Comparison in man of total body electrical conductivity and lean body mass derived from body density: Validation of a new body composition method

Abstract

This article reports a study in which total body electrical conductivity (TOBEC) measurements and lean body mass (LBM) estimated from hydrostatic weighing in human subjects were compared. The TOBEC method provides a new approach to assessment of human body composition that is based on the principle that the electrical conductivity of lean tissue is far greater than that of fat. In a sample of 32 men and women varying widely in age (20 to 53 years), body weight (45 to 155 kg), and adiposity (9.5 to 53.0% body fat), the TOBEC measurement was found to be extremely reliable ( r = 0.999) and to correlate highly with hydrostatically estimated LBM ( r = 0.903, P < 0.0001). When the TOBEC scores were transformed to provide a single variable; namely, the subject's height times the square root of the TOBEC score, a higher correlation with LBM was obtained ( r = 0.943). Taking gender into account further enhanced the prediction of LBM from TOBEC ( r = 0.951). These observations strongly reinforce the results of a previous investigation in which high correlations were found between TOBEC and both total body potassium and total body water. Accordingly, this new method promises to provide a useful technique for the evaluation of body composition that is at once simple, rapid, objective, and noninvasive.