Product Offering Alert - Inbody BIA Body Composition Scans

This post is more or a less a News Release, rather than my typical blog post format. In an effort to deliver the most relevant and beneficial products/services to my clients, I've recently acquired a new piece of equipment that I'm excited to share and offer to the public. A majority of this information has been pulled from the InBody Website.

First, we have to understand what the term "body composition" actually means. Body composition is used by health professionals to evaluate a person’s weight by breaking it down into its core components: fat, protein, minerals, and body water. It describes your healthy weight more accurately and provides a better glimpse into your overall health than traditional methods like BMI and weight. Body composition analysis can accurately show changes in fat mass, lean muscle mass, and body fat percentage.

InBody was founded as a start-up company in South Korea in 1996 by founder and CEO, Dr. Kichul Cha. Dr. Cha recognized that the available BIA devices were limited and faulty, and the ones that were offered on the market were often inaccurate. He considered them, from a medical standpoint, useless for treating patients who needed body composition analysis the most. So, drawing from his background in mechanical engineering, he set to work to design something better. The end result was the first 8-point tactile electrode system with direct segmental analysis to measure impedance in five body cylinders through use of multiple frequencies. InBody is a multinational company with branches and distributers in 80 different countries.

Traditional BIA technology measures the human body as a single-cylinder using one frequency, which increases the likelihood of inaccurate results. Conventional BIA devices use empirical estimations based on factors like age and sex to help improve accuracy. While this may work for people with a standard body type, it is inaccurate for those who do not fit this mold, such as fit elderly adults. Everyone has a unique body composition—that’s why InBody makes innovative technology tailored to the individual, not a group. InBody’s medical-grade body composition analyzers use four pillars of technology to provide accurate, precise direct segmental measurement multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (DSM-MFBIA) extensively validated to gold-standard methods.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a method for measuring body composition, including muscle mass, body fat, and total body water. Alternating low and high-frequency electrical currents are sent through the water in the body via contact with electrodes to measure impedance.

The impedance is used to determine total body water (TBW), which can then be used to derive your fat-free mass—the portion of your body that does not contain fat, including your muscle and bone—and finally, body fat.

Now, you may find yourself asking why would you even care about this body composition scan when you have a reliable bathroom scale that tells you what you want to know. What does your weight really represent? When you step on a scale, you can’t see how much muscle or fat you have—all you see is a number with no context. Now, at Elevated Health and Fitness, you can go beyond the scale with the InBody Test. This is a non-invasive, quick, and accurate body composition analysis that provides a detailed breakdown of your weight in terms of muscle, fat, and water.

Your comprehensive yet easy-to-understand measurements will display on an InBody Result Sheet in 15-120 seconds. No skin fold pinching. No tape measurements required. Get results you can trust so you can reach your health and fitness goals with precision and actionable objectives.

InBody Scans are included with some Elevated Health and Fitness Services: initial assessments for all new clients, on-line coaching clients, boot camp participants. Re-scans are encouraged as often as desired but not recommended more than once a month in most cases. If not applicable in the above exclusions, a re-scan is $25 per session. Note that the result sheet tracks up to 8 scans historically to show progress.