l 
KINESIOLOGIASLOVENICA 1995; 2 (1): 33-35 33 
AMOUNT OF BODY FAT IN THE BODY 
STRUCTURE OF STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY 
OF PHYSIW EDUCATION IN ZAGREB 
Marieta Mišigoi-
Durakovic* 
Jelka Gošllik-Oreb* * 
DELEŽ MAŠČOBE V TELESNI STRUfflRI 
ŠTUDENTOV FAKULTETE ZA TELESNO 
KULTURO V ZAGREBU 
ABSTRACT 
In the sample of 405 male students (201 students of 
the Faculty of Physical Education and 204 students 
of other University of Zagreb faculties) the amount 
and percentage of body fat were investigated usi ng 
anthropometry and the generalised equation by 
Jackson and Pollock. 
The results have shown that Physical Education stu-
dents have lower relative and absolute body fat 
values already at the very beginning of their univer-
sity education. It is possible to conclude that male 
students of physical education belong to a popula-
tion quite different from that of students of the other 
faculties in regard to the analysed characteristics. 
Keywords: bodystructure, fa t, comparison, students 
• zavod za kineziološku antropologiju, fakultet za fizičku kulturu 
Sveučilišta u Zagrebu 
• •Katedra za tjelesnu i zdravstvenu kulturu, Filozofski fakultet Sveuči­
lišta u Zagrebu 
IZVLEČEK 
Cilj analize je bil ugotoviti količino telesne maščobe 
ter udeležbo maščobne komponente v skupni 
telesni teži pri študentih prvega letnika študija na ra-
zličnih faku ltetah Univerze v Zagrebu. Izpeljano je 
bilo antropometrično merjenje s posebnim oziram 
na dimenzije podkožnega maščobnega tkiva ter 
odstotne udeležbe "rezervne" maščobe v telesni 
strukturi študentov. Vzorec so predstavljali 204 štu-
dentje Fakultete za telesno kulturo in 201 študent 
drugih fakultet Univerze v Zagrebu. 
Rezultati so pokazali, da imajo študentje Fakultete 
za telesno kulturo že na začetku študija manj pod-
kožnega maščobnega tkiva. Izračunani odstotek 
telesne maščobe v sestavi telesa (15,4%) je nižji pri 
študentih Fakultete za telesno kulturo kot pri štu-
dentih drugih fakultet (17,7%). Brez dvoma gre za 
že pri samem vpisu selekcionirano populacijo štu-
dentov, ki ima manjšo količino "rezervne" tolšče in 
bolj razvito "nemaščobno" maso. Takšna sestava 
telesa daje prednost pri izvajanju večine motoričnih 
nalog. 
Ključne besede: telesna struktura, maščevje, primer-
java, študentje 
34 
Marjeta Mišigoj-Durakovič, Jelka Gošnik-Oreb 
AMOUNTOF BODY FAT IN THE BODY STRUCTURE OF STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN ZAGREB 
INTRODUCTION 
Even if researchers paid quite a lot of attention to the 
morphologic status and body composition of the stu-
dent population, the data was mainly obtained on 
selected sam ples of this population, for example stu-
dents involved in some sport activities (Walsh et al.; 
1984, Siders et al.; 1991 ). Very seldom were these 
biologic characteristics stud ied on the non-selected 
student population (Katch and McArdle; 1973, 
Momirovic et al.; 1969). Specially deficientare lon-
gitudinal monitoring of the final formation of mor-
phologic characteristics for young adults. 
Today, a special meaning is given to the determina-
tion of body composition in anthropological popu-
lational and epidemiological analyses. This is due to 
the ever i ncreasing correlation between a more than 
normal percentage of the fatty component in the 
body structure and increased arterial blood pressure, 
hypercholesteromia, diabetes - a risk factor for the 
development of cardiovascular diseases. It should 
be superfluous by now to stress the negative influ-
ence of a too great amount of the so-called "reserve" 
fat in performing many motor tasks. 
The determination of the fatty component in the 
body with the percentage of body fat is therefore 
very important in anthropometric studies of the mor-
phologic status. Even if many methods for the deter-
mination of body composition exist, of various pre-
cision, reliability, measuring costs, ease of use etc., 
the most often used method in large analyses is the 
anthropometric method. This method offers suffi-
cientprecision, is simple to use for a practised mea-
surer, is cheap and suitable also for field use. From 
the numerous number of published formulae for the 
determination of the percentage of body fat, based 
on anthropometry, the preference today goes toge-
neralised regression equations. The mostoften used 
are those of Jakson and Pollock (1985). 
The purpose of this research, which is a part of a 
greater longitudinal study of the morphologic and 
functional-physiologic characteristics of the students 
of the University of Zagreb (the scientific project 5-
10-111 of the Ministry for Science, Technology and 
lnformatics of the Republic of Croatia), isto show the 
amount of body fat and the percentage of the fatty 
component in the body structure of students of the 
firstyear at various faculties of the university. Of spe-
dal interest to us is the existence of a possible diffe-
rence between students of the Faculty of Physical 
Education and the other faculties of the University 
of Zagreb in the space of measures of subcutaneous 
fat and the percentage of the "reserve" fat in body 
structure al ready at the start of stud ies. 
METHODS 
The measured sample comprised of 405 students of 
the first year of the University of Zagreb, of these 204 
were students of the Faculty of Physical Education 
and 201 students of the other faculties of the uni-
versity. 
Of the 21 anthropometric measures taken in the 
framework of the above-mentioned four year pro-
ject, the following anthropometric variables were 
used in this study: body height (cm), body weight 
(kg), skinfold-back (mm), skinfold-upper arm (mm), 
skinfold-lower arm (mm), skinfold-chest (mm), skin-
fold-belly (mm), skinfold-suprail. (mm), skinfold-
lower leg (mm). 
The measurement of the skin-folds was performed 
according to the proposals of Jackson and Pollock 
(1985) in order to be able to compute the body com-
position as proposed by the authors. Ali the skin-
folds were measured three times. The measures 
were taken by two experienced measurers. 
On the basi s of the body height and body weight the 
i ndex of body mass was computed (body mass/body 
height2). Using three skin-folds (upper arm, chest 
and back) the body density was computed using the 
Jakson and Pollock method (1985), then a correc-
tion of the "John Buli" calliperwas performed and at 
the end the percentage of body fat according to the 
equation of Siri (Siri, 1956) determined. 
The basic statistical parameters were computed 
using descriptive statistics and the significance of the 
differences between the two groups tested w ith the 
Student t-test. 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
In comparison with the resultsof the research on the 
anthropometric status of Croatian students in 1966 
(Momirovic etal., 1969) it is obvious that today's stu-
dents are higher and heavier, have higher values of 
skin-folds, except for currentstudents of the Faculty 
of Physical Education, who have lower values of the 
lower-legskin-fold. This described difference can be 
ascribed to the phenomenon of biologic accelera-
tion. 
Table 1 shows the basic statistical indicators of the 
used variables, separately for the students of the 
Faculty of Physical Education (FPE) and the students 
of the other faculties. We have found thatstudents of 
FPE are quite heavier than the students of the other 
faculties of the University of Zagreb. The results 
 
Marjeta Mišigo1-Durakovič, Jelka Gošnik-Oreb 
AMOUNTOF BODY FAT IN THE BODY STRUCTURE OF STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN ZAGREB 35 
show, however, that no significantdifference exists in 
body height. Also, the va lue of the index of body 
mass is higher for FPE students. 
Table 1. Comparison of the two groups of students 
Group 1 Group 2 Difference 
Variable Mean St.dev. Mean St. dev. t- test 
Bodyheight 180.0 6.5 180.7 6.6 -1 .14 
Bodyweight 74.8 8.4 72.5 9.3 2.57" 
Skinfold-back 9.0 2.6 10.3 3.0 -2.66·· 
Skinfold-upper arm 8.7 3.3 10.4 3.6 .4_02••· 
Skinfold-lower arm S.S 1.5 5.6 2.6 -0.47 
Skinfold-chest S.S 2.1 6.3 2.5 -2.16· 
Skinfold-belly 10.2 4.3 13.9 s.s -6.58 ... 
Skinfold-suprail. 6.1 2.4 7.8 3.8 .3.72--· 
Skinfold-lower leg 6.8 3.0 9.3 4.8 -6.69··· 
Body weight index 23.1 2.3 22.2 2.5 3.82••· 
%ofbodyfat 15.4 3.2 17.7 5.1 -3.13 ... 
Legend: Group 1 = FPE, Group 2 = other faculties •• • = 0.001, 
•• = 0.01, • = O.OS statistical significance 
However, such data do not say much, especially in 
connection of the possible morphological "suitable-
ness" for performing various motor tasks. The sur-
plus bodyweightcan be the resultof an excessof the 
"reserve" body fat, which would make it ballast in 
the execution of most of the motor tasks. On the 
other hand, it can also be the result of the develop-
ment of the skeleton and muscles, being a distinct 
advantage in solving some motor tasks. Therefore it 
is imperative to analyse this different body composi-
tion, specially the percentage of the fatty component 
in the gross body weight. The students of FPE have 
markedly lower values in all skin-folds, except that 
on the lower arm. Also, the percentage of subcuta-
neous fat in the body structure is significantly lower 
for FPE students, their average is 15.4% (11 .5 kg), the 
average of the other students 17.7% (12.8 kg). In 
comparison with the known normative values of the 
percentage of body fat accord i ng to age and gender, 
the obtained values- specially for the FPE students 
-are placed at the level of average values (Lohman, 
1987). 
CONCLUSION 
The differences in the values of the various skin-folds 
and the percentage of body fat between the students 
of the Faculty of Physical Education and the students 
of the other faculties of the University of Zagreb are 
without doubt the basis of the expected differences 
in the ability to perform various motor tasks. 
lnequalities, seen already in the first year, speak in 
favour of the fact that students of the Faculty of 
Physical Education are chosen according to the 
amount of "reserve" fat- bal last body mass through 
their execution of the great majority of motor tasks. 
REFERENCES 
1. Jackson AS, Pollock ML. Practical assessment of body com-
position. The Physician and Sports Medicine 1985; 5: 76-90 
2. Lohman TG. The use of skinfold to estimate body fatness on 
children and youth. JOPERD 1987; 98-102 
3. Katch FI, McArdle WD. Prediction of bod
11
density from sim-
ple anthropometric measurements in co lege-age men and 
women. Human Biology1973; 45: 445-454 
4. Momirovic K. etal. Faktorska struktura antropometrijskih vari-
abli (Factor structure of anthropometric variables). Zagreb: 
Institut za kineziologiju, 1969 
5. Siders WA, Bolonchink WW, Lukaski, HC. Effects of partici-
pation in a collegiate sport season on body composition. J. 
Sports Med Fitness 1991 ; 4: 571-567 
6. Walsh FK, Heyward VH, Schau CG. Estimation of bodycom-
position of female intercollegiate basketball players. The 
Physician and Sports Medicine 1984; 11 : 74- 89