VARIABODY
COMPOSITION: MEASUREMENT
METHODOLOGIES AND PROBLEMS
Caner
Açıkada
Hacettepe
University, School of Sport Sciences and Technology Beytepe, Ankara,
Turkey
Body composition is often
questioned in athletes as in normal population at large. Fat body mass
and fat free mass are two important components of body composition.
Importance of body composition in athlete population is important in
evaluation of the effectiveness of training, the level of training, the
form, in weight category sports (wrestling, judo, box, weight lifting,
etc.) to determine the competitive weight and the method of body weight
control and loss.
There are direct and indirect methods of
body composition determination. Direct methods are used on human and
animal cadavers with some chemical approaches in order to determine the
amount of different tissues in the body, and, therefore, they are not
used on living bodies. Among indirect methods hydrostatic weighing,
anthropometric methods, bioelectric impedance methods, infrared
interactance, and some part or whole body counter methods such as DEXA.
Direct methods have high validity, and are used to validate indirect
methods. In athlete population more frequently indirect methods are
used. Indirect methods are developed by using a reference method, and
besides direct methods, some indirect methods are also used as
reference methods. It is important to notice that
the population used as reference during the process of
development of the indirect methods, can be the source of error. Most
frequently used methods in field situation in determining body
composition are anthropometric and bioelectric impedance methods. The
main source of error in these methods may arise from non athlete
reference population in the development of the methodology. In
heterogenic population the range of standard error of estimation (SEE)
may be high. High SEE may be a limiting factor in monitoring the
training effect in athlete population. In bioelectric impedance methods
the time of the day during the measurement, state of hydration of the
subject are the most important sources of error. In anthropometric
methods the differences in the determination of the measurement site,
the reliability of the measuring instruments, expertise level of the
measurer, test hour of the repeating tests are the main sources of
error.
