Assessment of body composition in the healthy adult

Information obtained from body composition assessment can provide a foundation for the development of weight-loss and exercise guidelines. The ideal method for assessing body composition in the clinical setting should be relatively inexpensive, as convenient as possible for the individual, reproducible and accurate, and helpful in evaluation considerations (Lohman, 1992). It appears that skinfold thickness measurements could have specific advantages in the clinical setting when compared to bioelectrical impedance and traditional methods of using height and weight. Ideally, body composition assessment should be an integral component of the physical examination of the healthy adult.