Appropriate Values of Adiposity and Lean Body Mass Indices to Detect Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Asian Indians

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the gender-specific appropriate values of direct measurements of adiposity and lean body mass in Asian Indians. METHODS: Data was collected cross-sectionally in 168 healthy urban Asian Indian individuals. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and anthropometry were used to measure various body composition and fat distribution parameters. Blood pressure, serum lipids, fasting blood glucose, and 2-h glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test were used to identify the cardiovascular risk factors. Subjects were classified according to the presence of two or more of these cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS: Appropriate cutoff values for total body fat (%), fat mass (kg), total lean mass (%), lean mass (kg), and fat free mass (kg) were 25.5, 15.1, 73.7, 46.3, and 48.8 for males and 38.0, 20.3, 59.0, 32.6, and 34.8 for females. Corresponding values for fat arm (%), fat mass arm (kg), fat leg (%), fat mass leg (kg), fat trunk (%), and fat mass trunk (kg) were 19.8, 1.4, 21.9, 4.1, 30.1, and 8.8 for males and 43.3, 3.1, 38.9, 6.9, 38.5, and 9.5 for females. Stepwise logistic regression analysis confirmed the relatively strong and independent association of fat mass trunk in men and fat mass arm in women with the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Gender-specific cutoffs of direct indices of adiposity and lean body mass are presented in this article, which could be used for clinical and research purpose to detect cardiovascular risk and for categorizing obesity and truncal adiposity in urban Asian Indians.