What we cover
Body Composition
What this beat covers
The measurement technologies and what separates them. DEXA, bioimpedance and circumference-based estimates are not equivalent in precision, and a practice should tell you which it uses without being asked twice.
We also cover the outputs that get least attention. Visceral adipose tissue behaves quite differently from the fat under the skin and tracks with metabolic risk in a way total body weight does not. Bone density in men is rarely measured at all until something breaks, which is precisely too late for it to serve as a baseline.
Why this beat gets skipped
Body composition sits awkwardly between medicine and fitness, so it often falls through the gap: too clinical for a gym, too cosmetic-seeming for a physician with fifteen minutes. The result is that a genuinely informative scan goes unordered for people who would benefit from having a baseline in their forties rather than a diagnosis in their sixties.
The measures
What we write about in this area
- DEXA scan
- Separates lean mass, fat mass and bone density, and reports visceral fat distinctly.
- Visceral adipose tissue
- The fat around the organs, which behaves differently from the fat you can see.
- Bone density
- Most useful as a baseline recorded early, which is exactly when it is least often ordered.
- Grip strength
- A one-minute functional measure that correlates with a great deal more than forearm strength.
Questions we keep coming back to
- How much precision does a reader actually need, and when is bioimpedance enough?
- What should men know about bone density that nobody currently tells them?
- How often is re-scanning useful, and when does it become a way to worry more frequently?
We work through these continuously. The Coastline Brief is where the answers land first.