When it comes to tracking fitness progress, gyms and wellness facilities often focus on one thing: weight. However, this approach misses a crucial element of a person’s health and fitness journey—skeletal muscle mass. Understanding and monitoring skeletal muscle mass, rather than just weight, is key to providing a more accurate, holistic view of a client’s physical health, especially in the age of GLP-1 drugs, which are becoming increasingly popular for weight loss. Here’s why tracking skeletal muscle mass should be a priority for fitness professionals, and how the Evolt 360 body scanner is the perfect tool for the job.
Skeletal Muscle Mass vs. Weight: The Key Difference
Weight alone can be a misleading indicator of progress. A person’s weight fluctuates due to various factors—water retention, hormonal changes, or even changes in muscle mass. For instance, someone might lose weight but still not see improvements in their body composition if they lose muscle rather than fat. Conversely, a person may gain weight but improve their body composition by building muscle, which is denser and more metabolically active than fat.
Skeletal muscle mass is a far more precise metric. It provides insight into how much muscle a person has, which is crucial for many reasons:
- Metabolic Health: Muscle mass plays a critical role in metabolic rate. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns, even at rest.
- Strength & Functionality: The ability to perform daily activities, as well as athletic performance, depends on muscle strength and endurance.
- Body Composition: A higher muscle mass, paired with a lower fat percentage, is often a better indicator of health than simply weight.
GLP-1 Drugs: The Impact on Body Composition
GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonists, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, are becoming increasingly common for weight loss. These drugs help regulate blood sugar and reduce appetite, leading to weight loss. However, a common concern with these drugs is that they might lead to the loss of muscle mass alongside fat loss. This is where the Evolt 360 body scanner comes in as an essential tool for tracking progress accurately.
The Evolt 360: The Perfect Tool for Tracking Skeletal Muscle Mass
The Evolt 360 body scanner is a cutting-edge body composition scanner that provides precise measurements of skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, metabolic age, and more. This technology gives gyms and wellness centers a complete picture of a client’s progress, not just in terms of weight loss but also muscle preservation or growth.
Here’s why the Evolt 360 stands out:
- Accurate Tracking of Skeletal Muscle Mass: Unlike simple weight scales, the Evolt 360 body scanner uses bioelectrical impedance to measure and track muscle mass with high accuracy, allowing professionals to monitor changes over time.
- Comprehensive Data: The Evolt 360 body scanner doesn’t just provide skeletal muscle mass data. It offers a full body composition analysis, which is crucial when managing clients who are on weight loss programs or using GLP-1 drugs. Clients can see how their fat-to-muscle ratio evolves, ensuring they’re not losing muscle in the process of losing weight.
- Customizable Insights: The device gives personalized insights based on a client’s specific goals, whether it’s fat loss, muscle gain, or maintaining their current body composition. This data can also help guide nutrition and workout plans tailored to each individual.
- GLP-1 Considerations: Since GLP-1 medications can lead to muscle loss and fat loss, using a tool like the Evolt 360 body scanner can help gym owners and trainers ensure their clients retain as much muscle as possible while still losing weight. Monitoring muscle mass will enable the adjustment of workout and nutrition programs to safeguard muscle preservation.
Conclusion
In a world where body composition matters more than just weight, the Evolt 360 body scanner offers gyms and wellness facilities the ability to provide more accurate, individualized insights into their clients’ health and fitness. With the rise of GLP-1 drugs, it’s more important than ever to track muscle mass to ensure clients are losing fat while retaining muscle. By using the Evolt 360 body scanner, fitness professionals can offer a more precise and effective approach to achieving long-term health and fitness goals.
References
Jiao, R., Lin, C., Cai, X., Wang, J., Wang, Y., Lv, F., … & Ji, L. (2024). Characterizing body composition modifying effects of a glucagon‐like peptide 1 receptor‐based agonist: a meta‐analysis. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 27(1), 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.16012
Piper Sandler Research. (2024). GLP-1 and the health & wellness industry: Consumer insights and market trends. Retrieved from https://www.pipersandler.com/sites/default/files/document/H%26W_GLP-1_WhitepaperFINAL.pdf
Thomas, L., & Franklin, J. (2024, October 15). Ozempic is transforming your gym. Financial Times. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/70633f93-fb82-41e3-9aca-6644334a587b