Reference Values for Body Composition and Anthropometric Measurements in Athletes
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of body composition in athletes, reference sex- and sport-specific body composition data are lacking. We aim to develop reference values for body composition and anthropometric measurements in athletes. METHODS: Body weight and height were measured in 898 athletes (264 female, 634 male), anthropometric variables were assessed in 798 athletes (240 female and 558 male), and in 481 athletes (142 female and 339 male) with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). A total of 21 different sports were represented. Reference percentiles (5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th) were calculated for each measured value, stratified by sex and sport. Because sample sizes within a sport were often very low for some outcomes, the percentiles were estimated using a parametric, empirical Bayesian framework that allowed sharing information across sports. RESULTS: We derived sex- and sport-specific reference percentiles for the following DXA outcomes: total (whole body scan) and regional (subtotal, trunk, and appendicular) bone mineral content, bone mineral density, absolute and percentage fat mass, fat-free mass, and lean soft tissue. Additionally, we derived reference percentiles for height-normalized indexes by dividing fat mass, fat-free mass, and appendicular lean soft tissue by height squared. We also derived sex- and sport-specific reference percentiles for the following anthropometry outcomes: weight, height, body mass index, sum of skinfold thicknesses (7 skinfolds, appendicular skinfolds, trunk skinfolds, arm skinfolds, and leg skinfolds), circumferences (hip, arm, midthigh, calf, and abdominal circumferences), and muscle circumferences (arm, thigh, and calf muscle circumferences). CONCLUSIONS: These reference percentiles will be a helpful tool for sports professionals, in both clinical and field settings, for body composition assessment in athletes.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Soccer players present different bioelectrical characteristics compared to other athletes.
“As result of these peculiarities, recent studies [24, 27] have shown that soccer players present different bioelectrical characteristics compared to other athletes [28] and this could make it necessary to develop dedicated predictive equations.”
From Athletic bioimpedance-based equations underestimate fat free mass components in male elite soccer players: development and validation of new soccer-specific predictive models (2023) · cites this paper as [28]
The Results tables (page not available) compare soccer players with athletes in other sports on body-composition and anthropometric measures. The Methods list weight, height, anthropometry and DXA, but the passages found when searching for bioelectrical impedance, resistance, reactance and phase angle do not address whether soccer players differ in bioelectrical characteristics. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing
R Core Team (2000) · doi:10.32614/r.manuals · Cited by 355,706 · see citing works
Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability.
Shrout, P. E., & Fleiss, J. L. (1979) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.86.2.420 · Cited by 23,433 · see citing works
(1998) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e565682010-001 · Cited by 9,452 · see citing works
American College of Sports Medicine position stand
Otis, C. L. (1997) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 4,407 · see citing works
Tanner, J. M. (1978) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 3,742 · see citing works
(2001) · Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research · doi:10.1111/j.1447-0756.2001.tb01222.x · Cited by 3,515 · see citing works
(1998) · PubMed · Cited by 2,737 · see citing works
Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects
(2014) · Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik · doi:10.1515/jwiet-2014-0117 · Cited by 2,481 · see citing works
(2007) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e318149f111 · Cited by 1,554 · see citing works
Nutrition and Athletic Performance
(2009) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e31890eb86 · Cited by 1,084 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Discussion Despite the recognized importance of body composition for athletic performance [1,2,3] and health.”
BackgroundDual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry Body Composition Reference Values from NHANES
Kelly, T. L., Wilson, K. E., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2009) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007038 · Cited by 1,028 · see citing works
Prevalence of sarcopenia and predictors of skeletal muscle mass in healthy, older men and women
Iannuzzi-Sucich, M., Prestwood, K. M., & Kenny, A. M. (2002) · The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences · doi:10.1093/gerona/57.12.m772 · Cited by 890 · cited 1× · see citing works
“[28,29] On the other hand, ALST divided by height(2) (ALSTI) has been suggested as a proxy index for sarcopenia.[30] It is expected that an athletic population, particularly those engaged in high intensity training, would present an increased skeletal mass compared with nonathletes.”
BackgroundLee, R. C., Wang, Z., Heo, M., Ross, R., Janssen, I., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2000) · The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/72.3.796 · Cited by 854 · see citing works
Heymsfield, S. B., McManus, C., Smith, J. L., Stevens, V. L., & Nixon, D. (1982) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/36.4.680 · Cited by 825 · see citing works
Appendicular skeletal muscle mass: measurement by dual-photon absorptiometry
Heymsfield, S. B., Smith, R. C., Aulet, M., Bensen, B., Lichtman, S. W., Wang, J., & Pierson, R. (1990) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/52.2.214 · Cited by 819 · see citing works
Roche, A. F., Heymsfield, S. B., & Lohman, T. G. (2005) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 743 · see citing works
The five-level model: a new approach to organizing body-composition research
Wang, Z., Pierson, R., & Heymsfield, S. (1992) · The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/56.1.19 · Cited by 729 · see citing works
Ackland, T. R., Lohman, T. G., Sundgot-Borgen, J., Maughan, R. J., Meyer, N. L., Stewart, A. D., & Müller, W. (2012) · Sports Medicine · doi:10.2165/11597140-000000000-00000 · Cited by 599 · cited 8× · see citing works
“Furthermore, caution is necessary when using this method on multiple occasions, perhaps no more than four times per year,[1] not only because of the cumulative radiation dose but also because the error of measurement in detecting small changes in body composition [33] may lead to misinterpretation of data.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialAmerican College of Sports Medicine position stand, rhe female athlete triad
Nattiv, A. (2007) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · Cited by 551 · see citing works
Tanner, J. M. (1962) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 544 · see citing works
Yeager, K. K., Agostini, R., Nattiv, A., & Drinkwater, B. L. (1993) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · Cited by 422 · see citing works
Sundgot-Borgen, J., Meyer, N. L., Lohman, T. G., Ackland, T. R., Maughan, R. J., Stewart, A. D., & Müller, W. (2013) · British Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-092966 · Cited by 368 · see citing works
Toombs, R. J., Ducher, G., Shepherd, J., & Souza, M. J. D. (2011) · Obesity · doi:10.1038/oby.2011.211 · Cited by 338 · see citing works
In vivo validation of whole body composition estimates from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
Prior, B. M., Cureton, K. J., Modlesky, C. M., Evans, E. M., Sloniger, M. A., Saunders, M., & Lewis, R. D. (1997) · Journal of Applied Physiology · doi:10.1152/jappl.1997.83.2.623 · Cited by 317 · see citing works
Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry: fat estimation errors due to variation in soft tissue hydration
Pietrobelli, A., Wang, Z., Formica, C., & Heymsfield, S. B. (1998) · American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism · doi:10.1152/ajpendo.1998.274.5.e808 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Scaling of human body composition to stature: new insights into body mass index
Heymsfield, S. B., Gallagher, D., Mayer, L., Beetsch, J. W., & Pietrobelli, A. (2007) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/86.1.82 · Cited by 208 · see citing works
Kim, J., Heshka, S., Gallagher, D., Kotler, D. P., Mayer, L., Albu, J., Shen, W., Freda, P. U., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2004) · Journal of Applied Physiology · doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00260.2004 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Moulton, C. J., Valentine, R. J., Layman, D. K., Devkota, S., Singletary, K. W., Wallig, M. A., & Donovan, S. M. (2010) · Nutrition & Metabolism · doi:10.1186/1743-7075-7-1 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Body Composition in Athletes: Assessment and Estimated Fatness
Malina, R. M. (2007) · Clinics in Sports Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.csm.2006.11.004 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Vicente‐Rodríguez, G., Ara, I., Pérez‐Gómez, J., Dorado, C., & Calbet, J. A. L. (2005) · British Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1136/bjsm.2004.014431 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Effects of an Entire Season on Physical Fitness in Elite Female Handball Players
Granados, C., Izquierdo, M., Courel‐Ibáñez, J., Ruesta, M., & Gorostiaga, E. M. (2008) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e31815b4905 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Body Composition and Power Changes in Elite Judo Athletes
Silva, A. M., Fields, D. A., Heymsfield, S. B., & Sardinha, L. B. (2010) · International Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1055/s-0030-1255115 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Self-citationSilva, A. M., Fields, D. A., Heymsfield, S. B., & Sardinha, L. B. (2011) · The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research · doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e3181fb3dfb · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Self-citationMuscularity and the density of the fat-free mass in athletes
Prior, B. M., Modlesky, C. M., Evans, E. M., Sloniger, M. A., Saunders, M. J., Lewis, R. D., & Cureton, K. J. (2001) · Journal of Applied Physiology · doi:10.1152/jappl.2001.90.4.1523 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Santos, D. A., Silva, A. M., Matias, C. N., Fields, D. A., Heymsfield, S. B., & Sardinha, L. B. (2010) · Nutrition & Metabolism · doi:10.1186/1743-7075-7-22 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Self-citationMüller, W., Horn, M., Fürhapter-Rieger, A., Kainz, P., Kröpfl, J. M., Maughan, R. J., & Ahammer, H. (2013) · British Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-092232 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Bellisari, A., & Roche, A. F. (2005) · doi:10.5040/9781492596950.ch-008 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
St‐Onge, M., Wang, Z., Horlick, M., Wang, J., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2004) · American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism · doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00361.2003 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Body fat measurement in adolescent athletes: multicompartment molecular model comparison.
Silva, A. M., Minderico, C. S., Teixeira, P. J., Pietrobelli, A., & Sardinha, L. B. (2006) · European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602405 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Body Composition and Performance
Högström, G., Pietilä, T., Nordström, P., et al. (2011) · The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research · doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e318237e8da · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Santos, D. A., Gobbo, L. A., Matias, C. N., Petróski, E. L., Gonçalves, E. M., Cyrino, E. S., Minderico, C. S., Sardinha, L. B., & Silva, A. M. (2012) · Journal of Sports Sciences · doi:10.1080/02640414.2012.734918 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Self-citationVariation in Body Composition Associated With Sex and Ethnicity
Malina, R. M. (2005) · doi:10.5040/9781492596950.ch-018 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Study of Body Composition: An Overview
Shen, W., St‐Onge, M., Wang, Z., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2005) · doi:10.5040/9781492596950.ch-001 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Midorikawa, T., Sekiguchi, O., Beekley, M. D., et al. (2007) · International Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1055/s-2006-924139 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Blood rheology and body composition as determinants of exercise performance in female rugby players
Brun, J. ‐., Varlet‐Marie, E., Cassan, D., et al. (2011) · Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation · doi:10.3233/ch-2011-1470 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [36]Marfell-Jones MJ (2001) The value of the skinfold - background, assumptions, cautions, and recommendations on taking and interpreting skinfold measurements. Proceedings of the Seoul International Sport Science Congress: 313–323.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Garvey, W. T., Mechanick, J. I., Brett, E. M., Garber, A. J., Hurley, D. L., Jastreboff, A. M., Nadolsky, K., Pessah-Pollack, R., & Plodkowski, R. (2016) · Endocrine Practice · doi:10.4158/ep161365.gl · Cited by 1,914 · see citing works
Thomas, D. T., Erdman, K. A., & Burke, L. M. (2016) · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · doi:10.1016/j.jand.2015.12.006 · Cited by 1,359 · see citing works
Nutrition and Athletic Performance
(2016) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0000000000000852 · Cited by 1,305 · see citing works
Shepherd, J. A., Ng, B. K., Sommer, M. J., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2017) · Bone · doi:10.1016/j.bone.2017.06.010 · Cited by 460 · see citing works
Heydenreich, J., Kayser, B., Schutz, Y., & Melzer, K. (2017) · Sports Medicine - Open · doi:10.1186/s40798-017-0076-1 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Structural and functional body components in athletic health and performance phenotypes
Silva, A. M. (2019) · European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1038/s41430-018-0321-9 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Self-citationMatias, C. N., Campa, F., Santos, D. A., Lukaski, H., Sardinha, L. B., & Silva, A. M. (2021) · International Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1055/a-1179-6236 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Self-citationDifferences between the sexes in athletes� body composition and lower limb bioimpedance values
Mascherini, G. (2017) · Muscles, Ligaments and Tendons Journal · doi:10.11138/mltj/2017.7.4.573 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Athlete or Non-athlete? This Is the Question in Body Composition
Campa, F., & Coratella, G. (2021) · Frontiers in Physiology · doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.814572 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Vaquero-Cristóbal, R., Albaladejo-Saura, M., Luna-Badachi, A. E., & Esparza-Ros, F. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17217777 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Campa, F., Bongiovanni, T., Rossi, A., Cerullo, G., Casolo, A., Martera, G., Trecroci, A., Moro, T., & Paoli, A. (2023) · Journal of Translational Medicine · doi:10.1186/s12967-023-04795-z · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“As result of these peculiarities, recent studies [24, 27] have shown that soccer players present different bioelectrical characteristics compared to other athletes [28] and this could make it necessary to develop dedicated predictive equations.”
Background
- Authors
- Santos, D. A., Dawson, J. A., Matias, C. N., Rocha, P. M., Minderico, C. S., Allison, D. B., Sardinha, L. B., & Silva, A. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
- Corresponding author
- Silva, Analiza M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-05-15
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- e97846
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4022746
- OpenAlex
- W1990455314
- Cited by
- 282
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 6.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/DES/098963/2008, SFRH/BD/46503/2008)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL072757)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P30DK056336, P30DK079626)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Body Composition Measurement Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Bone health and osteoporosis research
- Keywords
- body composition, reference percentiles, athletes, anthropometry, bone mineral content, bone mineral density, fat mass, fat-free mass, lean tissue, skinfold thickness, muscle circumference, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Body Composition, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reference Values, Absorptiometry, Photon, Young Adult, Athletes
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
