In the last blog I mentioned that I was at a seminar where everyone else had these amazing bioimpedence analysis results and mine were to put it nicely very average!

So what is bioimpedence analysis and how is it useful to you in finding out about your health?

Bioimpedence analysis was originally developed to monitor patients who were recovering from surgery in hospitals. Bioimpedence analysis measures fat mass, muscle mass and inflammation. It does this by running a low level electric current through two points on the feet and hands and assessing how long it takes for the current to reach the points and return. The test itself only takes a few minutes however you also need a persons height, weight, wrist circumference and waist measurement to flesh out the parameters.

By measuring these parameters you can start with a baseline of where someone’s health is at and also measure changes over time. Its really useful with weight loss as people often get frustrated saying well I only lost a kilo and I was doing all this exercise. You can actually see with bioimpedence analysis that they have actually lost 2kg of fat and gained a kilo of muscle – which really helps with motivation. Also muscle burns more energy so often I start by getting people to work on building more muscle to really help them burn kilojoules.

One of the areas I really focus on in practice however is ATM and ATM energy. ATM is active tissue mass or muscle mass in the body. ATM energy is how much energy your muscle mass is producing and this can be really variable. In the picture above the client is showing as having about 4kg less muscle than is adequate for their frame.  If you think of this as being the size of their battery then the battery is too small so even with a good level of energy they may feel more fatigued.

There are several changes you can make which really help improve energy levels. Start with a healthy well balanced diet high in vegetables and good quality protein. If that doesn’t make enough of a difference then you can look at various supplements including a good quality multi vitamin and magnesium or CoQ10.

If you would like to find out what your bioimpedence analysis results look like I am happy to do a free report for you in my clinic on a Tuesday or Wednesday during May and June, 2014. You just need to book in with reception on 8084 0081 and book in a short nutrition consult for a bioimpedence analysis  (VLA) for 15 minutes.  Ideally you will also make sure you know your height as I can do all the other measurements in clinic.