What is a Bio Impedance Analysis?
Bio Impedance Analysis (BIA) is a method of assessing your complete body composition, not just your weight.
Bio Impedance scales pass a small safe electrical signal through the body; this electrical signal passes through the water that is present in hydrated muscle mass and is blocked from passing through fat within the body. This blockage is known as bioimpedance resistance, and it calculates a range of body composition measurements including:
Body Fat percentage, this is the proportion of body fat in relation to your total body weight.
If you are losing weight t is essential to know this measurement so you can ensure you are not losing muscle but fat.
It is also vital to ensure your body fat percentage does not get to low as body fat is essential for maintaining body temperature, joint and bone health, hormone synthesis and protection of internal organs.
Visceral fat percentage is the fat that is located around your abdominal area, surrounding and protecting the vital organs. A high percentage of visceral fat increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, certain cancers and type 2 diabetes.
This measurement is even more critical as we get older, as your weight might remain the same, but your fat shifts to the abdominal area.
Muscle mass percentage, this includes smooth muscles used in the cardiac and digestive system as well as skeletal muscle. It is essential to measure this when losing weight to endure you are losing fat, not muscle as muscles burn more energy, so increasing muscle mass increases your resting metabolic rate.
If you are exercising your weight may go up, so this measurement allows you to understand if it is muscle, not fat and monitor your training program.
Percentage of water, this is a measurement of the total fluid in your body. Being hydrated is essential for health, as it regulates your temperature, is used in cells for energy production and assist with detoxification. Being hydrated will ensure you can perform at your best physically and mentally.
Base Metabolic Rate, this is the minimal energy (calories) you need in a day when your body is at rest. Base metabolic rate s is used as the baseline calorie level for developing an individualised diet plan, with extra calories added according to your activity levels.
Physical rating is an overview of your current body type; this allows you to monitor the changes in your body composition overall and gives you visual rating to guide your progress.
Bone Mass, tracks your overall bone mass, this is not bone density, but over a period can allow you to monitor any changes.
Metabolic age, this calculates your base metabolic rate and compares it to your actual age and then calculates your metabolic age. If you have a metabolic age higher than your age, you may need to increase muscle mass and increase your base metabolic rate.
Segmental Muscle Mass, gives you the muscles mass for five areas, abdominal, arms and legs. Monitoring segmental muscle mass allows you to see if you have any muscles imbalances and the impact of your exercise training programs.
All these measurements build a comprehensive overview of your current body composition. This overview allows the development of individualised highly targeted nutritional programs, ongoing monitoring of targeted nutritional programs and overall health monitoring and optimisation.
