Do the new Metropolitan Life Insurance weight-height tables correctly assess body frame and body fat relationships?

The 1983 Metropolitan weight-height tables include elbow breadth as a measure of frame size. Such tables assume that frame measures provide an estimate of fat free mass and have little or no associations with body fat. These assumptions were evaluated in 437 Canadian adults for six frame measures by their associations with total body measures of fat and fat free mass. All six frame measures were similarly correlated with fat free mass, even when associations with height were taken into account. Wrist and ankle breadths were not associated with total body fat, while shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee breadths were so associated. Thus wrist and ankle breadths satisfy the assumptions inherent in the frame-weight-height tables better than elbow breadth and the other frame measures investigated.