Phys Lab 10

Body Assessment and Nutrition Analysis

Rosemarie Caigoy

Kin 4312

Lab 12:00

Fall 2007

INTRODUCTION

Body composition is the proportion of fat and muscle in our body and serves an important role in our society for many reasons. Not only do people care about how they look, but the amount of fat one has can affect physical performance and can extremely affect health so in some cases assessing body composition is necessary. Fitness centers, athletic training facilities, and weight loss programs are all examples of where body composition would be measured. Knowing the percent body fat a person has serves as the most important role in body assessment, because large fat percentages attributes to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease.

The human body uses fat for various roles. It is an insulator of nerves, a storage place for vitamins, and most importantly, fat is the most economical energy storage. The amount of energy stored in fat is twice the amount stored in carbohydrates and protein. Fat can be divided into two categories: storage fat and essential fat. Essential fat is fat that our body needs in order to continue living and can be found around vital organs like the heart, liver, kidneys, within our central nervous system and other various tissues in our body. It accounts for approximately 2-5% total body weight for the theoretical referenced male and 12% for the referenced female. The other type of fat is storage fat which can be found underneath the skin, within the muscles, and in between muscles. This type of fats accounts for 12% for the referenced male, and 15% for the referenced female. There has been much speculation about the amount of “healthy body fat percentage” but most can agree that is fewer than 20% for men, and 16-25% for woman (King, 2007).

The most accurate way to test the amount of fat a person has is only through ways of analysis with their...