Essay: Skinfold Measurement Technique For Body Fat Percentage.

Research Study

Topic: Evaluation Of Skinfold Thickness In Triceps For Body Fatpercentage

Skinfold measurement technique has been used as a fat percentage measurement for a long period of time. This technique is used for the measurement of body fat percentages in many people (Chenet al. 2018). People are aware of the fact that the triceps are a major site of fat storage. In other words, it can be said that this site of fat storage, plays a major role in increasing the body fat and makes the triceps appear loose also (Babuet al. 2021). Therefore, the use of triceps site for the measurement of skinfold and its relationship with the body fat percentage can be stated to be justified.

The current experimental research study will be focussed on the determination of body fat percentage by measuring the skinfold thickness of right-hand triceps. A singe hand-based measurement is used for this experiment. In other words, it can be said that the use of this technique is specifically justified for a solo researcher and has also increased the speed of the experiment process. This is the overall aim of the experiment (Burns, Fu and Constantino 2019). However, the aim of this investigation is to measure skinfold thickness of right hand triceps and to find out its relationship with the body fat in both genders.

There are two hypotheses for the experiment. The hypotheses are given below.

H1 (Alternate hypothesis) - Skinfold thickness of right hand triceps is dependent on the body fat of an individual. This is the alternate hypothesis of the experiment.

H0 (Null hypothesis) - Skinfold thickness of right-hand triceps is not dependent on the body fat of an individual. This is the null hypothesis of the experiment.

The young adults to middle aged population of community was selected. Fifty-four participants were selected for this research study. Both male and females were selected for the experimental study. There were 10 different ethnicities associated with the participants chosen for the research study. They were – White, Mixed, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Other Asian, Black Caribbean, Black African, Chinese and finally other ethnic groups (Jayawardenaet al. 2018).

For the experiment, the shoes as well as socks were removed for weight as well as height measurements and finally, they were also used for BIA tests. The higher was specifically taken to the nearest mm using the specific scales which were provided. These measurements were specifically taken in every case. Using the Tanita BIA, researchers can enter the height and stepping of BIA with their feet correctly placed on metal plates. Data was then collected and further examined on Excel as well as the mean value of the skinfold measurements.

Every manual error was targeted for prevention in the experimental method, which could have created alterations in the results section or the study outcomes. However, since the aim was to check whether SKT of triceps measurement is an effective indicator of body fat percentage, male and female based comparative analysis was not performed.

Regression table showing the relationship between Triceps thickness and Body fat percentage

Table 1: Regression statistics

Experiment Methodology

SUMMARY OUTPUT
Regression Statistics
Multiple R	0.738767
R Square	0.545777
Adjusted R Square	0.536507
Standard Error	5.053383
Observations	51
ANOVA
	df	SS	MS	F	Significance F
Regression	1	1503.508	1503.508	58.87641	6.06E-10
Residual	49	1251.297	25.53668
Total	50	2754.806
	Coefficients	Standard Error	t Stat	P-value	Lower 95%	Upper 95%	Lower 95.0%	Upper 95.0%
Intercept	-2.30357	2.177558	-1.05787	0.295302	-6.67954	2.072392	-6.67954	2.072392
X Variable 1	0.764749	0.099666	7.673096	6.06E-10	0.564462	0.965036	0.564462	0.965036

Table 2: Demographic profiles of the study participants

Gender	Number of participants	Percentage	Average age	Average heights
F	21	38.90%	29.62	165.2
M	33	61.10%	28	158.1

Graphical representation of the change in body fat percentage with triceps thickness

 

Figure 1 Relationship between B/A body fat percentage and triceps skinfold

Figure one shows the relationship between the Triceps thickness and the body fat percentage. The R²can be stated to be 0.53 and thus the R value is 0.72 showing a strong positive linear correlation.

Source: MS Excel

The results have shown that there is a moderately strong correlation between the triceps thickness and the body fat percentage. The same is evident from the correlation coefficient or the R value – 0.72. This value is near to 0.99, or the correlation coefficient associated with the strongest association. As the triceps thickness in terms of skinfold has been found to have been increased, it can be said that the body fat percentage also increases. The increase has been found to be associated with the fact that, triceps fat percentage also increases, which increases the skin fold of the triceps and therefore it is a sign of increase in body weight also.

As per the findings of the research study, there is a very strong relationship between Triceps skinfold thickness and body fat percentage. Associated with the same, it can be said that the experimental hypothesis, that the body fat percentage is dependent on triceps skinfold thickness (González-Ruízet al. 2018). A strong association was observed in the form of R value as 0.73. Higher the triceps fat percentage, higher will be skin fold and in turn it will be a symptom of high percentage of body fat. SKT has already been shown to be a very good method for analysing the body fat percentage for the human beings.

As shown by Ruiz et al.(2019), body fat condition can be estimated by the thickness of triceps. Therefore, the thickness of the triceps and its skin fold have been found to be a major indicator of body fat. Kogureet al. (2020) showed that skinfold thickness is a major indicator of body fat percentage among Brazilian women. The methods of evaluation have been found to be effective in showing the strong correlation between body fat percentage and skinfold thickness. However, this study has not shown any specific consideration of triceps thickness measurement, as an indicator of body fat percentage. The observed R value for this research was 0.78.

From the above findings, the standard error of the collected data has been observed to be high. This means that the deviation is also high and some of the values are far away from the mean value of the collected data (Jayawardenaet al. 2019). The use of skin-fold measuring technique has been found to be specifically effective for increasing the chances of correct analysis of the body fat percentages. Research studies have shown that this method is very much effective in the measurement of body fat percentage (Henryet al. 2019).Previous research studies have shown that the body fat increases; the skin folds also increase at various body parts (Tekus et al., 2018). In other words, it can be said that this research study has also proved the fact that triceps are one of the best positions for the analysis of the fact that whether the fat content of a human body is high or not. Since the findings of the present research study findings have matched with the findings associated with the previous research studies, it can be stated that the findings of the present research study can be justified.

Results and Analysis

The current experimental research investigation measures the skinfold thickness of the right-hand triceps in order to determine body fat percentage. This experiment can be said to have employed a single hand-based measurement (Ye?il, Köse and Özdemir 2020). To put it another way, the employment of this approach is especially warranted for a solo researcher, and it has also sped up the experimentation procedure. This is the experiment's overarching goal. However, it should be noted that the purpose of this study is to determine the skinfold thickness of the right-hand triceps and its connection to body fat.

However, the R value was not observed to be fully 0.99. This issue came from either human based error in the data collection process, or the actual lack of relationships a very strong relationship between the two variables. The future experiments can focus on every other aspect of the study apart from the analysis done for this research study. The future research studies should focus on finding the relationship between the two variables, depending on the two genders. A comparative analysis can be done in the future studies.

Conclusion

The assessment of triceps skinfold has been found to be avital component for the measurement of body fat percentage. Associated with the present research study, it can be said that triceps skinfold measurement was successful in the identification of body fat percentage of human beings. The study has proved that triceps skinfold measurement and body fat percentage are specifically effective in establishing the relationship between triceps skinfold and body fat percentage. The conduction of tests in the early morning was found to give beneficial results only. The determination of triceps as the best site can only be done on the basis of the results, observed for the other sites also. The research study has been found to show that the alternate hypothesis is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. The aim and objectives of the research study were well addressed and one of the hypotheses was selected for acceptance. Future research studies should focus on the determination of best single site, which needs to be explored by future researchers for increasing the reliability of SFT measurements.

References

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