A healthy body fat percentage is essential for good health in humans.

Body fat percentage can be

calculated using the Siri Equation, which uses the measurement of body density. Body density is
measured by using underwater weighing techniques which are expensive and inconvenient for the
person being measured. Researchers are interested in generalising body composition by using simpler
measurement techniques. Using full body immersion techniques to measure density and body fat
percentage is regarded as the most accurate measurement method.

Is there a relationship between the percentage body fat from Siri's equation (%) and abdomen 2
circumferences (CM)? And if so, what is the nature? This investigation should help determine whether
the abdomen 2 circumferences (CM) can be used to estimate the total percentage body fat (%) from the
dataset lists the estimates of the percentage of body fat determined by underwater weighing and
various body circumference measurements for 252 people. These data were sourced from: Generalized
body composition prediction equation for people using simple measurement techniques
(http://wiki.stat.ucla.edu/socr/index.php/SOCR_Data_BMI_Regression#References). Individuals are
weighed in air and while submerged in a tank. Researchers use formulas to estimate body volume, body
density, and body fat percentage. Fat is more buoyant (less dense) than water, so someone with high
body fat will have a lower body density than someone with low body fat. This method is typically only
used in a research setting.

I plan to use Nzgrapher software to draw scatter graph plot, evaluate the data, find a trend is there is
one, obtain a correlation coefficient and make some prediction for the abdomen 2 circumference (CM)
and the percentage in body from Siri’s equation (%). I will further the investigation by comparing how
the abdomen 2 circumference (CM) impacts the body fat in percentage from Siri’s equation. I believe
that the total abdomen 2 circumference (CM) is the explanatory variable and the total percentage in
body fats from Siri’s equation (%) is the response variable.
Looking at the data range we can observe that we have 60-150 cm abdomen circumferences and body
fat in percentage ranging from 0-50 %. Looking at the scatter graph I noticed positive association in the
data. The higher the body fat in percentage the increase of the abdomen circumference in cm. This
indicates that there is a positive relationship between the abdomen 2 circumference (CM) and the body
fat in percentage from Siri’s equation. We can also dee from the graph that the relationship is quite
strong, seen by the majority of point aligning in a positive direction. The graph also shows fairly
consistent scatter, with a fairly even distribution of data ranging between 60- 150 cm in abdomen 2
circumferences. The data shows a slight spreading pattern indicating that as the body fat in percentage
increase the abdomen 2 circumference (CM) can also have a greater variation. There is an outliners in
this data, this is shown at point 39 whereas the body fat in percentage is 35.2% and the abdomen 2
circumference is 148 cm. This is an outliner because the pattern is meant to show that as the body fat %
increases so does the abdomen 2 circumferences (CM). Researchers has found that this could be
because of the gender, as they stated males tend to have a bigger abdomen circumference but a low
percentage in body fat as males are built to be bigger than females
https://www.nature.com/articles/0801352 . There may also be some very slightly curvature present in
the data. Overall, I estimate a fairly strong correlation for this graph.
The correlation coefficient for this data provided by Nzgrapher is 0.81343. As the number is positive it
indicates that there is a positive linear relationship between the two variables. This confirms that
relationship direction as discussed previously. The correlation coefficient is a measure of the linear
association strength between two variables. Since this values is rather high (r=0 no correlation and r=1
perfect correlation) we can say the correlation between my two variables (body fat (%) and abdomen 2
circumference (CM) is strong because the coefficient is greater then 0.

The linear trend appears to fit the data fairly well. The linear equation for the trend line given by
Nzgrapher is percent body fat from Siri’s (1956) equation= 0.63130 x abdomen 2 circumference (cm) –
39.28. The gradient 0.6 indicates that as the body fat (%) increases by 1, the abdomen 2 circumferences
increases by about 0.63 cm (0.63130/ 10). The y-intercept of -39.28 does not make practical sense for
this data. If there was no body fat (%) then the abdomen circumferences (cm) would not increase, not
around -32.28. I will choose not to force the y-intercept to go through zero, as it will affect the overall
model fit. But I will keep in mind that this y-intercept may make the estimate abdomen 2 circumference
(cm) for body fat (%) unreliable.

This investigation can only prove correlation and not causation. It was an observational study article
based in England. The correlation present between abdomen 2 circumference (cm) and body fat
in percentage can suggest possible causation. The only way to prove causation would be to
perform an experimental study across preferably several females and males around the world.
In this cases I think it is likely that men/male has higher body fat (%) but low abdomen
circumference (cm) than females, however we would need to find scientific evidence to support
this idea. It would also be important to consider how other variables factors into body fat (%) as
well. Variables such as gender and age are also likely to impact upon the bodyfat (%) in human.
It would be very difficult to separate out these factors and investigate their individual effect. So
 the correlation between body fat (%) and abdomen 2 circumference (cm) may also affect by
other lurking variables, so we definitely cannot imply causation from this variable correlation.

Using the regression equation given by NZgrapher, I can make a prediction for the abdomen 2
circumference (cm) based upon the given body fat (%). For example I will calculate the
approximate body fat in human body from the abdomen 2 circumferences (CM) of 65 cm and
145 cm. I predict that given a abdomen circumference of 65 cm, the body fat percentage will be
about 1.75 % of body fat. I also predict that given abdomen circumference of 145 cm, the body
fat in percentage will be about 52.26 % of body fat.

Overall these prediction should be fairly reliable. This is because they are both interpolated values,
occurring within our known data range. This makes for more reliable prediction as we can be
more sure of the data and it’s likely trend for values within the known range, this is opposed to
extrapolated prediction where we cannot be sure whether the same data patterns continue for
values outside the observed range. Also the prediction should be fairly reliable as the linear
model appears to be good fit with a rather high correlation coefficient value. It may be
interesting to investigate whether a non-linear model may be more suitable for this data, since
there is a small degree of curvature present in this data. However, the linear model is likely to
be adequate as it appears to have a good fit with a strong correlation coefficient and would be a
preferred model due to its simplicity.

These prediction may be use to the Sport science and exercise as well as people in the Medicine fields,
this is because whether under water weighing can be various by people body circumferences, it
will give them an idea to people body circumferences whether it could be different to when
people are weighing underwater. Could also be particular useful for men/males as their body
are built different from females/girls.

I will now further the investigation by investigating whether the gender could impact upon males and
females body circumferences and body fat. I will do this by sub setting against both gender
individually and observe whether there are any pattern observed in this data.
In this coloured graph above showing females and males body fat (%) and abdomen circumferences
(CM) we can see the different pattern in the data which are fairly well distributed throughout the two
different gender group observed. Both groups are increasing in

Conclusion: