BPK 142 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Biceps, Body Water, Abdominal Cavity

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Biomedical Physio & Kines
• Course: BPK 142
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Direct methods - chemical analysis of human cadavers. Indirect methods - noninvasive techniques used on living persons: height - weight tables. Desirable weight with regard to the lowest death rates is predicted from tables that have been developed by insurance actuaries. Criticisms: (1) these tables do not consider body composition. (2) most of the data in the 1983 metropolitan life insurance height-weight tables comes from white, middle-class, u. s. adults age 25 to 59 years. This is not a representative sample of the general north american population. (3) no accepted method has been devised for determining frame size: body density and volume measurements. Body density will vary with the amount of body fat. Use underwater weighing or volumetry to measure body volume. In recent years the uww technique has begun to be replaced by air- displacement plethysmography (bod pod method) where the subject is immersed not in water but in a closed air-filled chamber (plethysmograph).