To measure obesity, how to know if you’re fat, body mass index, waist circumference, body fat and indicators of obesity.
Instrumental methods of measurement of obesity
Anthropometric, based on the realization of body measurements.
- Weight and height.
- Measurement of skin folds, held exerting a fold compression of subcutaneous fat in a particular location.
- Measurement of perimeters or circumferences of the waist and of the hip. The measure of the average arm circumference is used for the assessment of the individual muscle mass.
- Measure the diameters of bone in the elbow or wrist that is used to define the “Constitution of the individual” that reflects the contribution of the skeletal proportions.
Electrical Conductance
- The bioelectrical impedance analysis, consistent in administering an electric current between two points of the body and measuring opposition to passage thereof, which depends on the composition of the current passing through the tissue. Quantification allows to know the percentage of body water, fat free mass and fat mass.
- Method of the total electrical conductivity, consistent introducing the individual in a coil in which generated an electromagnetic field that induces a current in the body, which acts as a conductive material. This conductivity is proportional to the fat-free mass.
- There are other techniques such as densitometry, absorptiometry with x-rays of dual-energy, MRI, CT or ultrasound that tend not to be used routinely.