Saturday 30 June 2012

Body Composition - Casandra Ong

The Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis:

The bioelectric impedance device measures the resistance of the body tissues, through the flow of a small electrical signal. The person being measured should not be in contact with any insulators of electricity, with legs aparts and arms away from the body. Some BI machines require a pair of electrodes, that are worn on the hands and wrists, and another pair worn on ankles and foot. Other BI machines only require the person to stand on two foot plates.

As BI measures the resistance of the body tissues, the proportion of body fat can be calculated as the current flows more easily through the parts of the body that are composed mostly of water, such as blood, urine and muscle, than it does through bone, fat or air. It is also possible to predict how much body fat a person has by combining the BI results with other factors such as height, weight, gender, fitness level and age.

Preferred Method:
This method is portable, easily accessible, simple to perform and can be done at home with the required equipment.

Body Impedance Analysis - Michelle Dapito

Why is this method my favourite?

It is very cheap and easy to find compared to other methods as this feature is common in many of today's at-home digital scales. Weight is calculated automatically along with body fat content in less than a minute. Also, no special training or skill is required for this method.


Bioelectrial Impedance Analysis (BIA) - Stacey

How it works: 
BIA measures the impedance or resistance to the signal as it travels through the water that is found in muscle and fat. The more muscle a person has, the more water their body can hold. The greater the amount of water in a person's body, the easier it is for the current to pass through it. The more fat, the more resistance to the current.


Advantages:
- Easy to use
- Portable 
- Relatively low cost 


Disadvantages:
- Less accurate than those used clinically or in nutritional and medical practice
- Tend to under-read body fat percentage


Why is it my preferred method?
It is not very costly and very accessible. It provides a quick and much less invasive choice of assessing body composition as the subject is only required to expose only the back of the wrist and the hand and foot to get results. Compared to the hydrostatic underwater weighing method which is gold standard test, this test is much more accessible and cheaper as the hydrostatic underwater weighing method is rare and are mostly available to athletes and for scientific research.

Monday 25 June 2012

Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) - Lee YuChong (S3-08)


Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA)


It is an enhanced version of the x-ray, and is considered one of the best ways to measure body composition. It is a multi purpose machine that can also be used to check for bone density, which may lead to health risks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSL8AbwVuK4&feature=related

Skin fold Measurements - Roy Chua (S3-08)

Measuring skin folds is a method of estimating body fat that requires the use of a trained pincher, a skin fold caliper, a measuring tape as well as marker. Measuring skin folds only require a select few parts of the body, namely the triceps, pectoral, subscapula, midaxilla, abdomen, suprailiac and the quadriceps.

This is done by having the pincher only pinch the skin and fat of these areas without holding onto any muscle. The measuring tape and marker are used in this process to help locate the area to pinch, some places even requiring to pinch at certain angles. Afterwards the skin fold caliper is used to measure the thickness of the skin fold in millimetres. The thickness is then measured a few more times and then averaged to be accurate. These values would then be used in a formula, which varies depending on the person, to measure the percent of fat in the body.

This is an example of measuring skin folds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qRoISff5Cs

Source: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/fitnessevalandassessment/a/Skinfold-Test.htm

Tuesday 19 June 2012

reminder to post the method/ machine of your preference for body composition and why

Thank you for the FEW who have posted your preferred method/ machine of body composition. for the REST, please do post your preference before Term 3 starts again. Enjoy the rest your holidays. Thank you.

Friday 15 June 2012

Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Arthur Lee S308

So sorry for the late post.

Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m_RUVrxhew

The video explains the procedure of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in detail.
It is a radiology medical imaging technique that is pain free and non invasive. It's detailed body images that can be from any plane allows for visualization of the structure and function of the body. This in turn allows accurate measurements of body tissue composition. The whole procedure uses an MRI scanner for the images

Advantages: Non intrusive and painless

Disadvantages: Limited use as the equipment and the analysis is expensive

Source : http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/magnetic-resonance-imaging.htm