If you’ve never had the opportunity to see or try having an In-Body scan, it is something I highly recommend! The first scan I ever did was at my CrossFit gym in Maryville, TN. We had them done at the beginning of a challenge and then had a second scan done afterwards to note the differences. It is extremely impressive the amount of detail this quick and easy scan gives you! More recently, I’ve signed up for a challenge with my Orangetheory studio and we are utilizing the In-Body scans. I had my first scan done a couple of weeks ago, and thought it would be fun to show the breakdown this technology gives!
How Does It Work?
The easiest thing about the In-Body scan is actually doing the scan. You step on what looks like a regular scale from a doctor’s office, hold onto two handles, and in about 30 seconds you’re done! It’s literally that easy. Once your scan is complete you’ll be given a detailed print out that I’m going to break down for you. Then it’s up to you to use your individualized information to set some health and wellness goals!
I’ll put a picture of what the scanner looks like down below.
What Do My Results Look Like?
After your scan is complete, you will receive a print out with sections detailing tons of information about your body. I’m going to place a picture of my most recent scan down below for reference. You’ll see there are a couple of different data sections. Those sections include body composition analysis, muscle-fat analysis, obesity analysis, segmental lean analysis, and then your body composition history.
Here’s my most recent In-Body Scan results:
Body Composition Analysis
The first section you’ll see is Body Composition Analysis. This is where you’ll get details on the breakdown of your body weight. The Body Composition Analysis breaks your weight down into 3 different sections, water, dry lean mass, and body fat mass.
You can see my weight of 131 lbs is broken down into 75.4 lbs water, 27.3 lbs lean mass, and 28.8 lbs body fat.
Muscle-Fat Analysis
The second block of information you get is your Muscle-Fat Analysis. Here is where you see your total body weight compared to skeletal muscle mass and body fat mass. The owner of 5 Star Nutrition in Little Rock reviewed with me that ideally, you’ll see a rounded shape pointing right. That means that your muscle mass is higher than your body fat mass in comparison to your overall weight. You could also see a straight line pattern, in which you would want to build more of the muscle mass, or a rounded shape pointing left where you would need to focus on lowering body fat and building muscle.
Here’s an example of how this chart can look:
Obesity Analysis
Next up is your Obesity Analysis. I was told to not pay much attention to the BMI calculation from this section. Turns out, this math and theory is pretty dated and can provide invalid information. Instead, he wanted me to focus on the PBF, or Percentage Body Fat. This is a measurement of your body fat versus weight. Your personalized healthy PBF is calculated based on your own height, weight, gender, etc. You’ll see noted the ideal section, along with a section indicating whether you might be high or low in body fat percentage.
Here is how my Obesity Analysis turned out:
Segmental Lean Analysis
This section of the In-Body Scan data is my absolute favorite! Here you will see your weight broken down into 5 sections of your body. The data will show how much each arm and leg weighs along with the weight of your “trunk”. I think this section is super interesting because it can show how your weight is distributed from one side to the other. For example, when I was doing CrossFit my right side was noticeably heavier than my left!
Here’s an example of what your Segmental Lean Analysis might look like:
Body Composition History
Lastly, the In-Body Scan allows easy tracking of your progress through their Body Composition History section. Here is where you can visit and scan every 2-3 weeks to see the progress you’re making towards your goals! Personally, I have goaled to lower body fat slightly and also increase my muscle mass. I would also like to see my weight come down, but am more focused on those two metrics.
Summary
Whether you’re participating in a challenge with a gym/fitness studio or just wanting some really good data, I highly suggest an In-Body Scan! You can find these scanners in almost any nutrition shop local to your area. You can also follow this link to locate the closest location with an In-Body scanner near you!