Physiology & Behavior, Vol. 25, pp. 313-315. Pergamon Press and Brain Research Publ., 1980.

Printed in the U.S.A.

Does the Lee Obesity Index

Measure General Obesity?
D. N. S T E P H E N S
Department of Child Health, The Medical School, Manchester M13 9PT, England

R e c e i v e d 13 M a r c h 1980

STEPHENS, D. N. Does the Lee obesity index measure general obesity? PHYSIOL. BEHAV. 25(2) 313-315, 1980.-
Obesity, defined as increased percentage body fat, was correlated with the Lee index (weight °WNaso-Anal Length) in
three groups of adult rats. One group had been fed laboratory chow and served as controls. Another group had been made
obese by feeding a palatable diet, and the third group made lean by a period of undernutrition during their suckling period.
Although the three groups differed significantly in percentage body fat, there were no significant differences in their Lee
indices. Further, the Lee index did not correlate significantly with percentage fat in any of the groups. It is postulated that
the reason for the lack of correlation between obesity and the Lee index in intact rats is that length is a relatively weak
predictor of fat free mass in animals of a similar age and nutritional history.

Lee index Obesity Body fat Dietary obesity Early life undernutrition

A C O M M O N problem in studies of body weight regulation is
in providing an estimate of body fat content without having
to perform a laborious chemical extraction of the carcass.
Not only is such an extraction time consuming and unpleas-
ant to carry out, but necessitates killing the experimental
animal. Many investigators have attempted to overcome the
difficulty by expressing the relative obesity of the animal in
terms of the Lee Index (weight°.Wnaso-anal length), which is
often quoted as a reliable indicator of obesity (e.g., [3,8]).
Little evidence is available on this point, however, and the
index, was never intended by Lee as a measure of obesity,
but rather, as an indication of whether the animal was in a
healthy state of nutrition [5].
The use of the Lee Index as an obesity index stems from
the work of Szentagothai, Flerko, Mess and Halasz [12] and
was subsequently taken up by Bernardis and his colleagues
[1,2]. While these workers established that the index was
significantly correlated with body fat content in rats given
ventromedial hypothalamic lesions either as adults or wean-
lings, they emphasised that significant correlations did not
exist in their sham-operated control groups. Furthermore, a
recent study of obesity in mice questioned the use of the Lee
index even in animals made obese by chemical (gold thioglu-
cose) lesions of the hypothalamus [6]. From these studies, it
is premature to use the index as a general measure of obesity
and, therefore, it seemed useful to compare the Lee index
with measured fat content in rats whose body fat was varied
by means other than hypothalamic lesions.
METHOD
Subjects
The rats were of the Lister hooded strain, and were the
relevant groups from a study reported elsewhere [ 10]. Litters
were removed from well fed mothers at birth, and cross fos-
tered to other well fed mothers, or to mothers fed daily with
a food ration equal to half that eaten by ad lib fed controls.
This latter procedure is known to produce rats which are
both smaller in size, and which have a reduced body fat
content in adulthood [9,13]. At 21 days of age, all the
mothers were given free access to food, and the pups were
weaned at 30 days. At weaning, a Lean Group (n= 11) was
provided by taking one male pup from each of the under-
nourished litters, and this group was then fed standard lab-
oratory diet (PMD, RHM Labsure, England) for 100 days.
Two male pups were taken from each of the well fed litters,
and one from each litter allocated to a Control Group (n= 11)
which was also fed ad lib for 100 days. The other well fed pup
was allocated to a Fat Group (n= 11) and fed, in addition to
the standard diet, a palatable and varied 'supermarket' diet
for 100 days. The supermarket diet consisted of various
foods such as sausage, banana, cake, cereals, biscuits and
canned pet foods [10,11].
Procedure
At 130 days of age, body water was estimated by the
tritium dilution method and body fat calculated [7] using
equations determined in our laboratory relating fat content to
body water content [10]. Rothwell and Stock [7] reported
that fat estimated by this means shows a good correlation
(r=0.868; p<0.001) with fat measured by chloroform-
methanol extraction, and in this laboratory a correlation o f
r=0.950 (p<0.001) between the two measures has been
found. At the same time, the rats were weighed and naso-
anal lengths (NAL) measured under ether anaesthesia.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 shows that rats fed the palatable diet were fatter,
and rats undernourished in early life leaner than the controls.
Nevertheless, there were no significant differences between
the values of the Lee index between the experimental and
control groups. Further, there was no significant correlation
between the Lee index and percentage body fat content

C o p y r i g h t © 1980 B r a i n R e s e a r c h P u b l i c a t i o n s Inc.--0031-9384/80/080313-03502.00/0
 314 STEPHENS

TABLE 1
SPEARMAN RANK-ORDER CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS, r, AND THEIR ASSOCIATED
PROBABILITIES FOR VARIOUS PARAMETERS CORRELATED WITH BODY FAT EXPRESSED
AS A PERCENTAGE OF BODY WEIGHT

Control group Fat group Lean group Overall

%Fat 18.4 ± 0.9 26.5 ± 1.5¢ 13.6 ± 0.8:~ 19.5 _+ 1.1

Lee lndex 340.4 _+ 4.1 345.0 ± 2.2 332.6 ± 4.0 339.3 ± 2.2
r .150 .518 - . 100 .432
p NS <0.1 NS <0.05
Weight (g) 436.1 ± 1 1 . 1 523.1 ± 16.35 309.0 _+ 7.7~; 419.6 ± 17.1
r - . 114 .539 .109 .758
p NS d0.1 NS <0.001
Length(mm) 223.1 + 2.9 233.4 ± 2.2t 202.2 _+2.0~: 219.5 ± 2.7
r -.018 .092 .191 .706
p NS NS NS <0.001
Weight/length 2.00 ± 0.05 2.19 ± 0.07* 1.53 _+ 0.035 1.91 _+ 0.06
r .032 .618 -.063 .726
p NS <0.05 NS <0.001

*different from corresponding value for control group, p <0.05.

~p<0.01.
+p<0.001.

within a n y of t h e individual g r o u p s , a n d o n l y a w e a k c o r r e l a - TABLE 2

tion w h e n all t h r e e g r o u p s w e r e c o n s i d e r e d t o g e t h e r . F o r t h e SPEARMAN RANK ORDER CORRELATIONS BETWEEN NASO-ANAL
p u r p o s e o f d i s t i n g u i s h i n g b e t w e e n the t h r e e g r o u p s , b o d y LENGTH, AND FAT FREE MASS FOR GROUPS OF RATS MADE
w e i g h t o r b o d y length, i.e. N A L , w e r e o f m o r e v a l u e t h a n OBESE OR LEAN
the L e e index. T h u s , e m p i r i c a l l y , the L e e i n d e x is not a
reliable i n d i c a t o r o f o b e s i t y . n r p
W h y s h o u l d this b e ? O n e p o s s i b l e e x p l a n a t i o n o f the
w e a k c o r r e l a t i o n s b e t w e e n L e e i n d e x a n d p e r c e n t a g e fat is Control group Il .785 <0.01
t h a t rats o f a g i v e n n a s o - a n a l l e n g t h m i g h t v a r y in fat free Fat group 11 .679 <0.05
m a s s ( F F M ) . T h e t e r m for L e e i n d e x c a n b e w r i t t e n Lean group 11 .409 NS
Overall 33 .907 < 0.001

Lee index = ( F a t + F F M ) °'~3

NAL
p e c t e d to reflect the obesity. R a t s with v e n t r o m e d i a l lesions
a p p e a r to m e e t this criterion [1,2] a n d t h e i n d e x is, t h e r e f o r e ,
or (Lee index) '~ = Fat + FFM
(NAL) 3 (NAL) 3 useful in c o m p a r i n g g r o u p s o f v e n t r o m e d i a l o b e s e a n d con-
trol rats. E v e n in this case, h o w e v e r , it s e e m s likely t h a t the
s i m p l e r ratio o f weight d i v i d e d b y length w o u l d b e as good a n
i n d i c a t i o n o f o b e s i t y as w o u l d the index. All s u c h m e a s u r e s ,
Thus, Lee index = 3q, Fat + FFM
of c o u r s e , will be m i s l e a d i n g w h e n the e x p e r i m e n t a l treat-
(NAL) 3 (NAL) 3
m e n t gives rise to fat a c c u m u l a t i o n w h i c h is n o t a s s o c i a t e d
with i n c r e a s e d b o d y weight [4]. T h u s , if c o n c l u s i o n s are to
F r o m this, it follows t h a t t h e L e e i n d e x will v a r y as m u c h be d r a w n as to a t r e a t m e n t ' s effects on o b e s i t y , t h e r e is
d u e to c h a n g e s in F F M as to c h a n g e s in fat, a n d for the i n d e x a l w a y s d a n g e r in failing to m e a s u r e fat, e i t h e r directly by
to b e a g o o d m e a s u r e o f o b e s i t y , t h e t e r m F F M / ( N A L ) 3 m u s t e x t r a c t i o n , or, w h e r e it is i m p o r t a n t to m a i n t a i n a n i n t a c t
be relatively i n v a r i a b l e c o m p a r e d to the t e r m F a t / ( N A L ) 3. a n i m a l , b y s o m e indirect m e t h o d such as t h a t u s e d in the
T~ble 2 s h o w s t h a t l e n g t h is a p o o r p r e d i c t o r o f F F M w i t h i n p r e s e n t report.
r~ ~ .~ s a m e age a n d n u t r i t i o n a l h i s t o r y , a c c o u n t i n g for,
at best, only h a l f t h e v a r i a n c e , i.e., F F M / N A L 3 is n o t con- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
stant. T h u s , it is not surprising t h a t the L e e i n d e x d o e s not
This work was supported by grants to Professor John Dobbing
c o r r e l a t e well with p e r c e n t a g e b o d y fat w i t h i n a g r o u p o f rats from the Medical Research Council and from the National Fund for
s h o w i n g a fair a m o u n t o f v a r i a t i o n in F F M . Research into Crippling Diseases. I thank Professor Dobbing, Dr. J.
W h e n the p r o p o r t i o n o f w e i g h t o c c u p i e d b y fat is high L. Smart and especially Mr. C. J. Whittaker for helpful discussion,
r e l a t i v e to F F M , h o w e v e r , t h e n t h e v a r i a t i o n in F F M will and Mrs. G. Bourdillon for assistance with the body water meas-
a s s u m e less i m p o r t a n c e , a n d t h e i n d e x w o u l d t h e n b e ex- urements.
LEE INDEX AND OBESITY
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