A DXA Machine Bone density scanning, also called dual-energy
x-ray absorptiometry (DXA)

Bioelectrical Impedance
Analysis

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 Hydrostatic
Weighing The “Bod Pod”

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 How Can I Change My Body Composition?

• Determine whether your percent body fat is within a healthy range.

• Set reasonable body composition goals.
• Follow a well-designed exercise and nutrition plan.
• Monitor your body size, shape, and composition
regularly.
– Body/size shape (mirror and fit of clothes): Assess
daily or weekly
– Weight: Assess daily or weekly
– Circumferences: Measure monthly (or less frequently)
– BMI: Measure monthly (or less frequently)
– Percent body fat: Measure every other month (or less
frequently)

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 Percent Body Fat Norms for Men and Women

© 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.