American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 5, 601-611, Copyright © 1957 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

A Formula for Estimating the Specific Gravity of the Human Body with a Consideration of Its Possible Uses

¹ From the Yale Nutrition Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Using basic data on height and weight provided by Behnke and associates who measured the specific gravity in 176 normal men, three equations have been developed by which the specific gravity of men may be calculated from height and weight data. It is believed that these equations give results precise enough to prove useful in physiology and medicine.

These equations have been tested by being successfully applied to data in the literature for the following groups: (a) individuals representing extremes of height and weight ("walking skeleton" type and extreme obesity); (b) 51 newborn male infants; (c) seven groups of "well-fed" American school children; (d) a group of "protein-deficient" children in Jamaica; (e) a group of eight Boy Scouts; (f) four groups of boys classified respectively as tall, abnormally thin, short, and fat; (g) a group of seven normal and three obese men in whom studies of bodily composition were made; and (h) a group of ten German soldiers repatriated from camps for war prisoners in Russia, whose bodily composition was studied before and after rehabilitation by suitable diet. Considerations important for proper interpretation of such calculated specific gravity values are discussed.

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