Body Composition in Amenorrheic Athletic Women

Excerpt

To the editor: The low estimations of body fat of 4% to 10% in eumenorrheic women runners reported by Marcus and associates (1) must be interpreted with caution. The weight for height reported for each of the "cyclic" runners is well above the threshold weight for height found necessary for regular cycles in nonathletic women (2). This threshold weight (2) represents about 22% fat of body weight, or a ratio of lean mass to fat of about 3.5 to 1. Normal women have about 26% to 28% fat at completion of growth compared to about 16% fat for men (3).