How Nutritionists can utilize Body Composition

Formulating an achievable nutritional dietary plan is highly dependent on the client's starting point and goals. Body Composition is an important evaluation tool that provides increased precision over traditional methods like Body Mass Index, and nutritionists can utilize Charder's Body Composition Analyzers as important tools for tracking progress throughout a nutritional program, using results such as whole-body and segmental muscle and fat, metabolism, and cellular health.

 

After a safe and non-invasive scan, nutritionists will receive an easy-to-understand result sheet, helping to determine the client's baseline body composition, highlighting which results are reflective of progress, and what goals to set. Because a BIA scan does not emit radiation, it is safe for frequent usage, allowing nutritionists to get updates more regularly in comparison to other methods of body composition measurement.

 

We're highlighted the key modules that will help bring your practice to the next level! The standard and medical result sheets differ slightly in this regard, but both can be used effectively for nutrition:

Standard Result Sheet (MA601 and MA801)	Medical Result Sheet (MA801 only)

 

This section allows you to quickly understand the balance between the client's muscle and fat. The black bars get longer with more mass, and the green area provides a guideline indicating "normal range".

 

Proper nutrition is key for clients wanting to develop muscle mass. Using Body Composition Analysis, nutritionists can monitor weight gain to confirm that it's primarily caused by an increase in muscle mass, not fat, making adjustments to macronutrient balance if needed.

 

This module is also important for obese clients looking to control their body fat. Low-calorie diets are a common method of weight loss, but there is the potential risk of losing muscle mass and strength in the process. Through regularly biweekly measurements, nutritionists can evaluate progress and confirm that a decrease in weight is because of a reduction in fat as opposed to muscle.

 

The muscle-fat module described above helps illustrate the client's proportion of muscle and fat. For more detailed analysis of fat in particular, nutritionists are also able to make use of the visceral fat module to evaluate fat in the abdominal area. Even moreso than total body fat, visceral fat level has a higher correlation with increased risk of obesity-related diseases - and more importantly it's possible to be at increased risk due to high visceral fat, even if your total body fat is relatively normal.

Standard Result Sheet (MA601 and MA801)	Medical Result Sheet (MA801 only)

(The MA801's Medical Result Sheet is able to provide a more precise visceral fat result)

 

Proper nutrition is key to developing muscle mass, which in turn also increases metabolism. In comparison with metabolism calculators found online that utilize basic anthropometric measurements like height and weight combined with activity level, Charder's devices provide a more accurate calculation based on body composition.

Standard Result Sheet (MA601 and MA801)	Medical Result Sheet (MA801 only)

Increasing Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) through developing muscle mass is the key to long-term weight control, as the body will naturally burn more calories compared to someone with less muscle and lower metabolism.

 

By multiplying BMR with the client's Physical Activity Level (PAL), nutritionists can optimize dietary programs with a clear understanding of the client's typical daily energy needs.

 

High muscle and fat can make it difficult to evaluate a client's nutritional level based solely on body composition. It's less common, but still possible for a client's cells to be relatively malnourished, even if they have high body mass!

 

(available only on the MA801's Medical Result Sheet)

 

Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA) utilizes measurement of the client's cellular health, comparing it with others of the same age, gender, and ethnicity. By doing so, nutritionists can identify noticeable abnormality or trends in the client's cells, even if they are outwardly fit or larger in size.

 

A major benefit of BIA body composition analyzers compared to other methods of measurement such as DXA is that it does not use radiation, and thus you can perform measurements regularly without safety risks. This allows clients to perform clients relatively frequently (recommended: around once every two weeks depending on program) to track progress and adjust as needed.

 

The Standard Result Sheet displays the 8 most recent results for Weight, Fat-Free Mass (FFM), Skeletal Muscle Mass (SMM), and Percent Body Fat (PBF), making it easy to understand general trends at a glance.

 

For example, in this history chart, we can observe a client who encountered a setback in October, but was able to adjust and demonstrate improvement in November, thus proving the effectiveness of the nutrition program.

 

For more advanced usage needs, Charder also offers a professional PC software that will display the client's entire history results, in addition to combining related outputs into a single chart, making it easy to understand the changes in relative proportion.

 

Nutritionists can utilize the result management software to store and evaluate the client's full results even from the very beginning of the program, demonstrating the effectiveness of dietary programs.

 

Do you have more questions, or want more details about how to use each module? Please contact us to learn more!