Body Composition

Analyzing body composition can help to provide valuable information about a person’s overall current health as well as how that changes overtime. In this series, students hear from a registered dietitian as she discusses a variety of ways that are available to analyze and assess a patient’s body composition and how physics plays an important role in doing so. Homework and lab activities focus on the following topics:

buoyancy
free body diagrams
universal gas law
AC circuits
impedance
x-rays
photons

underwater weighing
DEXA
BIA
calorimetry
air displacement
plethysmography

In the video series above, Registered Dietitian Kate Haas provides students with a brief overview of the many different ways to look at body composition as well as discusses the different models and when to use them. She explains how a variety of techniques are used to assess body composition and how their use may vary based on cost, accuracy, and availability of electricity.