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Lab Report : Body Composition

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Body Composition Lab Report Sidney Walters 010645001 Lab Techniques Fall 2016 Introduction Body composition measurement is a very useful tool when trying to access overall fitness of an individual. It is the measure of fat mass to non-fat mass (lean tissue). It is an important, but sometimes overlooked factor in overall fitness because individuals with high levels of body fat ( in particular when located centrally around the abdomen) have an increased risk of many different health problems, such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. All of these are serious health risks that can result in death. Unfortunately, these are becoming increasingly more common as the rate of obesity is climbing. Although these risk factors have some genetic predisposition, the majority of these factors are due to things such as poor diet choices and a sedentary lifestyle. There are many different ways to measure body composition. BMI is commonly used to assess weight relative to height. It is calculated by dividing body weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. It is usually pretty accurate in adults, but it not very accurate in populations such as pediatrics. (1) The most accessible and inexpensive method is through skin fold assessments. These can be done by measuring three, four, or seven specific sites of the body. It pinches the areas of the skin and measures the thickness of the fold for that site. A formula is then

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