Relations between anthropometric data, age, obesity and nutrition

979 obese men and women (236 men and 743 women) as well as 341 normal-weight probands (149 men and 192 women) aged 18-59 were examined for nutritive, clinical, and anthropometric data. Nearly all of the anthropometric data investigated by us correlate with the increase of body weight. (height, breadth and depth of the chest, biacromial and bitrochanter breadth, height in the sitting position and height of trunk, measurement of skinfold thickness). Height of the body and height in sitting position, depth of the chest and weight behaviour were found age-dependent with men. The investigations proved the increase in body weight to be caused by an increase in body fat. Thus precise as possible knowledge about the individual body composition is an important factor for the assessment of the nutritional state. This enables an easier and more precise differentiation between overweight and degrees of obesity.