Antecedents:

The atherogenic indices are biochemical indicators that are usually related to body fat and the development of cardiometabolic diseases, which represent a serious problem in public health, not only because of the associated morbidity and mortality, but also due to the health costs involved, a situation that it is´nt alien in the military population.

Aim:

To determine if the body mass index in overweight colombian cadets is due to lean or fat mass and if it is related to atherogenic indices.

Materials and methods:

Descriptive - observational study, in overweight cadets, assessed in the center of physical culture research (CICFI) of the Military School of cadets “General José María Córdova”. For the analysis of the information the statistical package SPSS 24 was used, applying normality tests, descriptive statistics for normal behavior data and Pearson's correlation.

Results:

90 cadets with an average age of 22.0 ± 3.0 years and a body mass index of 27.3 ± 1.8 kg / m2, 58.0% men and 32.0% women were included. The pre-erogenous index was related to the BMI (r = 0,305 p = 0,02), the Castelli index was weakly related to the body mass index (r = 0,254 p = 0,05). In no group, the ratio of triglycerides was related to BMI.

Conclusions:

The atherogenic indices in overweight cadets are in normal ranges and have weak relations with the body mass index. Overweight is due to greater lean mass.