Assessment of fat-free mass in female athletes: Relationship among skinfold measurements, bioelectrical impedance analysis, and underwater weighing technique

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Exerc Sci > Volume 15(4); 2006 > Article

Exercise Science 2006;15(4): 357-364.

김현수¹, 김난수²

¹서울과학기술대학교
²부산가톨릭대학교

Assessment of fat-free mass in female athletes: Relationship among skinfold measurements, bioelectrical impedance analysis, and underwater weighing technique

ABSTRACT

Kim, H.S., Kim, N.S. Assessment of fat-free mass in female athletes. Exercise Science. 15(4): 357-363, 2006. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the differences in the body composition estimate of moderately trained female athletes (n=43, mean±SD, age: 21.4±2.8, height: 164.9±4.3 cm, body weight: 60.1±6.0 kg) by three different methods: underwater weighing (UW), bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA) and skinfolds (SF). Subject exercise regularly at least two hours per day, four days per week. FFM was determined by UW taken to represent the reference standard, and measurements of SF and BIA were performed. There were significant differences for estimated fat-free mass (FFM) between BIA (45.3±4.7 kg) and SF (47.6±4.5 kg), and UW (48.3±5.2 kg), Significant correlations were found for FFM between UW and BIA (r = 0.93, P<0.001), and between UW and SF (r = 0.95, P<0.001). The standard errors of estimate for FFM with UW were 3.5 kg for BIA and 2.1 kg for SF. Also Bland-Altman comparison among the estimates indicated wide differences between methods. This study suggest that SF should be considered as the preferred field method of estimating the FFM of moderately trained female athletes because of its greater individual precision than hand-to-foot BIA method. Although the BIA is simple and inexpensive method, it should be recommended as an alternative to the SF method only when trained skinfold technicians are not available.

Key words: athletes, Bio-electrical impedance analysis, Skinfold, Underwater weighing, Fat-free mass