There is no miracle drug or quick solution to staying healthy. The answer lies in the life we live and how we live it. Living healthy is not hard if you plan and commit to sustaining a way of life that benefits you. Here is some cut and dry information for your health consumption.

As a health and wellness professional and business owner, the main goal of my team is to guide our clients to healthier, longer and more vibrant lifestyles. We do this by analyzing and intervening on several biomarkers with body composition. It is an important component of a preventive health examination. Most of the accurate methods for measuring body fat are limited to the research laboratory or are extremely expensive. The Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis is a simple, reliable, and accurate method for assessing the percent of body fat in males and females, and stratifying health status.

Why is body composition important? Scale weight is not an indicator of an individual’s fat-to-muscle ratio. BMI (body mass index) measurement also lacks the ability to give fat-to-muscle ratio outcomes. A person with a muscular build will measure obese on a BMI screening. Body composition (BIA) accurately measures the amount of lean tissue (muscle) compared to fat, and water hydration. Body composition data can form the basis for a wide variety of therapeutic health and fitness prescriptions. Only body composition analysis can determine how much muscle and fat are lost or gained as a result of any nutrition, exercise, or pharmaceutical prescription; and it is cost-effective for any wellness program.

We concentrate on four health biomarkers of aging:
1)    Muscle and Body Fat Percentages
Fat Mass (FM): body weight in fat pounds; normal values based on age and gender. Men should be between 15 to 20% fat; women 20 to 25% fat.
Fat Free Mass (FFM): the combination of body cell mass and extra cellular mass. Ideally, men should have muscle mass between 80 to 85 percent; women between 75 to 80 percent. This also varies with age.

2)    Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
BMR is the amount of calories burned at rest during an average day to perform basic functions including breathing, digesting, heart beating, muscle activity, transportation of fluids and tissue, and circulation of blood. Calories you consume above your unique BMR rate are unnecessary for supporting you and will be converted into storage (fat); calories under your BMR compromise the body’s daily function, which compromises your health.

3)    Phase Angle
Phase Angle is based on total body resistance and reactance, independent of height, weight and body fat. It is the general health of cells. A high PA indicates improved health; a low PA indicates poor or failing health and usually indicates a need for intervention. PA has been determined as the single most important nutritional predictor of survival.

4)    Hydration
Includes:
Total Body Water (TBW): The sum of Extra Cellular Water (ECW) and Intracellular Water (ICW).
Intracellular Cellular Water (ICW): Potassium-based water found inside all body cells and increases with Body Cell Mass and decreases with Body Cell Mass Depletion. Muscle and organs have more ICW than fat cells, and;
Extracellular Water (ECW): Sodium-based fluids volume outside cells circulating through the body. If you retain fluids or have an infection, total body water might be high.

We know good health is based on 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent fitness. Using Bioimpedence technology allows us to measure body composition, complete nutritional and fluid assessments, and develop individualized wellness plans to put our clients in the best position to enjoy a long and healthy life.

Long-term benefits of a good body composition prescription include the ability to 1) analyze body composition data interactively, 2) create prescription for change, and 3) visualize the effectiveness of those prescriptions and professional recommendations with projected and historical graphs to help increase motivation for positive change.

Many people, especially women, eat diets that are too low calorically and do not meet their Basal Metabolic Rates. They compromise their health because the body is not consuming enough calories (usually protein) for daily body maintenance. The body begins to cannibalize itself by taking muscle from the body instead of fat to survive. The end result of this dilemma is a skinny fat person; thin, but measuring 30 percent or more in fat weight.

Transform your health and bring quality to your years by understanding self-care and taking responsibility for your quality of life. There is no fast track for living a healthy lifestyle, but one can make it easy by developing healthier lifestyle habits and increased knowledge of wellness. The ultimate outcome is improved health and increased longevity.

To learn more about BIA’s, find a BIA specialist near you or if you have questions, contact us at info@fortitudehw.com or visit our website at www.fortitudehw.com.