Body composition is the amount of water, lean body mass and fat in the human body. The true definition of obesity is based on the percentage of body fat. Standard height and weight charts are inadequate in assessing a patient’s percent body fat. BCA can determine how much of your body weight is fat mass, and therefore what your percent body fat is. Our highly innovative scale figures this number using bioelectrical impedance, which measures the conductivity of different body compartments using very small electrical currents. Differences in water content within fat tissue compared to lean body tissue affects the how the current is conducted. Our goal is to help you have good quality weight loss, which means, loss of body fat mass only. Rapid weight loss can result is sacrificing too much lean body mass (which may ultimately slow down your metabolism making the weight loss harder to sustain long-term). We want to help you lose weight rapidly, but not at the expense of losing lean body mass. This is why we measure your body composition at each and every visit, so we can monitor the quality of your weight loss.
If you were trying to lose weight on your own and are just using a conventional scale, you may start to lose motivation if you aren’t seeing the scale move fast enough. Weight loss progress, as measured on a conventional scale, can sometimes be erratic and unpredictable due to water fluctuations (especially in women who still are menstruating). This phenomenon can be unsettling if it were unexpected and especially if you have been following a program religiously and don’t see the anticipated loss of pounds on the scale. The benefit of having your body composition analyzed at each visit is you will know when your scale isn’t moving simply due to water retention. In actuality, you may still be losing fat mass, which means you are still improving your body composition and making progress with your weight loss.
The method that we use to obtain this information is called electrical bioimpedence. It is a non-invasive and accurate test. It does require the following preparation instructions: no alcohol consumption within 24 hours prior to your first visit, no exercise, caffeine or food within 4 hours prior to taking the test, and drink 2 to 4 glasses of water 2 hours prior to taking the test.