Estimation of body fat in young women

Abstract

The body density of 50 healthy young women was determined by underwater weighing, and five skin-fold thicknesses and five girths were measured on each subject. The mean body density was 1.0467 g/ml (sd ± 0.0122), corresponding to 20.06 ± 4.63% by weight of fat in the body by the formula of Keys and Brozcaronek or 22.91 ± 5.58% by the formula of Siri. The mean specific gravity at water temperature 37.5 C was 1.0537 (sd ± 0.0122), corresponding to 22.13 ± 7.08% fat by the formula of Rathbun and Pace. The skin-fold measurement that showed the highest correlation with a composite criterion of skin folds was that over the iliac crest (r = +.92). The best prediction of body density was from skin-fold measurements over the iliac crest and back of arm, which gave a multiple correlation of –.74. Submitted on October 9, 1961