[The 4-component model of body composition].

BACKGROUND: Given the importance of knowing the corporal composition according to the model of the four components (fat, mineral, fat free and aqueous) the same was calculated in 220 women and 130 men, considered as normal, between the ages of 15 and 49. METHODS: The corporal components were determined with double energy x-ray densitometry with the component corresponding to water being obtained from the fat free component, thereby evaluating the four principal parts of corporal composition. RESULTS: In the men all of the values except those of fat were greater than in the women (p less than 0.001), with the fat in the latter being (p less than 0.001). The values of mineral content demonstrated sexual differences in reaching of the peak of osseous mass and were maintained stable in women up to the age of 49. CONCLUSIONS: With regards to the mineral component, there is a sexual difference in achieving the maximum value. While the fat values in men are super-impossible to those referred in the literature for ther media and with other techniques they are not so in women, in whom superior values are observed leading to reanalysis of how the physical constitution, habits and way of life of women in this country may have repercussions in this sense.