Original Article

International Journal of Obesity (2007) 31, 756–762. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803475; published online 24 October 2006

Validity of the leg-to-leg bioimpedance to estimate changes in body fat during weight loss and regain in overweight women: a comparison with multi-compartment models

S A Jebb1, M Siervo1, P R Murgatroyd2, S Evans1, G Frühbeck3 and A M Prentice4

  1. 1MRC Human Nutrition Research, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Fulbourn, Cambridge, UK
  2. 2Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  3. 3Department of Endocrinology, Clínica Universitaria de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
  4. 4MRC International Nutrition Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Correspondence: Dr SA Jebb, MRC Human Nutrition Research, Head of Nutrition and Health Research MRC, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Fulbourn Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB1 9NL, UK. E-mail: susan.jebb@mrc-hnr.cam.ac.uk

Received 2 March 2006; Revised 2 August 2006; Accepted 13 September 2006; Published online 24 October 2006.

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Abstract

Objectives:

 

To investigate changes in body composition and the validity of the leg-to-leg bioimpedance (LTL) method to measure body fat during active weight loss (WL) and weight regain (WR).

Design:

 

Longitudinal, 12-week weight loss intervention (3.3–3.8 MJ/day) and subsequent follow-up at 1 year.

Subjects:

 

Fifty-eight adult women aged between 24 and 65 years (mean age: 46.8plusminus8.9 years) and with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to25 kg/m2 (mean BMI: 31.6plusminus2.5 kg/m2, range=26.0–48.2 kg/m2) participated in the study.

Measurements:

 

Fat mass (FM) was measured at baseline, 12 weeks, 24 weeks and 52 weeks using three- and four-compartment (4-C) models, air displacement plethysmography (ADP), deuterium dilution – total body water (TBW), dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), skinfold thickness (SFT), tetrapolar bioelectrical impedance analysis (T-BIA) and LTL.

Results:

 

At the end of the weight loss programme, subjects lost 9.9plusminus3.5 kg weight (P<0.001) and 7.6plusminus0.5 kg fat (P<0.001) but after 1 year they had regained 4.9plusminus3.7 kg of weight and 3.7plusminus2.9 kg of fat. The 4-C model showed that FM and TBW accounted for 76.2 and 23.6% of the loss in body mass and 81.8 and 17.7% of the tissue accrued during weight regain, respectively. The estimate of body fat change by LTL relative to multi-compartment models (WLbiasplusminus2s.d.=0.51plusminus3.26 kg; WRbiasplusminus2s.d.=-0.25plusminus2.30 kg) was similar to ADP, DXA and TBW in both phases but it was better than T-BIA (WLbiasplusminus2s.d.=0.17plusminus7.90 kg; WRbiasplusminus2s.d.=-0.29plusminus7.59 kg) and skinfold thickness (WLbiasplusminus2s.d.=2.68plusminus6.68 kg; WRbiasplusminus2s.d.=-0.84plusminus3.80 kg).

Conclusions:

 

Weight loss and regain were associated with minimal changes in lean tissue as measured using multi-compartment models. The LTL system is a useful method to measure body composition changes during clinical weight management programmes.

Keywords:

leg-to-leg bioimpedance, weight loss, weight gain, body composition, multi-compartment models, fat mass, humans

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