What Happened When I Did A Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) Scan Before And After Training
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Show Notes
Recently I did a fun little experiment on myself.
I did a BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) scan BEFORE a 1-hour gym session and again immediately AFTER.
I was inundated with requests to share what happened and why I don’t recommend these scans. So here are the results:
BEFORE TRAINING
Weight: 61kg. The report suggested I needed to gain 1kg to get to 62kg
Height: 169.8cm
Skeletal Muscle Mass: 25.9kg
Body Fat %: 23.1%
Visceral Fat Level: 5
BMR: 1383kcal
Bone Mineral Content: 2.95kg
AFTER TRAINING
Weight: 61.1kg. The report suggested I needed to lose 0.3kg to get to 60.8kg by increasing 0.7kg of muscle and decreasing 1kg of fat
Height: 168.2cm - I shrunk
Skeletal Muscle Mass: 25.4kg - I lost 0.5kg of muscle
Body Fat %: 24.6%. Increased by 1.5%!! Gained 900g fat
Visceral Fat Level: 6 - increased
BMR: 1365kcal - decreased
Bone Mineral Content: 2.84kg - decreased
Hopefully, this highlights that these scans are not the best tool for monitoring changes in body composition. They are very easy to manipulate and results can vary significantly - up to 8% variance has been seen in the literature!
If I can gain 900g of body fat, lose 500g of muscle and gain almost a centimetre in my arm circumference in an hour - what hope do you have of assessing accurate change over 4 weeks?!
There is absolutely no point in measuring something if it cannot accurately track progress. Save your $. You’re welcome :)
LINKS:
Go back and listen to episode 32 on how BIA scans work and why I think they’re a waste of money HERE
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