Relationships between body roundness with body fat and visceral adipose tissue emerging from a new geometrical model

• DOI: 10.1002/oby.20408
• Publication Date: 2013-03-21T11:58:55Z
• Authors: Diana M. Thomas; Carl Bredlau; Anja Bosy-Westphal; Manfred Mueller; Wei Shen; Dympna Gallagher; Yuna Maeda; Andrew McDougall; Courtney M. Peterson; Eric Ravussin; Steven B. Heymsfield
• Keywords: Adult; Male; 2. Zero hunger; Somatotypes; Intra-Abdominal Fat; Middle Aged; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Models, Biological; Article; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; Absorptiometry, Photon; 0302 clinical medicine; Adipose Tissue; Health Status Indicators; Humans; Body Weights and Measures; Female; Waist Circumference; Adiposity; Aged

ObjectiveTo develop a new geometrically meaningful index that combines height, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC) and relate this index to total and visceral body fat.Design and MethodsSubject data were pooled from three databases that contained demographic, anthropometric, dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) measured fat mass, and magnetic resonance imaging measured visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume. Two elliptical models of the human body were developed. Body roundness was calculated from the model using eccentricity.ResultsA body roundness index (BRI) was derived to quantify the roundness of an individual's body shape in a height‐independent manner. Body roundness slightly improved predictions of % body fat and % VAT compared to the traditional metrics of body mass index (BMI), WC, or HC. On this basis, ranges of healthy body roundness were determined based on previously established age‐dependent population ranges of % body fat.ConclusionsBody roundness index, a new shape measure, is a predictor of % body fat and % VAT and can be applied as a visual tool for health status evaluations.