BACKGROUND Accurately estimating fat percentage is important for assessing health and determining treatment course. Methods of estimating body composition such as hydrostatic weighing or dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), however, can be expensive, require extensive operator training, and, in the case of hydrostatic weighing, be highly burdensome for patients. Our objective was to evaluate...

We investigated the effect of exercise training on body composition change in women. Nineteen Mexican-American and 18 Korean premenopausal overweight/obese women were randomized into one of the following groups: control, low-intensity training group (LI), and high-intensity training group (HI). Subjects completed 12 weeks of training at 50-56% maximal oxygen consumption (LI) or 65-70% maximal o...

BACKGROUND Body mass index (BMI) is widely accepted in determining obesity. Skinfold thickness measurements have been commonly used to determine percentage of body fat. HYPOTHESIS The authors hypothesize that because BMI does not measure fat directly but relies on body weight alone, a large percentage of athletic adolescents will be misclassified as obese by BMI. DESIGN Cross-sectional stud...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality of weight change (change in fat mass vs fat-free mass [FFM]), changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and frequencies of metabolic risk factors in adolescent females with obesity who either lost or gained weight following lifestyle treatment. STUDY DESIGN Fifty-eight girls (mean age = 13.0 ± 1.6 years; 77% black; mean body mass index = 36.5 ± 4.5 kg/m(2))...

BACKGROUND In maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, a larger body size is associated with better survival but a worse self-reported quality of life (QoL). It is not clear whether muscle mass or body fat confers the survival advantage. OBJECTIVE We hypothesized that both a low baseline body fat percentage and a loss of fat over time were independently associated with higher mortality but wi...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a cross-sectional scan as an alternative to the total body DXA scan for predicting the body composition of pigs in vivo. A total of 212 pigs (56 to 138 kg live body weight) were scanned by DXA. The DXA scans were analyzed for percentage fat and lean in the total body and in 14 cross-sections (57.6 mm wide): 5 in the front leg/thoracic region,...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop percentage of fat and waist circumference cut-points in prepubertal children with the intention of defining obesity associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES A cross-sectional analysis of 87 prepubertal children aged 4 to 11 years was used. Percentage of body fat was determined by DXA. Waist circumfere...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of body composition, especially distribution of body fat, and insulin resistance on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in obese children. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN One hundred obese children (66 boys, 34 girls) with (n=60) and without NAFLD (n=40) were assessed. Anthropometry, laboratory tests, abdominal ultras...

Alterations in the production of or the sensitivity to leptin, the protein encoded by the ob gene, cause obesity and diabetes in rodents. We evaluated the isolated relationship between leptin and insulin sensitivity in lean and obese humans. Three groups of subjects who were carefully matched for either insulin sensitivity (determined by the modified intravenous glucose tolerance test and minim...