How Alloy Uses InBody For Body Composition Analysis

In this podcast, Rick interviews Dan Park, VP of Sales for InBody, an advanced device that measures body composition through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Dan explains the technology behind the InBody, how they have scaled in both the medical and fitness space, and what’s next for the company.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Kichul Cha, InBody Founder and CEO, recognized BIA devices were limited and faulty. From a medical standpoint, they were often inaccurate and useless for treating patients who needed body composition analysis the most. Drawing from his background in mechanical engineering, he founded the company in 1996 and designed InBody two years later. InBody has grown from a small biotech startup in South Korea to a multinational corporation with branches and distributors in more than 80 countries.

In the personal training business during the earlier years, we used to measure body fat with calipers. This measurement meant it was really uncomfortable for most people because we had to pinch fat. Pinching fat also had a considerable margin of error if you didn’t measure in the right place consistently every time.

Now when we use the non-invasive InBody device allows a more professional and friendly customer experience. It is also more scientific and accurate.

InBody provides a detailed breakdown of your weight in terms of muscle, fat, and water. The results display comprehensive and easy-to-understand measurements. No more pinching your skin for measurements or dunking in a tank of water. You then can use the information to help reach your health and fitness goals with precision and actionable objectives.

Alloy has been Hear incorporating InBody body composition measurements for over 10 years. It begins when you come in for the starting point session and they continue to use it to track and measure progress. It has proven to be a positive customer experience and drastically reduces the client’s TTV (time to value).

There is a misconception that BIA is a body fat measuring device, but technically, it’s a body water measuring device. It measures the resistance of current through the water in your body, allowing calculation of lean body mass value. Everything left is considered fat. There are extra frequencies to measure both intracellular and extracellular water. If the baseline water measurement is more accurate, then you’re going to get more accurate dry lean mass and lean body mass.

Dry Lean Mass is the weight of protein and mineral content in your body. Protein makes up most of your muscle, and Dry Lean Mass excludes body water. If your Dry Lean Mass increases, then this is generally a sign that you have gained muscle mass!

Lean Body Mass is the weight of everything in your body except fat. Lean Body Mass includes muscle, water, bones, and organs.

Men, women, and even youth are doing a lot more weight resistance training to build more muscle. Not only does weight training build more muscle, but increases bone density. An additional benefit of increasing muscle is muscle burns more calories than fat. So there are many benefits to increasing muscle and reducing fat and being able to track that transition helps to direct fitness and health goals.

Using InBody with Alloy personal training clients allows us to improve their time to value (TTV), by shortening the time a client sees measurable results. This reinforces client motivation, retention, and client longevity.

In this example, we explain why we use the goal of measuring the change in body composition versus just measuring overall weight loss. Let’s say we have a client that wanted to lose 10 pounds in the first month, but they only lost 5 pounds. If we are just measuring weight loss with a scale, that client is going to be disappointed.

Now when we do another InBody measurement to check lean tissue muscle gain and fat loss, if you can show they added a couple of pounds of lean tissue and lost more body fat in that three pounds, then that’s a win. So it helps us know how your body composition is changing and we can show tangible results. A positive benefit of focusing on changing body composition by gaining muscle and losing fat, you actually will change your appearance drastically. So focusing on weight loss alone would not deliver the same motivating results. In this way, we provide

Dan describes how you should focus on the three E’s.

Education – Education on muscle mass, fat and water in their body, and how changing body composition leads people to become more healthy.
Empowerment – The more education you give them, the more they become empowered to take charge and change their life.
Engagement – As they continue on their journey of change, people become more engaged. They love to share their challenges and success they have achieved.

When we use body composition in Alloy personal training, we can set protein goals with protein supplements to help with the muscle transition process. Especially as we get older, we don’t process our proteins as well. So it is important we adjust nutritional needs appropriately. This leads to all kinds of really interesting conversations that are professional and very scientific.

InBody is required for all Alloy franchises, but the return on investment is undeniable. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us! We would love to show you how it works!

Key Takeaways