This method uses a similar principle to underwater weighing but can be done in the air instead of in water. It is expensive but accurate, quick, and comfortable for those who prefer not to be submerged in water.

Individuals drink isotope-labeled water and give body fluid samples. Researchers analyze these samples for isotope levels, which are then used to calculate total body water, fat-free body mass, and in turn, body fat mass.

X-ray beams pass through different body tissues at different rates. DEXA uses two low-level X-ray beams to develop estimates of fat-free mass, fat mass, and bone mineral density. It cannot distinguish between subcutaneous and visceral fat, cannot be used in persons sensitive to radiation e.

These two imaging techniques are now considered to be the most accurate methods for measuring tissue, organ, and whole-body fat mass as well as lean muscle mass and bone mass. However, CT and MRI scans are typically used only in research settings because the equipment is extremely expensive and cannot be moved.

CT scans cannot be used with pregnant women or children, due to exposure to ionizing radiation, and certain MRI and CT scanners may not be able to accommodate individuals with a BMI of 35 or higher. Some studies suggest that the connection between body mass index and premature death follows a U-shaped curve.

The problem is that most of these studies included smokers and individuals with early, but undetected, chronic and fatal diseases.

Cigarette smokers as a group weigh less than nonsmokers, in part because smoking deadens the appetite. Potentially deadly chronic diseases such as cancer, emphysema, kidney failure, and heart failure can cause weight loss even before they cause symptoms and have been diagnosed.

Instead, low weight is often the result of illnesses or habits that may be fatal. Many epidemiologic studies confirm that increasing weight is associated with increasing disease risk.

The American Cancer Society fielded two large long-term Cancer Prevention Studies that included more than one million adults who were followed for at least 12 years. Both studies showed a clear pattern of increasing mortality with increasing weight.

According to the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans a body mass index below But some people live long, healthy lives with a low body mass index. But if you start losing weight without trying, discuss with your doctor the reasons why this could be happening.

Learn more about maintaining a healthy weight. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice.

You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.

The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products. Skip to content The Nutrition Source. The Nutrition Source Menu. Search for:. Home Nutrition News What Should I Eat? Role of Body Fat We may not appreciate body fat, especially when it accumulates in specific areas like our bellies or thighs.

Types of Body Fat Fat tissue comes in white, brown, beige, and even pink. Types Brown fat — Infants carry the most brown fat, which keeps them warm.

It is stimulated by cold temperatures to generate heat. The amount of brown fat does not change with increased calorie intake, and those who have overweight or obesity tend to carry less brown fat than lean persons. White fat — These large round cells are the most abundant type and are designed for fat storage, accumulating in the belly, thighs, and hips.

They secrete more than 50 types of hormones, enzymes, and growth factors including leptin and adiponectin, which helps the liver and muscles respond better to insulin a blood sugar regulator.

But if there are excessive white cells, these hormones are disrupted and can cause the opposite effect of insulin resistance and chronic inflammation. Beige fat — This type of white fat can be converted to perform similar traits as brown fat, such as being able to generate heat with exposure to cold temperatures or during exercise.

Pink fat — This type of white fat is converted to pink during pregnancy and lactation, producing and secreting breast milk. Essential fat — This type may be made up of brown, white, or beige fat and is vital for the body to function normally.

It is found in most organs, muscles, and the central nervous system including the brain. It helps to regulate hormones like estrogen, insulin, cortisol, and leptin; control body temperature; and assist in the absorption of vitamins and minerals.

Very high amounts of subcutaneous fat can increase the risk of disease, though not as significantly as visceral fat. Having a lot of visceral fat is linked with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.

It may secrete inflammatory chemicals called cytokines that promote insulin resistance. How do I get rid of belly fat? Losing weight can help, though people tend to lose weight pretty uniformly throughout the body rather than in one place.

However, a long-term commitment to following exercise guidelines along with eating balanced portion-controlled meals can help to reduce dangerous visceral fat. Also effective is avoiding sugary beverages that are strongly associated with excessive weight gain in children and adults.

Bioelectric Impedance BIA BIA equipment sends a small, imperceptible, safe electric current through the body, measuring the resistance. Underwater Weighing Densitometry or Hydrostatic Weighing Individuals are weighed on dry land and then again while submerged in a water tank.

Air-Displacement Plethysmography This method uses a similar principle to underwater weighing but can be done in the air instead of in water. Dilution Method Hydrometry Individuals drink isotope-labeled water and give body fluid samples. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry DEXA X-ray beams pass through different body tissues at different rates.

Computerized Tomography CT and Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI These two imaging techniques are now considered to be the most accurate methods for measuring tissue, organ, and whole-body fat mass as well as lean muscle mass and bone mass.

Is it healthier to carry excess weight than being too thin? References Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Adult obesity facts. Guerreiro VA, Carvalho D, Freitas P. Obesity, Adipose Tissue, and Inflammation Answered in Questions. Journal of Obesity. Lustig RH, Collier D, Kassotis C, Roepke TA, Kim MJ, Blanc E, Barouki R, Bansal A, Cave MC, Chatterjee S, Choudhury M.

Obesity I: Overview and molecular and biochemical mechanisms. Biochemical Pharmacology. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Body Mass Index: Considerations for practitioners. Kesztyüs D, Lampl J, Kesztyüs T. The weight problem: overview of the most common concepts for body mass and fat distribution and critical consideration of their usefulness for risk assessment and practice.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. World Health Organization. Body mass index — BMI. Berrington de Gonzalez A, Hartge P, Cerhan JR, Flint AJ, Hannan L, MacInnis RJ, Moore SC, Tobias GS, Anton-Culver H, Freeman LB, Beeson WL.

Body-mass index and mortality among 1. New England Journal of Medicine. Di Angelantonio E, Bhupathiraju SN, Wormser D, Gao P, Kaptoge S, de Gonzalez AB, Cairns BJ, Huxley R, Jackson CL, Joshy G, Lewington S. Body-mass index and all-cause mortality: individual-participant-data meta-analysis of prospective studies in four continents.

The Lancet. Willett W, Nutritional Epidemiology. Zhang C, Rexrode KM, Van Dam RM, Li TY, Hu FB. Abdominal obesity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: sixteen years of follow-up in US women. Zhang X, Shu XO, Yang G, Li H, Cai H, Gao YT, Zheng W.

Abdominal adiposity and mortality in Chinese women. Archives of internal medicine. Some are quick and easy but provide basic information only. Some are lengthy and expensive and require the assistance of a trained technician to administer a test.

This is a method that many people have encountered in their local gym. Calipers are widely used because they are portable , easy to use, and can be administered by almost anyone as long as they have had proper training and sufficient experience.

These results are taken and used in mathematical calculations, which determine the fat mass in your entire body. Calipers are an example of 2C body composition analysis.

Hydrostatic weighing also known as underwater weighing calculates your body fat percentage using you underwater body weight. To get your underwater weight, you first need to expel all of the air in your lungs and then submerge yourself in a pool while sitting on a special scale.

Your underwater weight is compared with what you weigh on land, and these numbers, together with the value of the density of the water in the pool, are put through a series of calculations.

These calculations produce your body fat percentage. However, just like calipers, hydrostatic weighing cannot report anything beyond body fat, like skeletal muscle mass, body water, and dry lean mass. To get a hydrostatic weighing test performed, you will need to make an appointment at a facility such as a university or high-end sports complex that has built a hydrostatic weighing pool and a trained staff.

DEXA sometimes abbreviated as DXA , is a medical test that involves lying on a table while a machine sends X-rays through your body and measures the difference in the amount of energy initially sent through the body and the amount detected after it exits the body. Although DEXA was originally designed to measure bone density, it is now used to measure body fat and muscle mass.

Unlike calipers and underwater weighing, DEXA scans have the ability to measure the body segmentally, scanning each arm and the trunk separately in order to accurately measure fat mass, soft lean mass, and bone density in each segment. In order to get a DEXA scan performed, you will typically need to make an appointment with a hospital or clinic that has a DEXA device.

You may need to do some research; because of the cost, not all hospitals and clinics will have a DEXA machine. Once impedance is measured, body composition is calculated.

Unlike other methods, a technician does not always need to be present at a BIA test, and you can use BIA devices with just by following the directions on the device. BIA devices range widely in quality and accuracy , and you should be aware that not all BIA devices test the entire body.

Consumer body composition scales, use BIA to directly measure leg impedance only and use estimations to determine results for the upper body. Handheld devices only directly measure arm impedance and estimate results for the lower body. The most advanced BIA devices are even able to perform segmental analysis.

Because BIA measures work by measuring body water, a lot of useful information can be reported. Although nearly all BIA devices will tell you your body fat percentage, some devices can go much further and report the body water weight, skeletal muscle mass, lean body mass, and much more.

Hopefully, this helps you a general understanding of body composition. Your body composition test results can aid you immensely in understanding your weight, improving your overall health, and helping you achieve your fitness goals.

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Hit enter to search or ESC to close. Close Search. It was originally published on June 16, Detailed body composition analysis uses the 4C Model that breaks the body into body water, protein, minerals, fat. Fat and muscle may weigh the same, but muscle is significantly denser than body fat.

The four common methods of measuring your body composition are calipers, hydrostatic weighing, DEXA, and BIA. What are the 2 components model of body composition? Fat Mass The substance everyone seems to always have too much of and is always doing their best to get rid of.

Fat-Free Mass FFM Fat-Free Mass is what it sounds like — all the mass in your body that is not attributed to fat. What are the 4 components model of body composition? Minerals Your body contains minerals that are primarily contained in two places: in the bloodstream and inside the bone tissue.

Fat Here are some less common but important body composition terms: Dry Lean Mass DLM : Your Dry Lean Mass is the combination of the weight attributed to the protein and the bone mineral in your body.

Lean Body Mass LBM : Your Lean Body Mass is the combination of your DLM and body water. Skeletal Muscle Mass SMM : Not to be confused with DLM or LBM, Skeletal Muscle Mass are the muscles that are connected to your bones and allow you to move.

These are all the muscles that can be grown and developed through exercise your pectorals, biceps, quadriceps, and so on. How Can You Check Your Body Composition? Here are four common methods: Skinfold Calipers Image Credit: Flickr This is a method that many people have encountered in their local gym.

Hydrostatic Weighing Image Credit: Chemistry Land Hydrostatic weighing also known as underwater weighing calculates your body fat percentage using you underwater body weight.

Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry DEXA. Love 31 Share Tweet Share Pin. POPULAR POSTS. Fitness InBody Blog The Best Leg Workouts, According to Science. InBody USA February 13, InBody USA January 30, InBody USA January 16, Professional Consumer Accessories Affirm.

Many assume that having as little fat as possible is healthy. Furthermore, those classified as skinny fat are typically unaware of their potential health risks because visceral fat cannot be measured with BMI and scales, so it goes undetected. Whether you fall into one of the above categories or want to start making healthy changes, understanding your muscle-fat balance is a great place to start.

A healthy balance of fat and muscle is a vital component of long-term health. Having sufficient muscle mass helps bolster the immune system to fight off illnesses, support good posture, enhance mobility, and prevent frailty in old age. Many individuals will fall within one of four different body composition categories below.

Knowing your body composition helps you design an effective, personalized fitness and nutrition plan. A balanced body composition can be healthy or unhealthy depending on your body fat percentage.

Their body fat percentage may be lower than average. To learn more about how to understand your body composition results, check out the result sheet interpretation page. A healthy body composition contributes to a stronger immune system and reduces your health risk for common chronic diseases and conditions like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Find your baseline so you can know what you need to lose, gain, or maintain. Assess your Percent Body Fat so you can focus on fat loss, not just weight loss. Maximize your workout routine to fit your unique health and fitness goals.

Calculate your caloric needs and create a personalized nutrition plan. You can easily track progress and measure the effectiveness of your diet and exercise regimen using body composition.

There are several essential body composition outputs that you can use to track your progress over time:. Percent Body Fat or Body Fat Percentage is a more accurate indicator of your health than your body weight or BMI because it tells you exactly how much fat mass makes up your total body weight.

Skeletal Muscle Mass is crucial for mobility, posture, and strong immunity for long-term health. Body composition analysis shows you precisely how much Skeletal Muscle Mass you have in each body segment, so you can focus on building more muscle or correct imbalances to ensure you have a healthy muscle mass balance.

Your Total Body Water TBW is divided into two groups: extracellular water ECW , which is the water outside your cells, and intracellular water ICW , which is the water within your cells. A healthy balance of body water is critical for good health.

With body composition analysis, you can identify any changes and address them to maintain a healthy balance. There are many ways to determine your body composition. Some are quick and easy but only provide basic information. Some are time-consuming and expensive and require the assistance of a trained technician to administer a test.

Here are a few popular body composition methods:. One of the anthropometric methods used for measuring body fat is the skinfold test. It is also known as pinch test. As the name implies, this method involves pinching the subcutaneous fat layer with fingers and measuring the thickness using a caliper.

Calipers easily portable, and measurement is simple and inexpensive. However, this method involves estimating the total Percent Body Fat PBF based on subcutaneous fat. Although a large portion of body fat is subcutaneous fat, the measurement may not be accurate for people whose body fat distributions vary.

Also, measurement is difficult if the subcutaneous fat layer thickness is 5 cm or more and reproducibility of the result varies greatly depending on the skills of the measurer. Hydrostatic Weighing Underwater weighing calculates the total body fat by the density of the body.

Underwater weighing is regarded as the gold standard for body composition measurement as it is one of the only body composition technologies that have been compared directly to cadaver analysis.

This method measures the volume of a human body by measuring the volume of air according to the changes in pressure in a chamber.

First, weight and volume of the person are used to calculate body density and then Percent Body Fat and the fat-free ratio. Time required for measurement is relatively short at minutes and the examinee can continue breathing in the chamber as opposed to underwater weighing.

This method is known as a gold standard because it allows body composition analysis and produces accurate measurements using volume just like underwater weighing. DEXA is an imaging method that measures the body weight in terms of BMC, lean, and fat based on the decrement of X-ray on the images obtained by exposing to two different X-rays.

With the patient lying down, photons of the X-ray beams of different energy levels scan the patient. It takes about 5 to 30 minutes. As a standard method for body composition analysis, DEXA has high accuracy along with hydrodensitometry.

Its advantage is that it can measure the body composition of bone density, body fat and muscle mass for different parts. Advancements to the technology affords DEXA the ability to differentiate lean and fat, allowing this technology to advance from a 2 compartment model to a 3 compartment model.

In order to get a DEXA scan performed, you will typically need to make an appointment with a hospital or clinic that has a DEXA device. You may need to do some research; not all hospitals and clinics will have DEXA devices.

Magnetic resonance is a form of imaging technique where the body water may be mapped but not quantified. The body is scanned in segmental slices scans are used to predict whole-body values.

MRI is considered to be the most accurate tool for in vivo quantification of body composition. It is an ideal evaluation tool for measurement of skeletal muscle mass and adipose tissue and can divide adipose into visceral and subcutaneous depots.

However, since there is no ionizing radiation, this is a preferable option for many elderly, children, etc. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis BIA is a method of measuring impedance by applying alternating electrical currents to a user to measuring their volume of water through impedance values.

A low-level electrical current is sent through the body, and the flow of the current is affected by the amount of water in the body. BIA devices measure how this signal is impeded through different types of tissue muscle has high conductivity but fat slow the signal down.

As BIA determines the resistance to flow of the current as it passes through the body, it provides estimates of body water from which body fat is calculated using selected equations.

Most people know that we should focus on proper nutrition and exercise. The challenge is where to begin. Here are your first steps:. Assess—Start by measuring your body composition and setting a body composition goal. Nutrition—Understand how many calories you need to achieve your personal goal.

More calories are needed for muscle growth and fewer calories for fat loss. Below we will explore the two most common models. The substance everyone seems to always have too much of and is always doing their best to get rid of.

However, body fat is necessary for the body to function: Body Fat allows the body to store energy, protects internal organs, acts as an insulator and regulates body temperature, among other things. Fat-Free Mass is what it sounds like — all the mass in your body that is not attributed to fat.

Your FFM contains a variety of different components, all your internal organs, skeletal muscle mass, water, etc. Everything that is not fat can be lumped into the category of Fat-Free Mass. From these two values, your body fat percentage can be deduced by dividing your fat mass by your total body weight.

If your goal is to determine only your body fat not lean body mass, muscle mass, etc , procedures that utilize the 2C method can be used to determine your body composition. For a more detailed body composition analysis, you have to use methods that break the body into more components, such as the 4 component 4C model.

The 4C model divides your body weight into water, protein, mineral, and fat. Your body fat, muscles, blood, and other bodily fluids all contain water. Your body contains minerals that are primarily contained in two places: in the bloodstream and inside the bone tissue.

Here are some less common but important body composition terms:. These terms together give you a more sophisticated way to think about and approach both your body weight and your health.

Guessing leads to frustration, frustration leads to indifference, and indifference leads to quitting. I will just stick with something traditional and easy like Body Mass Index. But the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention CDC has found that while BMI can be used to categorize people into weight categories that have a higher chance of developing health complications, it is not an accurate tool to measure body fatness or assess health because it does not differentiate what your body weight is made up of.

The reason why that is important is that although fat and muscle may weigh the same, muscle is significantly denser than body fat.

That means that 15 pounds of muscle takes up much less space than 15 pounds of fat. So what does this mean for the average person who is looking to stay healthy? But if you are even a little bit athletic, or if you lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle, BMI can be misleading.

Take a star NFL tight end. And when we look at this muscle and body fat levels, his body composition results agree. The muscle mass and percentage muscle mass measurements show an individual with high Skeletal Muscle Mass and low Percent Body Fat The reason his body weight is so high is that more than half of his body weight is made up of muscle.

Although BMI may not be an accurate measurement tool for rich professional athletes, you might be wondering what does this have to do with me. Sedentary adults working in offices who do not exercise are known to lose Skeletal Muscle mass, especially in their legs.

This condition is called skinny fat , and because of our reliance on body weight measurement and BMI, it often goes undetected. The muscle mass and percentage muscle mass measurements show an individual with low Skeletal Muscle Mass and High Percent Body Fat These individuals are at risk for some of the same health complications as people who are visibly overweight, with BMI values above These health complications can include cardiovascular disease , high blood pressure, diabetes, and more.

It then makes sense that in a Canadian study of 50, people, it was found that a low BMI did not necessarily correspond with a lower mortality rate.

Hopefully, by now we have convinced you the importance of using something more advanced than a weight scale or BMI. Luckily, there are many methods to determine your body composition. Some are quick and easy but provide basic information only.

Some are lengthy and expensive and require the assistance of a trained technician to administer a test. This is a method that many people have encountered in their local gym. Calipers are widely used because they are portable , easy to use, and can be administered by almost anyone as long as they have had proper training and sufficient experience.

These results are taken and used in mathematical calculations, which determine the fat mass in your entire body. Calipers are an example of 2C body composition analysis. Hydrostatic weighing also known as underwater weighing calculates your body fat percentage using you underwater body weight.

To get your underwater weight, you first need to expel all of the air in your lungs and then submerge yourself in a pool while sitting on a special scale. Your underwater weight is compared with what you weigh on land, and these numbers, together with the value of the density of the water in the pool, are put through a series of calculations.

These calculations produce your body fat percentage. However, just like calipers, hydrostatic weighing cannot report anything beyond body fat, like skeletal muscle mass, body water, and dry lean mass.

To get a hydrostatic weighing test performed, you will need to make an appointment at a facility such as a university or high-end sports complex that has built a hydrostatic weighing pool and a trained staff. DEXA sometimes abbreviated as DXA , is a medical test that involves lying on a table while a machine sends X-rays through your body and measures the difference in the amount of energy initially sent through the body and the amount detected after it exits the body.

Although DEXA was originally designed to measure bone density, it is now used to measure body fat and muscle mass. Unlike calipers and underwater weighing, DEXA scans have the ability to measure the body segmentally, scanning each arm and the trunk separately in order to accurately measure fat mass, soft lean mass, and bone density in each segment.

In order to get a DEXA scan performed, you will typically need to make an appointment with a hospital or clinic that has a DEXA device. You may need to do some research; because of the cost, not all hospitals and clinics will have a DEXA machine.

Once impedance is measured, body composition is calculated. Unlike other methods, a technician does not always need to be present at a BIA test, and you can use BIA devices with just by following the directions on the device.

BIA devices range widely in quality and accuracy , and you should be aware that not all BIA devices test the entire body.