There’s more to weight that just numbers on the scale. We all know muscle weighs more than fat so when you’re just looking at the numbers, it can be tough to get a true read. At Advanced Life Clinic as part of our whole body approach to weight loss and wellness, we can weigh in on what the numbers mean and design a custom program just for you.
Truly custom
At Advanced Life Clinic we use The Inbody 520 manufactured by GE and considered the gold standard in body composition analysis, or BCA. The InBody Body Composition Analyzer gives you a complete report on your BMI, fat percent, lean mass, body water percent and more. This information is essential for helping to design your customized weight loss and wellness program. Body Composition Analysis is part of all of our wellness and weight loss programs.
Why does BCA matter?
BCA is critically important for assessing a patient prior to starting a weight loss or wellness program. Your “weight” is just a number of your total mass. It really doesn’t tell us anything about how much water or muscle you may have.
Two women who both weigh 160 pounds can be very different if one has 35% body fat and the other has 20. The same weight loss program wouldn’t work for these two patients due to their different compositions.
We also continue analyzing patients after they begin a program to make sure they are not losing muscle mass and water (dehydration). This is especially important in women who tend to lose more muscle mass when dieting than men. Muscle loss is something we try very hard to avoid because it makes your metabolism go down and inhibits fat burning.
What can the InBody tell me?
The Inbody actually breaks your body into five areas; two arms, two legs and trunk and provides us with detailed information including how much muscle and fat you have in each area. This is an essential tool for as as we guide our patients to being happy and healthy. It allows us to pinpoint what areas they need to work on, if they need to build muscle in their arm, drink more water, etc.
Fighting fat
The computer also calculates how much fat you need to lose. Healthy fat percentages are 25% for women and 20% for men. This is another terrific tool for helping us truly customize the programs and deciding which approach is best for each individual patient. It also helps us decide how much weight a patient truly needs to lose to be healthy rather than just saying, lose 20 pounds. These details provide accurate assessments of progress and goals.
I do invite you to call us at anytime with questions about our weight loss and wellness programs. Shedding pounds can make you feel younger and look better; we’d love to help you on your journey to wellness.
Warmly,
Dr. DeGraaff and the staff at Advanced Life Clinic
