Most people who monitor their body fat already know about the caliper test, the measuring-tape test, the hydrostatic ( underwater displacement) test, body-fat scales and the originally developed for assessing bone density.
The current gold standard is air-displacement plethysmography, measured by the , a futuristic-looking machine widely used as the medical benchmark because it measures fat throughout the entire body, including around organs. At about $32,000 apiece, a Bod Pod is a significant investment, but one that elite fitness centers and businesses consider worth the price.
In the Denver area, there are Bod Pods at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, Fitness and Sports Training and . Getting a measurement isn’t cheap. It costs an average of $75 per session. Some businesses offer discounts on multiple measurements over time.
“The Bod Pod is an accurate — and one of the easiest — ways to measure body composition — the amount of fat weight and the amount of fat-free weight,” said Donielle Montoya, clinical business manager at the Anschutz Center’s wellness clinic, which owns three Bod Pods.
Here’s how it works: A client wearing a snug Lycra swimsuit first steps on a conventional scale to be weighed.
Then she goes to the egg-shaped Bod Pod — clients may be reminded of “Sleeper,” or the giant stage eggs in — and climbs inside. A technician shuts the Bod Pod door, and the client waits for three to five minutes as the Bod Pod calculates air displacement to measure body mass, volume and density.
Denver mom Amy Worley, who began working out in January to lose weight, decided to check out her progress in the Bod Pod last May, and then again in August.
“I wanted to do it in May because I knew I wouldn’t like the numbers, and I wanted it to keep me accountable for eating clean all summer,” Worley said.
“The second time, in August, I was nervous because for the whole summer, the number on the scale hardly moved at all. The Bod Pod in August showed that I’d gained six pounds of muscle and lost even more fat, so that was really encouraging. Who cares about not losing weight on the scale if you’re gaining muscle? It’s a better way to measure success than what size jeans you wear.”
Some clients — especially fitter people accustomed to seeing low body mass index numbers — are disappointed when they look over the that arrives a few minutes after they emerge from the Bod Pod.
“The measurement of body fat is not the same as your BMI,” Montoya explained.
“Measuring your percentage of body fat versus lean mass is a body-composition measurement. It’s about the quality of the body weight. Stepping on a scale gives you a two-second snapshot of body mass in that exact moment. The as the best way to assess the quality of weight change over one’s lifetime.”
Denise Sandusky, who uses the Bod Pod in her chiropractic practices, tells patients to avoid referencing their BMI measurements.
“Comparing a body-composition test to another form of measurement is not apples to apples,” Sandusky explained.
“Two people can weigh the same amount, be the same height, and have the same BMI, but have very different body compositions. I have two patients like that. Each weighs about 150. One has 9 percent body fat, and the other has 36 percent. If you have 80 pounds of lean mass, and 70 of fat, then you’re not going to digest, process and metabolize food the same as someone with 100 pounds of lean mass and 50 pounds of fat.”
Why should people care about learning about their body composition? Because, Sandusky says, as we age, people need to understand their lean body mass, and work at that year after year.
“You want to nourish your body with good food, because in the long run, you’ll pay the price of extra calories saved as fatty tissue,” she said.
The Bod Pod also measures resting metabolic rate — the minimum amount of calories your body burns just to maintain itself, excluding exercise.
“It’s important to know your resting metabolic rate because that tells you if you go lower than that, you’ll lose muscle mass,” said Kent McCurdy of FAST, Fitness and Sports Training. He used to use underwater weighing assessments for clients, but switched recently to the Bod Pod.
“The people who get the biggest surprise when they come in for the Bod Pod are the people who are a little skinnier, with a smaller build, who do a lot of endurance sports but don’t have much muscle mass. I tell people that it’s counter-intuitive. Often, they need to eat more calories to increase their muscle mass. But that’s clean calories, not processed food.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
