A LOT OF people grew up using a scale to check their weight. To try to improve their health, they might check it against their height and a standard Body Mass Index (BMI) chart. But as important as weight and BMI can be for giving an idea of one’s health, they give an incomplete picture and cannot account for the complexities of the human body.
For instance, if someone loses fat and gains muscle at the same time, the numbers on the scale might not even move. Also, if they build enough muscle or have a naturally muscular build, BMI ceases to be a useful indicator of general health, as it doesn’t differentiate between muscle and fat. This is where a body composition monitor can be useful.
Rather than simply checking the weight and height against a standard BMI chart, a body composition monitor gives one a readout of fat mass, lean muscle mass, bone density, and water percentages. Having this information can help you come up with a more realistic and effective diet and exercise plan compared to just using a weighing scale and BMI chart, enabling you to meet your health goals faster. Let’s dive into how a body composition monitor works and how it can help you achieve peak health.
What Is a Body Composition Monitor?
Body composition monitors (also known as smart scales or body analyzers) are devices designed to provide multiple body metrics, giving users a detailed way to ascertain physical health. Most models use bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to give estimates of various body measurements. This involves sending a mild electrical charge through a body and measuring relative differences in current as it passes through different types of tissue (fat, muscle, water).
Body composition monitors can provide estimates of the following:
- Body fat percentage
- Muscle mass
- Bone mass
- Body water percentage
- Visceral fat (fat around the organs)
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR)
- Metabolic age
Some advanced models can go even further, breaking down fat and muscle distribution across arms, legs, and trunk. Even better, some of these can also sync with an app to provide the user and their physician a picture of changes over time.
Why own a body composition monitor?
A body composition monitor will give you a far better idea of the state of your body compared to just a weighing scale and measuring tape. Whether you’re an athlete for whom the standard BMI no longer applies or you’re just concerned with your health, having your own body composition monitor can be a game-changer. Here’s why:
- You’ll Track Your Progress Better
Since fat is less dense than muscle, the needle on your weighing scale might hardly move if you’re only just getting started on your fitness journey. With a body composition monitor, you’ll be able to get a picture of fat loss, muscle gain, and other critical health metrics, giving you a much clearer picture of your fitness journey.
- You Can Set Smarter Goals
A body composition monitor empowers you to look past just target weights, enabling you to meaningfully aim for lower fat percentage or higher muscle mass—goals that are much better indicators of fitness and long-term health.
- You’ll Get to Know Your Body Better
These devices can uncover much more than a weighing scale ever could. For example, they can tip you off to potentially dangerous excess visceral fat, even if your weight is within normal limits. Logging the results from your body composition monitor can even tell you how well your body responds to different routines.
- It Can Help Build Consistent Habits That Work in Your Health’s Favor
It’s hard to keep motivated if you can’t easily see the results of your hard work. Unfortunately, weighing scales and clothes-size changes can only do so much to tip you off about changes to your body. With a body composition monitor, however, you can easily see improvements, helping “gamify” your fitness journey and enabling you to better stick to healthy routines.
- You Can Create a Personalized Approach to Fitness
The human body comes in many forms and sizes, making generalized metrics like BMI inadequate when it comes to individualized health plans. A monitor gives you data that’s much more specific to your body, making it easier to come up with diet and exercise plans that make sense for how your body responds. For instance, rather than wasting time on trial and error, you can immediately adjust exercise intensity or diet macros based on whether you’re losing fat or muscle, speeding up your path to fitness.
Can you benefit from using a body composition monitor?
Absolutely. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or are just starting on your first wellness journey, these devices can offer important insights that you simply wouldn’t get with a weighing scale. Having a body composition monitor at home also means you can keep track of important health indicators without going to a doctor’s office. If you have an underlying health issue, having these remarkable machines close at hand can make all the difference in building a better quality of life.
Your health is so much more than just a number on a scale. Start comparing body composition monitors from well-regarded manufacturers and ask your doctor for any recommendations. At the end of the day, you deserve to know everything there is to know about your body.
