With great interest, we read the article titled “Body Mass Index and Percentage of Body Fat as Indicators for Obesity in an Adolescent Athletic Population,” by William C. Etchison and colleagues. This study has merit, and the accomplishment of such a big study—with participation of about 34 000 athletes over a period of 18 years in 2 states—is commendable. However, we would like to bring up som...

Obesity is associated with alterations in the vitamin D endocrine system. Lower levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) in morbidly obese individuals may be secondary to an alteration in tissue distribution resulting from an increase in adipose mass. Therefore, morbidly obese individuals are expected to need higher doses of vitamin D supplementation than the general population. However, it...

objectives: adolescence is a period of life in which the individuals face many mental problems concerned with mental body image. obesity could be the cause of dissatisfaction and makes adolescents’ self-esteem to decrease. this study aimed to examine the adolescents’ satisfaction of their body image correlated to their self-esteem. materials and methods: in this cross-sectional study all of the...

Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to identify obesity. In this study, we determined how accurately BMI could determine body composition and identify obese from non-obese individuals. Fat-free mass and body fat were determined with bioelectrical impedance. Adiposity was calculated as body fat per body mass and as body fat divided by body height (m2). Obesity was defined as a BMI of at least...

BACKGROUND The nature of body-composition changes in HIV-associated weight loss is unclear. OBJECTIVE We examined the relation between the initial percentage of body fat and the composition of weight loss in men and women with HIV infection. DESIGN HIV-positive adults were seen at semiannual clinic visits, at which time weight, fat, and fat-free mass were determined. The unit of analysis wa...

BACKGROUND Although smokers tend to have a lower body-mass index than non-smokers, smoking may favour abdominal body fat accumulation. To our knowledge, no population-based studies have assessed the relationship between smoking and body fat composition. We assessed the association between cigarette smoking and waist circumference, body fat, and body-mass index. METHODS Height, weight, and wai...

ObjectiveTo evaluate bone mineral mass in adolescents with failure to thrive in relation to body composition.MethodsA case control study involving 126 adolescents (15 to 19 years), in final puberty maturation being 76 eutrophic and 50 with failure to thrive (genetic or constitutional delay of growth), of matching ages, gender and pubertal maturation. The weight, height and calculated Z score fo...

BACKGROUND The high prevalence of obesity (defined by body mass index) among children and adolescents in the United States and elsewhere has prompted increased attention to body fat in childhood and adolescence. OBJECTIVE This report provides smoothed estimates of major percentiles of percentage body fat for boys and girls aged 8-19 years in the United States. METHODS Percentage body fat wa...

BACKGROUND It has been well documented that obesity is closely associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Although body mass index (BMI) is the most frequently used method to assess overweightness and obesity, this method has been criticized because BMI does not always reflect true body fatness, which may be better evaluated by assessment of body fat and fat-free mass. The objective of this stu...