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The number on the scale tells you your total body weight, but it doesn't tell you what that weight is made of.
You can have the same weight while gaining body fat, losing muscle, or experiencing changes in body water. This becomes especially relevant during perimenopause and menopause, when changes in hormones, activity, sleep, and metabolism can affect body composition. A body composition scan provides a more detailed look at your muscle mass, body fat, visceral fat, and other measurements that can help put changes in your body into context.The goal isn't to focus on a number. It's to understand what's changing so your nutrition, exercise, and overall health plan can be based on useful information rather than weight alone.
The scan estimates your lean mass throughout your body, including your arms, legs, and trunk.
Tracking muscle mass over time can help you understand whether your exercise and nutrition plan is supporting muscle maintenance and strength as your body changes.
Body fat percentage provides information that body weight and BMI cannot provide on their own.
Tracking changes in body fat can help show whether changes in weight are coming primarily from fat, lean tissue, or a combination of both.
Visceral fat is stored around the internal organs and is associated with metabolic health risks when present in excess.
Understanding changes in visceral fat can provide another useful measure when evaluating body composition and metabolic health.
Basal metabolic rate, or BMR, estimates the amount of energy your body uses at rest.
BMR is influenced by several factors, including body size, age, sex, and lean body mass. It can provide useful context when developing a nutrition or fitness plan, but it is an estimate rather than a direct measurement of your daily calorie needs.
The scan also provides estimates related to body water and fluid distribution.
These measurements can add context when reviewing changes in body composition over time, although they should always be interpreted alongside your overall health and clinical picture.
Hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause can be accompanied by changes in muscle mass, fat distribution, and body composition.
Age, physical activity, nutrition, sleep, genetics, and hormonal changes can all influence how your body changes during this stage of life.
Maintaining muscle becomes particularly important as you get older. Resistance training, adequate protein intake, appropriate nutrition, and other healthy lifestyle habits can all support muscle health.
A body composition scan gives you a baseline that can be repeated over time. Instead of relying only on the scale or how your clothes fit, you can track changes in muscle mass and body fat and use that information to guide your plan.
Two people can have the same weight and very different body compositions. Even within the same person, weight can remain relatively stable while muscle mass and body fat change.
Body composition analysis provides additional information that can help you understand those changes.
Visceral fat is fat stored within the abdominal cavity around internal organs.
Higher levels of visceral fat are associated with an increased risk of metabolic conditions, including insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. Tracking visceral fat can therefore provide useful information about changes in body composition and metabolic health.
A scan result is only one part of the picture and should be interpreted alongside other health measurements.
Muscle mass can change during midlife and later adulthood, and hormonal changes during menopause may contribute to changes in body composition.
However, muscle loss is influenced by more than hormones. Age, physical activity, protein intake, nutrition, illness, and other lifestyle factors also matter.
Resistance training and adequate nutrition are important tools for maintaining muscle as you age. Your individual health plan can take these factors into account.
Hormone therapy may influence body composition in some women, but it should not be viewed as a weight-loss or muscle-building treatment on its own.
Maintaining muscle and managing changes in body fat typically involves several factors, including resistance exercise, adequate protein, nutrition, sleep, and overall health.
For women using hormone therapy, body composition measurements can provide additional information to discuss with their healthcare provider over time.
The InBody scanner uses bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to estimate body composition.
The process is noninvasive and takes only a few minutes. The resulting report can provide estimates of body fat, lean mass, visceral fat, body water, and other measurements.
Results can vary based on factors such as hydration, food intake, exercise, and other conditions. For this reason, following consistent testing conditions can make measurements easier to compare over time.
Understanding your body involves more than knowing what you weigh.
An InBody body composition scan can provide a more detailed view of muscle mass, body fat, visceral fat, and other measurements that may help guide your health and fitness goals.
At Dr. Toubi's Beverly Hills practice, body composition analysis can be used alongside your health history, lifestyle, and other clinical information to create a more individualized approach to your care.
Whether you're going through perimenopause, menopause, working on your strength, or simply want to understand changes in your body, measuring body composition can give you useful information to work with. .
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