Body Composition Analysis
See What You're Made Of
Your weight alone tells you nothing about what’s really important since it doesn’t distinguish between muscle mass, body fat and water. At home scales that claim to measure body fat and water are notoriously inaccurate. Nourish has an InBody 570, which is a top of the line, medical-grade machine for measuring body composition: body fat, muscle mass, total water, segmental lean analysis, visceral fat level and more.
Body composition analysis is a useful tool as you work with your dietitian nutritionist. You’ll see the changes in your body composition in black and white, which is very motivating! By simply weighing yourself on a traditional scale, you might think you’re not making much progress, when in reality, there are a lot of metabolic changes happening.
We can use the results to track your progress and customize your nutrition and lifestyle plan. The InBody 570 delivers an incredibly accurate and in-depth analysis of what’s happening inside your body. This is a very easy, extremely accurate, non-invasive test that takes less than a minute. You will receive a detailed report at the end.
Body composition also gives you a new way to think about and approach your weight. It provides way more useful information than relying solely on Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is simply a number that represents your weight relative to your height. But if you are even a little bit athletic, or if you lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle, BMI can be misleading.
Think about athletes, who tend to have high BMIs, but low body fat percentages. Or a desk-bound office employee at a healthy BMI who eats well. Sedentary adults working in offices who do not exercise are known to lose muscle mass, especially in their legs. This leads to a drop in weight in muscle mass, but fat remains. This can lead to high body fat percentages, even in individuals with “normal” weights and BMIs.
We don’t recommend testing more frequently than every 4-6 weeks. That’s because it takes about that long to really differentiate significant changes.
In order to have the most accurate measurements, these guidelines should be followed:
- Must have access to bare feet, so please no tights or pantyhose.
- Do not exercise or eat 4 hours prior to your test.
- Hydrate well the day before.
- Do not drink caffeine on the day of your test.
- Do not consume alcohol for 24 hours prior to testing.
- Do not wear jewelry – all jewelry will have to be removed prior to testing.
- Do not use the InBody after a shower or sauna session.
- Empty your bladder just before your test.
- It is optimal, though not required, that women be measured while not having their periods, as total body water will be higher than normal.
Insurance does not cover the cost of the test.