WELLNESS AUTHOR
Jessica Tranchina, PT, DPT
INBODY SCANS 101 n The InBody Scan is a great tool to help you better understand your body composition and meet your personal health goals.
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Total Body Water, Dry Lean Mass, Body Fat Mass
nderstanding your body is crucial to maintaining your health. The InBody Scan, which uses bioelectrical impedance to measure our muscle and fat mass, is one of the ways we can get a better understanding of our body composition. The Scan is meant to answer questions like are you gaining muscle or losing fat, and from where do those numbers on the scale come? Though the DEXA Scan is the clinical “gold standard” for measuring fat, muscle and bone density, it can be expensive and not readily available. However, the InBody Scan has proven to be nearly as accurate, easier to schedule and inexpensive. It’s important to know how the InBody Scan works to sufficiently meet your health needs and see improvements over time.
DECEMBER 2021
Start with the information found at the top of the InBody results. The machine will measure total body water because fat doesn’t absorb water like muscle does. Therefore, the higher amount of skeletal muscle mass indicates the higher amount of body water, which shows the importance of hydration! This showcases how much muscle versus fat is in your body. It will sum your body fat, lean mass and total body water. This value should equal your total weight.
Body Composition Analysis
The body composition analysis compares you to your demographic. There are three categories on this chart – under, normal and over. These respectively indicate where you fall in relation to your demographic’s average body composition.
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