Learn about the process
Hydrostatic Testing
Hydrostatic Testing (Underwater Weighing) has become universally regarded by industry experts as the "Gold Standard" in body fat testing.
Body Analytics’ hydrostatic method uses a three component model which separates the body into 3 distinct categories:
- Bone, muscle, organs and connective tissue, collectively known as lean mass, are more dense than water and therefore sinks
- Body fat which is less dense than water and floats
- Total body water is neutrally buoyant and must be subtracted from your actual weight
By obtaining your dry weight and your weight in water our specialized computer program can scientifically calculate your body fat as a percentage of your total weight with the highest degree of accuracy available. The ordinary scale cannot tell you if weight loss is muscle or fat, but testing with Body Analytics will tell you exactly the composition of your body during your weight loss regimen.
Body Composition
What is body composition? Simple stated it’s what you’re made of – the bones, blood, tissues, fat, water and everything else that comprises your body. We use a two-part testing system that weighs lean mass (muscle, bones, tissue), water and fat.
Why does body composition measurement matter? Knowing your body composition allows you to accurately assess your health and wellness level and tells you precisely how your body changes in response to what you do.
Body composition measurement enables you to accurately pinpoint changes in your body down to specific quantities of fat loss and muscle gain. This helps you to set realistic goals as well as measure meaningful progress.
Let’s say you’ve lost five pounds. If it’s five pounds of fat, that’s great! But if it’s five pounds of muscle then you’ve probably decreased your strength and lowered the number of calories you burn daily. You would never know how much of your weight loss is fat versus muscle without measurement of your body composition.
That’s why we stress not using a home scale to gauge your overall health and progress.
Body Composition is a More Accurate Indicator of Health Than BMI
Body Mass Index (BMI) has traditionally been used as a proxy for an individual’s health. Devised more than 160 years ago, BMI is a number calculated using a person’s weight and height. A person is then categorized as underweight, normal, overweight or obese base on that number.
Unfortunately, BMI has some significant limitations. BMI is not a measure of actual body composition, but simply a ratio of weight and height. Because muscle weighs more than fat, more muscular individuals with low body fat are frequently categorized as overweight or obese incorrectly. Similarly people who have high body fat percentages, but have lost muscle tissue may appear healthier according to BMI because they lost weight. Thus by disregarding an individual’s ratio of actual body fat to muscle tissue, BMI can be highly inaccurate in assessing an individual’s level of fitness and health. Many health insurance companies still use BMI today and, in turn, health insurance costs go up because of inaccuracies.
Body Composition Provides Insights About Visceral Fat Where BMI Can’t
Visceral fat is a type of fat locate in your belly between your organs. There is a high level of correlation with obesity-related diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease. In contrast, fat under the skin – subcutaneous fat – is not necessarily harmful to your health. It is quite possible for individuals who appear thin and have a healthy BMI to carry stores of high-risk visceral fat. Consequently BMI can provide an inaccurate or misleading assessment of an individual’s risk for obesity-related diseases and disorders. In fact, studies have found that waist size measurements are better correlated that BMI with Type 2 Diabetes simply because waist size measurements better account for the presence of visceral fat.