Research Article BMI and an Anthropometry-Based Estimate of Fat Mass Percentage Are Both Valid Discriminators of Cardiometabolic Risk

Copyright © 2013 Benno Krachler et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. To determine whether categories of obesity based on BMI and an anthropometry-based estimate of fat mass percentage (FM % equation) have similar discriminative ability for markers of cardiometabolic risk as measurements of FM % by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) or bioimpedance analysis (BIA). Design and Methods. A study of 40–79-year-old male (n = 205) and female (n = 388) Finns. Weight, height, blood pressure, triacylglycerols, HDL cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose were measured. Body composition was assessed byDXA and BIA and a FM%-equation. Results. For grade 1 hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and impaired fasting glucose>6.1 mmol/L, the categories of obesity as defined by BMI and the FM % equation had 1.9 % to 3.7%