What is a Body Composition Analysis and How Can it Help Me Get Healthy?

Your weight doesn’t tell the whole story about your health. A traditional scale tells you how much you weigh, but it doesn’t tell you what that weight is made of. 

That’s where body composition analysis comes in. This powerful tool goes beyond the scale to give you a detailed understanding of your body's makeup. 

At Physicians Weight Loss Center Highlands Ranch, we use body composition analysis to help guide you more effectively toward your fitness and health goals. Read on to learn more about this valuable tool.

About body composition analysis

Body composition analysis measures the fat, muscle, bone, and water percentages in your body. Unlike standard pound or kilogram measurements, which lump everything together, this analysis breaks your body down into these key components. This is what they involve:

• Fat mass: The amount of body fat you’re carrying, both under the skin and around your organs
• Lean body mass: This includes your muscles, bones, organs, and water weight
• Bone mass: The density and strength of your bones.
• Total body water: The amount of water in your body, which is essential for hydration and cellular functions

When you better understand the ratio of fat to lean mass in your body, you can set more precise physique and health goals.

The impact of body composition on your health

Excess body fat, particularly visceral fat (the fat that surrounds your internal organs), increases your risk for chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Lean muscle mass, however, plays a crucial role in metabolism, strength, and overall mobility.

A healthy body composition typically means less fat and more muscle, contributing to better metabolic function and reduced health risks.

How you benefit from a body composition analysis

Since body composition analysis provides insight into your body’s fat versus muscle composition, it can help us create a customized weight loss or fitness plan that focuses on losing fat while preserving or building muscle.

Traditional scales don’t distinguish between fat loss and muscle gain. With body composition analysis, you can track fat mass and muscle growth changes, providing a more accurate measure of your progress. We can also adapt your plan if it’s leading to more significant muscle loss than fat loss. 

By understanding the extent of your muscle mass, we can design workout routines that optimize muscle growth, strength, and endurance, all of which contribute to better overall fitness.

Regular body composition analysis allows you to monitor body fat and muscle changes over time, helping you catch early signs of potential health risks, such as increased visceral fat.

Impact of body composition analysis

Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle, or stay healthy, body composition analysis can help you achieve those goals. It enables you to understand exactly what’s happening in your body to make informed decisions about your diet, exercise, and lifestyle.

If you’ve been focused on the number on the scale, body composition analysis can show whether weight loss is coming from fat or muscle. You want weight loss to come from body fat rather than muscle.

If you’ve plateaued in your weight loss journey, body composition analysis can help you determine whether changes in your diet or exercise routine are needed to target fat loss or boost muscle gain.

If you're working on building strength, tracking muscle growth through body composition analysis can help you see your progress in real time, even if the scale doesn't change much. It can show you that you’ve lost fat and gained muscle, a healthy combination.

At Physicians Weight Loss Center Highlands Ranch, we use body composition analysis to give you a complete picture of your health and help you achieve sustainable weight loss. Contact us today to schedule your body composition analysis and start working toward a healthier you.