BODY COMPOSITION
When you step on the scale, you see the total sum of these parts.
- Is my weight healthy?
- Is the weight loss I’m seeing from fat loss or muscle loss?
- Is the weight gain I see from gaining muscle or gaining fat?
- If I haven’t lost any weight, is it because I’m gaining muscle while losing fat?
Getting a better frame of reference of your body composition is the best way to understand what your current weight means for your health.
Body composition can also be a valuable tool to treat/predict future health problems.
- Our muscle mass and bone mass tend to decline with age, contributing to increased frailty, falls, and risk of fracture.
- Improving body composition also improves blood sugar control and blood cholesterol, allowing you to stay off medications and stay healthy.
Real Life Examples:
If you are a 40-year-old woman with low-normal muscle mass and a low bone density for your age, then we can predict very low muscle mass (sarcopenia) and osteoporosis by the time you are 70 years old. But if your results at 40 years old motivates you to a lifelong practice of strength training, then you should see less decline and experience a more vibrant, functional life later on.
You can assess body composition through a variety of ways, but the most accurate version is on a DEXA machine, which we have here at our office. The DEXA machine uses a very small amount of radiation, similar to an x-ray, to give us valuable insights on your body’s ratio of fat to muscle to bone. And knowing this information allows your clinician to target medical recommendations on what you truly need to have a healthy life. For example, a 200lb man at 18% body fat has a much different health profile than a 200lb person with 48% body fat. And if you are working on lifestyle changes, you can repeat a body composition scan every 6 months to 1 year to see how these interventions are affecting your muscle growth, fat loss, and bone health!
Here’s a video of me walking you through a sample body composition report:
Here’s the body composition guide that comes with each body comp scan you get:
–> SAMPLE BODY COMPOSITION GUIDE
If you are interested in getting your own body composition scan, please call the front desk to set up an appointment. Each scan is $100 (if you are an Authentic Health program member, otherwise $125), and includes the body composition guide. If you have questions about your results, please contact your clinician to review it with you.