Somatotype, nutrition, and obesity.

Abstract:  The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the somatotype characteristics of the studied group and search for a relation between somatotype, obesity, and particular features of nutrition. METHODS: Somatotype after Health & Carter (1990), nutritional status according to Body mass index (BMI), and nutrition determined by food-frequency questionnaires. RESULTS: Over 94% of the subjects in this study were distributed into five somatotype categories: 51.6% endomorphic mesomorphs, 17.1% mesomorph-endomorphs , 16.7% mesomorphic endomorphs, 6.1% balanced mesomorphs, and 3.0% ectomorphic mesomorphs, with a pronounced sexual dimorphism. Males were distributed into five categories: over 65% were endomorphic mesomorphs, and above 40 years of age the mesomorphy increased. Females were distributed into three somatotype categories: up to and above 40 years of age over 44% were mesomorphic endomorphs. In the most common somatotype categories, 1 of 5 subjects (from 21.4% to 19.9%) had normal body mass (< 25 kg/m2), 4 of 5 subjects (from 34.2% to 52.6%) were overweight (> 25 kg/m2) or obese (> 30 kg/m2) kg/m2 (from 44.4% to 27.5%). In the remaining eight categories, all subjects had normal body mass. Hyperenergetic, sodium- and fat-excess nutrition had an especially unfavorable influence.