Estimations of body composition by various methods

Body composition was measured in 38 young men all of whom were overweight by standard height-weight tables. The techniques used were body volumetry, determination of total body water by tritium dilution, whole body 40K counting, and anthropometric measurements required for an equation by Wright and Wilmore, the biceps-height formula, and a complex anthropometric model. Body volumeter and total body water dilution results agreed closely. 40K counts gave lower means for the lean mass (higher means for fat mass and percent body fat), while the Wright-Wilmore equation and complex anthropometric model gave high mean values for lean mass (low means for fat mass and percent body fat). Among the five methods correlation coefficients ranged from 0.81 to 0.94 for lean body mass, from 0.74 to 0.89 for fat mass, and from 0.60 to 0.86 for percent body fat. Although all subjects were overweight, only six (16%) were obese.