Maria Fabrizio
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Maria Fabrizio
For Mana Mostabi, Libra has never been a friend. Even in high school, when she was sprinting the 100 meters on the school track team, her BMI (ratio of weight to height) put her in the overweight category.
“My dad always joked that I should be a wrestler,” Mostatabi said because of her size. Many professional athletes fail body mass index tests. Some people are considered obese despite being healthy, and many doctors say that’s not a useful indicator to watch.
“Body mass index is a very rough measure,” said Dr. Richard Joseph, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who specializes in metabolic health. “It doesn’t tell me much about your underlying health,” he said. People can be of normal weight but have low muscle mass and high body fat, while some people can be of higher weight but be muscular and lean.
That’s why Mostatabi found a new tool – a body composition scan – to measure her body fat and muscle mass, two key indicators of health. “That’s absolutely certain,” Mostatabi said. Last year, she lost ten pounds of body fat and gained several pounds of muscle. “This actually gives me information” to track progress. “It’s really inspiring,” she said.
Body composition scans are becoming an increasingly popular way to measure health, and there are many different types.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is considered the gold standard, but given the cost and access to medical imaging, it’s not practical for most people.
Dr. Joseph orders DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scans for some of his patients. These scans measure bone mineral density, but also body composition and fat distribution. They typically cost over $100, but prices have begun to drop in some areas as demand increases and more machines become available.
One option used by gyms and fitness studios such as Anytime Fitness and Orangetheory Fitness is bioelectrical impedance analysis using equipment such as the InBody or Evolt 360. fee. The test is not as precise as MRI or DEXA, but it can reliably track changes over time as long as people follow instructions.
Mana Mostatabi uses body composition tests to track her health. It helped her reduce body fat and gain muscle.
Mana Mustatabi
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Mana Mustatabi
Mostatabi had her first InBody scan in January, when she signed up for Orangetheory’s Strength Challenge. “It’s a super simple process,” Mustabi said, taking less than a minute.
The device looks like a scale with two arms. “You step onto the machine,” which has a metal base, and you hold the ends of two arms that send a safe, low-level electrical current through the body, estimating fat and lean mass, she explains.
“The speed at which the current returns to the electrodes can measure how much fat mass and muscle you have because the current flows through these body tissues at different speeds,” explains Scott Brown, vice president of fitness at Orangetheory. The technology is decades old, and as commercial It is becoming more and more popular due to the advent of the device and the ever-increasing demand.
Mostabi said you won’t feel anything during the test and the results are sent directly to a smartphone app. Her first scan gave her a baseline for improvement.
She explained that her health has declined dramatically during the pandemic and her goal is to have a fresh start this year. Over the winter, she pushed herself through 60-minute classes that included resistance training, weight lifting, treadmill cardio and rowing. “I’m very diligent,” averaging about five to six classes a week.
“InBody scanning was the first tool I ever used that showed results,” she says. Mustatabi was used to weighing himself and recalled his frustration when the scale wouldn’t move. Now, even though she hasn’t lost weight, she knows her body is healthier, with a lower percentage of body fat and more muscle.
“It’s incredibly empowering,” she said, knowing that women who lift weights and build strength can expect to live longer, healthier lives.
On average, women gain less muscle and at a slower rate than men. During Orangetheory’s eight-week “Transformation Challenge,” the company found that men who focused on muscle growth gained an average of about 0.83 pounds of muscle over eight weeks, while women only gained half a pound of muscle. Although the average muscle gain across all participants was only about 0.1 pounds.
Brown explains that eight weeks is not a long time to build muscle. He said it was important to set “realistic goals” given the differences between people. The ability to grow new muscle is affected by gender, age and genetics.
Dr. Joseph says understanding muscle mass is helpful because research shows strength is a predictor of longevity. Additionally, muscle loss increases the risk of falls, which is the leading cause of injury and death in older adults. “A lot of people don’t have enough muscle,” Joseph said.
When it comes to body fat, too much can increase the risk of metabolic disease, especially visceral fat, which surrounds abdominal organs including the stomach, liver and intestines. “It causes inflammation,” and increases the risk of heart disease, Joseph said. The American College of Sports Medicine sets body fat fitness categories based on age and gender, but there is no consensus on ideal goals. According to ACSM standards, most Americans can be classified in the “poor fitness” category because the average body fat percentage of American adults is 33%. The U.S. military believes that the optimal body fat level for military fitness is 10% to 20% for young men, and the highest is 25% for middle-aged men. Women generally have more body fat, with the ideal range being 15 to 30 percent for young women and 38 percent for middle-aged women.
Joseph says the rule of thumb in fitness is “you versus you.” Rather than focusing on external benchmarks, “the most important thing is to look at trends in body composition over time,” he said.
It is possible to lose fat and gain muscle without losing any weight. this is what happened Karen White, 59, is a certified health coach in Alexandria, Virginia. Over the past three years, she’s gained about three pounds of muscle and lost body fat. Her body fat dropped from 26% to 22%. After three years of follow-up, “I actually weighed exactly the same” but had profoundly positive changes in her body composition.
Karen White is a certified health coach in Alexandria, Virginia. She credits body composition testing with helping her lose body fat and build muscle.
Jackie Cook
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Jackie Cook
She lifted weights three times a week for about 30 minutes each time and gradually reached the point where she could lift weights. Although she has turned her attention to resistance training, she still does aerobic exercise and stays active with daily walks with her dog.
“It’s a common belief that older people can’t gain muscle, but that’s absolutely not true,” she says. She points to a new client she works with who is in her 60s. After a few months, her clients have lost body fat and gained strength.
White agrees it’s important to set realistic expectations and recognize that changes in body composition can take time. She gains an average of about a pound of muscle per year and feels stronger.
Given that muscle peaks in your 30s, it’s important to perform strength training to maintain muscle mass, especially as you age. “The risk of frailty does increase exponentially as you age,” Dr. Joseph said. An estimated 45 percent of older adults, especially women, experience muscle loss (also called sarcopenia). Weight training can help prevent this loss.
Find Allison Aubrey on Instagram: @alison aubrey and on X @aubreynpr.
This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh
