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Body Composition, Energy Expenditure and Physical Activity

Variations in truncal body circumferences affect fat mass quantification with bioimpedance analysis

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 66, pages 196–200 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To test the hypothesis that variations in trunk circumferences influence the accuracy of bioimpedance analysis (BIA) for assessment of percent fat mass (%FM).

Subjects and Methods:

%FM was predicted with BIA, and compared with air-displacement plethysmography (ADP) in a small sample of 35 overweight (OW), 21 normal weight and 8 underweight volunteers. Waist and hip circumferences were assessed, and 15 of the OW subjects were measured before and after weight reduction.

Results:

BIA and ADP provided similar cross-sectional estimates of group mean %FM (28.9±10.0 and 31.3±13.0%, respectively). However, within individuals, there were large between-method differences (DiffBIA−ADP) ranging from −13 to +13 %FM. Furthermore, we found a systematic bias of BIA related to the degree of adiposity. Consequently, %FM and fat mass loss during weight reduction in OW were underestimated with BIA when compared with ADP. Waist and hip circumferences were inversely associated with resistance (R) and reactance (P<0.01), and with DiffBIA−ADP (P<0.001). In women, the variability in hip circumference explained 76%, and in men, the variability in waist circumference explained 59% of DiffBIA−ADP.

Conclusion:

Resistance changes associated with variations in trunk circumferences decrease resistance, and therefore impair the accuracy of BIA to assess %FM.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anke Strauss and Gritt Stoffels for their support during the weight reduction program. The German Obesity Network of Competence (Collaborative Project ADIPOSETARGET, 01GI0830) supported the study, which was a joint project between Charité University Medicine (Berlin, Germany), Metanomics GmbH (Berlin, Germany) and Hannover Medical School. The Federal Ministry of Education and research (BMBF-0313868) also supported this work, as did the Commission of the European Communities (Collaborative Project ADAPT, Contract No. HEALTH-F2-2008-201100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Franz-Volhard Clinical Research Center at the Experimental & Clinical Research Center, Charité University Medicine Berlin and Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany

    V Haas, S Haufe, P Kast, S Wiesner, J Böhnke & M Boschmann

  2. Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    V Haas, S Engeli & J Jordan

  3. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Clinic for Internal Medicine, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    T Hofmann & A Riedl

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  1. V Haas
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  2. S Engeli
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Correspondence to V Haas.

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Haas, V., Engeli, S., Hofmann, T. et al. Variations in truncal body circumferences affect fat mass quantification with bioimpedance analysis. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 196–200 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.154

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