Interest in the relationships between body structure and function in physical activity has persisted for centuries. Body Composition: Health and Performance in Exercise and Sport advances understanding beyond simple descriptions of body physique and composition of athletes and fills gaps in our understanding of the important role of muscle, fat, and bone in facilitating physical performance and health in sports and physically demanding occupations. lt addresses basic, practical, and applied topics in body composition, performance, and health with comprehensive reviews organized in four logical parts: Body Composition Assessment; Physical Activity and Body Composition; Body Composition in Sports and Occupations; and Moderating Factors.

This book integrates state-of-the-art knowledge by international experts in the field and produces an evidence-based practical guide for a balanced understanding of the role and use of body composition assessment in physical performance and health for youth and adults. It also provides a needed link between the practice of body composition assessment and its application by members of public health advisory committees that develop national guidelines for diet, physical activity, and health. This book is suitable for students and professionals in sports nutrition, exercise science, kinesiology, and athletic training. Sport administrators and policy-makers for international and national sport federations and organizations, and national intercollegiate and scholastic federations, would also benefit from this book.

Henry C. Lukaski, PhD, is an adjunct professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Public Health Education, University of North Dakota. He took his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, and earned Master of Science and Doctoral degrees in physiology with a minor in nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University where he was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) pre-doctoral trainee in Human Biology and a research Collaborator at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was a post-doctoral research associate at the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center then served as Supervisory Research Physiologist, Research Leader and Assistant Center Director. He is and has been a member of numerous editorial boards of peer-review scientific journals in the fields of human nutrition, exercise science, sports nutrition, and applied physiology, has served as a member of NIH, Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, US Public Health Service program and grant review boards and advisor to the Food and Drug Administration, Institute of Medicine (Food and Nutrition Board Military Nutrition Committee), World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, National Collegiate Athletic Association, US and International Olympic Medical Committees, international scientific organizations, sports nutrition community, and the biomedical industry. He has authored more than 145 peer-reviewed research publications, 45 book chapters,160 abstracts and short communications, co-edited special issues of professional publications on body composition and sports nutrition, and made more than 240 invited presentations in the US, Europe, Central and South America. He is an international authority in the field of the interactions among diet and physical activity on body structure, function and health, and is recognized internationally as a leader in development and validation of methods for assessment of human body composition. Dr. Lukaski was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Sports Medicine, Human Biology Council and the Society of Nutrition for Latin America.