What is Body Composition Testing?
Body composition testing provides measurements that allow clients to look beyond their weight and discover precisely how much muscle, fat, lean mass, and water they are made of. Rightfully, access to these key body composition measures lessens the focus on traditional factors like weight and BMI that can be outdated and invalid, if not harmful, to a client’s overall wellness.
How Does it Benefit Clients?
Receiving precise, in-depth, and real-time body composition measures is invaluable as it allows clients to see clearly and accurately what the specific makeup of their bodies is at any given time. Additionally, all measurements are compared to targets/standards specific to each client’s unique profile (height, age, gender, weight). This enables clients to clearly understand their initial composition and measure their exact progress going forward.
Ongoing body composition testing harnesses the value of results to inform successful treatment and exercise routines. This process uncovers what strategies work best for each client and allows them to steadily hone in on a formula that most effectively sets them on a path toward their goals.
How Does it Work?
The unit we employ is an InBody scale, which uses a patented and sophisticated form of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) that produces highly accurate and repeatable results. In general, BIA sends low-level currents through the body and, based on the speed at which they travel through different tissues, provides detailed body composition measurements.
It uses the same fundamental technology of an at-home personal body fat scale. However, the InBody scale is far more advanced and operates using eight electrodes in contact with both hands and feet at three low-level frequencies, and measures the entire body, not using any empirical estimations (a process that uses factors like age, gender, height, weight, and ethnicity to estimate composition). It is due to this advanced-level technology that InBody results are within a 1% margin compared to the hospital-grade DEXA scan, which is the gold standard.
What Does it Measure?
Measured components include:
- Skeletal muscle mass
- Body fat mass
- Body fat percentage
- Lean body mass
- Resting metabolic rate
- Visceral fat
- Dry lean mass
- Body water balance
Additionally, a segmental analysis is provided, allowing each client to further compare the compositions of different body compartments, such as – arm vs arm, leg vs leg, upper body vs lower body, trunk vs arms vs legs.
The Benefits of Regular Body Composition Testing
Body composition testing can help a wide range of clients overcome physical obstacles and reach their goals. The evidence is extremely clear: as body composition improves, factors such as function, performance, and longevity increase, while outcomes such as pain, risk of chronic disease, and the likelihood of injury/dysfunction decrease.
Improvements in body composition have a direct and robust positive effect on a range of clients. Some good examples include those:
- Seeking to lose weight/body fat.
- Engaged in resistance training for increased strength and muscle mass.
- Focused on reducing or managing chronic pain.
- Training for improved performance in sport, recreation, work, or general function.
- Striving to recover from an injury or physical dysfunction, e.g., lower back pain, broken bones, muscle strains, joint replacement, shoulder dysfunction, sprained or torn ligaments, and neck pain/postural issues.
- Seeking to promote health and longevity through the aging process.
- Motivated to maintain independence and reduce the risk of falls/injury.
- Recovering from or managing disease or illness, e.g., arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.
What Sort of Impact Does it Really Have?
Simply put, this advanced-level body composition testing removes the guesswork often associated with exercise regimens and the pursuit of physical health and wellness goals. With the clarity and precision that modern science brings to the table, clients can be confident that their efforts will yield the desired results. From this foundation, clients are often extremely dedicated and motivated to improve their health; the transformations are often remarkable.
Sunshine Coast Health Centre and Georgia Strait Women’s Clinic are world-class treatment centres for addiction and mental health. We take an approach that recognizes the importance of the physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of individuals in treatment and recovery. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use or mental health, please give us a call.
