Assessing body fat changes during moderate weight loss with anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance

Summary Background/objectives: Monitoring changes in total fat mass and abdominal adiposity are important in understanding the impact of different types of weight loss interventions on health risks. Our objective was to assess the usefulness of anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in predicting fat mass changes during moderate weight loss. Subjects/methods: Fat mass changes were assessed in 34 overweight adults (24 females, 10 males) after a 12-week supervised weight loss induced by caloric restriction (−30% of requirement) using BIA and DXA. Agreement between BIA and DXA measurements was assessed by Bland—Altman plots. Linear regression modeling was used to predict body and truncal fat mass from anthropometric measures. Results: Diet intervention resulted in a significant decrease in body weight (−7.86 ± 2.87 kg), body mass index (BMI −2.69 ± 0.98 kg/m 2 ), total body fat (−5.22 ± 2.32 kg), truncal fat (−2.80 ± 1.94 kg) and waist circumference (−5.52 ± 3.57 cm). BMI and body weight were highly correlated with body fat (0.83 and 0.92 in females and 0.94 and 0.92 in males, respectively) and truncal fat (0.75 and 0.87 in females; 0.90 and 0.84 in males, respectively) during weight loss. Waist