Original Article

Obesity (2007) 15, 85–92; doi:10.1038/oby.2007.510

Bioelectrical Impedance vs. Four-compartment Model to Assess Body Fat Change in Overweight Adults*

Laura E. Chouinard*, Dale A. Schoeller†, Abigail C. Watras†, R. Randall Clark†, Rachel N. Close† and Andrea C. Buchholz*

  1. *Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
  2. †Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

Correspondence: Andrea C. Buchholz Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road E, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. E-mail: abuchhol@uoguelph.ca

*The costs of publication of this article were defrayed, in part, by the payment of page charges. This article must, therefore, be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Received 9 March 2006; Revised  00; Accepted 12 September 2006.

Top

Abstract

Objective:

 

The Tanita TBF-305 body fat analyzer is marketed for home and clinical use and is based on the principles of leg-to-leg bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Few studies have investigated the ability of leg-to-leg BIA to detect change in percentage fat mass (%FM) over time. Our objective was to determine the ability of leg-to-leg BIA vs. the four-compartment (4C) model to detect small changes in %FM in overweight adults.

Research Methods and Procedures:

 

Thirty-eight overweight adults (BMI, 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m2; age, 18 to 44 years; 31 women) participated in a 6-month, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a nutritional supplement. Body composition was measured at 0 and 6 months using the Tanita TBF-305 body fat analyzer [using equations derived by the manufacturer (%FMT-Man) and by Jebb et al. (%FMT-Jebb)] and the 4C model (%FM4C).

Results:

 

Subjects in the experimental group lost 0.9%FM4C (p = 0.03), a loss that did not reach significance using leg-to-leg BIA (0.6%FMT-Man, p = 0.151; 0.6%FMT-Jebb, p = 0.144). We observed large standard deviations (SDs) in the mean difference in %FM between the 4C model and the TanitaManufacturer (2.5%) and TanitaJebb (2.2%). Ten subjects fell outside plusminus1 SD of the mean differences at 0 and 6 months; those individuals were younger and shorter than those within plusminus1 SD.

Discussion:

 

Leg-to-leg BIA performed reasonably well in predicting decreases in %FM in this group of overweight adults but resulted in wide SDs vs. %FM4C in individuals. Cross-sectional determinations of %FM of overweight individuals using leg-to-leg BIA should be interpreted with caution.

Keywords:

body composition, Tanita, DXA, densitometry, conjugated linoleic acid

Extra navigation

.
ADVERTISEMENT