Sooner or later all the gym goers, the followers of life fit and those who approach a new diet find themselves looking for methods for measure the percentage of fat mass of your body.
"Why doesn't the weight decrease on the scale?"
"I started a diet and sport, but I don't see results!"
These doubts are always present at the beginning of a diet and fitness path; often people, not seeing results on the scale in the early days, find themselves giving up everything and resuming bad habits or implementing dangerous "do-it-yourself" high-protein and low-calorie diets to lose weight quickly.
Index
Is losing weight really an important parameter?
The answer to this question may create conflicting opinions, but DO NOT, the weight on the scale is not a good parameter to evaluate the progress of a weight loss program associated with physical activity.
Il body weight is the sum of the various body compartments (fat, fluids, muscles ...) and the scales cannot tell us if in a month of diet and training we have gained muscle mass at the expense of fat mass.
The beginning of physical activity leads the body to adapt to new stimuli and an accumulation of water in the cells, which over time should increase (hypertrophy).
In this situation the weight on the scale could not only not go down, but even increase. For all these reasons, it makes no sense to stop at weight assessment, but it is good to evaluate changes in body composition.
How does impedancemetry work?
Impedance, or body impedance measurement (Body Impedence Assessment or BIA) is the most used and reliable technique for assess your body fat percentage.
This technique is based on a basic physical data: water is an excellent conductor of electric current, while grease is an insulator.
La body fat mass (Fat Free Mass or FFM) consists mainly of water, so it is possible to find out the percentage of fat mass.
The instrument used for this measurement is theimpedance meter, which is connected by electrodes to the subjects; it measures the resistance the body opposes to the passage of a current source (first very weak, then very strong).
Through the use of sophisticated computers and complicated algorithms, the amount of water present in the body, lean mass, fat mass and basal metabolic rate.
How useful is impedancemetry?
During a dietary journey, have constants feedback on the patient's body composition is critical to the medical professional.
Every diet involves a calorie deficit and a change in metabolism basal, which translates into the use of body fat, which is “burnt".
During this process, it may happen that muscle mass, or lean mass, is also burned; the practitioner must be ready to stop this process by making changes to the diet.
Can impedancemetry always be used?
There are some situations in which the water exchange is altered, for which the impedance test could give staggered and untrue results; these situations are:
- Pregnancy
- Strong water retention
- Dehydration
- Kidney failure
- Taking diuretics for high blood pressure
- Adrenal dysfunction
- Malnutrition
In all these conditions mentioned above, weight loss or weight gain does not always lead to changes in fat mass.
You can lose kilos of fat mass, but not realize it because the scale reports 3 kilos more (of liquids) or lose a few kilos, but only of liquids and not of fat mass.
And you, have you ever undergone an impedance evaluation? Let us know in the comments and remember to follow us also on our Telegram channel
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