Tools of the trade: body fat analyzers allow the AFP Fitness Practitioner to easily track clients' progress

American Fitness, Jan-Feb, 1998 by Neil Sol

Determining your clients' body composition contributes critical information for profiling fitness levels and health. Knowing lean tissue and fat mass helps determine the emphasis in an exercise program leading to the development of overall fitness. Clients who reveal a large proportion of fat in relation to total body weight are in need of exercise and lifestyle enhancement that emphasizes caloric expenditure and proper nutrition. Excessive fat is the root cause of many health conditions from heart disease to diabetes. It is incumbent upon fitness professionals to help clients achieve optimal body fat levels.

To achieve this goal, periodic measurement of body composition is necessary. In the past, improvement in body composition was based on scale weight, the assumption being a reduction in total body weight reflects fat loss. This is not always the case. Weight reduction could be the result of fat and lean tissue loss. Therefore, it is imperative the AFP Fitness Practitioner[R] employ techniques that accurately measure fat and lean body components.

Laboratory procedures such as underwater weighing are typically difficult to perform -- and costly. Although accurate, they're not feasible for the practitioner. There are numerous field techniques available to practitioners that include skinfold measurements, other anthopometric measurements and ultrasound. They too offer reasonable reproducible results, but can be cumbersome, complicated and time consuming. For instance, before using skinfold measurements, practitioners need training and have to understand and select correct formulas.

From a business perspective, fitness professionals should select a device for measuring body composition that is practitioner friendly and provides optimal accuracy. The bio-electrical impedance method yields body composition accuracy equal to that of skinfold measurements and superior to that of other field techniques. In as much as the bio-electrical impedance technique offers relatively accurate results, its greatest value to the practitioner is in tracking the change in body composition with time and participation using the initial test results as the reference. With these methods, practitioners can also design specific exercise regimens for clients.

Bio-electrical impedance offers practitioners an inexpensive way to bring a high-tech service to their practice. Clients will see results in their hands immediately and be directed to follow a plan to achieve the body composition goals. A bio-electrical impedance measurement is an attraction to clients, who will be willing to pay an additional fee because the results are valuable.

Body composition measurements should be key in the initial fitness/functional capacity assessment of each client. Providing state-of-the-art services in health and fitness should always be the goal of the fitness professional. Utilizing body composition measurements will not only enhance the quality of the technical service AFPs provide, it is certain to improve business.