LAUSR

It is generally recognized that obesity is a heterogeneous state, in which individuals with obesity can have different underlying body compositions and, subsequently, differential health risks. Understanding the independent contributions of tissue types (adipose tissues, muscles, bones, etc.) to specific disease processes can provide etiologic insight and better tailored interventions; however, the current body composition analytic paradigm ignores the compositional nature of body composition data. This Perspective highlights the need for viewing body composition through a compositional data analytic (CoDA) lens.