Beyond somatotype categories: composition-based clustering of body types in young adults.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Somatotype analysis classifies individuals into 13 categories based on unique combinations of the three principal components: endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy. This study aimed to examine sex-related differences and intra-category variability within somatotype classifications, and to characterize body composition patterns in the general population.

Methods

Anthropometric data were collected from 185 males and 156 females aged 18-40 years to estimate somatotype, fat mass index (FMI), and skeletal muscle index (SMI). Sex differences were evaluated with Hotelling's T² and chi-square tests, while within-category morphological dispersion was quantified as Euclidean distances from centroids. K-means clustering on FMI and SMI identified Low, Med

SUBMITTER: Campa F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12679298 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature