Body Composition Analysis

Overview

Body composition is a method of describing what the body is made of. It includes fat, protein, minerals and body water. It also describes weight more accurately than BMI. Body composition analysis can accurately show changes in fat mass, muscle mass, and body fat percentage.

What Facts?

Process of examining the human body to determine the percentage of body fat compared to muscle tissue.” A BCA is capable of revealing how healthy an individual’s body is, and is a popular resource for trainers, coaches, medical professionals, and researchers alike.

Relevance

There are a ton of benefits to doing a BCA, now that it’s surpassed the outdated Body Mass Index (BMI). After all, there’s more to being healthy than losing weight—there are also important factors like increasing physical activity and improving your ratio of muscle to fat. Body composition is used to describe the percentages of fat, bone, water and muscle in human bodies. Because muscular tissue takes up less space in the body than fat tissue, body composition, as well as weight, determines leanness. Two people of the same sex and body weight may look completely different because they have a different body composition.

What Causes?

Too much fat is a serious health risk. Problems such as hypertension, elevated blood lipids (fats and cholesterol), diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, respiratory dysfunction, gallbladder disease, and a myriad of other health problems are all related to obesity. The ongoing epidemic of obesity in children and adults has highlighted the importance of knowing a person’s body fat for short-term and long-term health. An important part of understanding a user’s health is differentiating between what is healthy and what is not, especially when it comes to fat. It’s common to assume that having as little fat as possible is healthy.

How to Identify?

BCA will be able to tell you your body fat percentage, muscle mass, fat mass, body water, etc. There are many ways to determine your body composition. Some are quick and easy, but provide basic information only. Some are lengthy and expensive, and require the assistance of a trained technician to administer a test.

Skinfold Callipers
Hydrostatic Weighing
Air Displacement Plethysmography
Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA)
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

What Symptoms?

A healthy balance between fat and muscle is vital for health and wellness throughout life. Scientific evidence shows that a healthy body composition will increase your lifespan; reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, insulin resistance, etc.; increase energy levels, and improve self-esteem

Complications of Obesity
Complications of Low Body Fat
Complications of Low Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)

What to Do?

Focus on the percentage of body fat you have at your weight. At InBody, we call this PBF (percent body fat). There is no consensus on what the best body fat level for health (the amount of fat storage that maximizes health by minimizing risk for adverse health states/conditions) is for the general population. The normal body fat range provided by In Body is set at 10-20% for males (15% as ideal) and 18-28% for females (23% as ideal).