India, the second most populous country in the world, is now considered as an emerging economy. It is undergoing a major nutrition and lifestyle transition in recent days. Consequently, obesity has often been found paradoxically coexisting with under nutrition in different parts of the country. Adolescents are important future human resources and their health must be ensured. Because any negative health impact in childhood and adolescence eventually leads to an adult onset of chronic disease that in turn reduces life expectancy and quality of the life. As unhealthy body composition is an established risk factor for many non communicable diseases, identifying accurate ways to assess body composition, in particular body fat, is very important. Anthropometry, widely used traditional technique and impedance, a relatively new one are such examples of body composition measurement techniques. Present study has focused to find out the association, if any, between the values of body fat obtained from anthropometric and impedance techniques in Bengalee adolescent females receiving Bharatnatyam type of Indian classical dance training. It has been found that the trainee adolescent dancers have favorable body composition values. It has also been found that no significant difference (P > 0.05) exists between body fat values obtained from anthropometry and impedance method. Moreover a significant (P < 0.05) positive correlation (r=0.98) has been found between the body fat values obtained from the two techniques. Based on the relationship a new regression equation was developed and test retest validity was carried out.

Keywords: Body composition; Traditional method; Under nutrition; Overweight; Physical activity.