Body composition in adolescents: measurements and metabolic aspects.

Introduction: Adolescence is a decisive period in human life in which important body composition changes occur. Increase of total body mass and its relative distribution are mainly related to gender and pubertal development.

Objective: This review explores the specific measurements that may be used in this age group to assess excess body fat and to define obesity and overweight.

Results: Identification of subjects at risk for adiposity requires simple anthropometric cutoffs for the screening of overweight and obesity. In this context, BMI criterion is the most frequently used but, in spite of its high sensitivity and specificity, an important number of adolescents classified as overweight or obese do not have really high adiposity (32.1% of females and 42% of males). Excess total body fat and intra-abdominal visceral fat are related to metabolic abnormalities that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Waist circumference seems to be the best simple anthropometric predictor for the screening of the metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents.

Conclusions: Early identification of adolescents at risk for adiposity and its related metabolic complications requires reliable, simple and specific measures of excess body fat for this age group.