Kick Start Programme and body composition analysis

A trend that has been apparent in recent years is that strong is the new sexy.

More and more people are opting to build good muscle tone and focus on improving their health and fitness rather than sporting a skinny look. Since my mid teens I’ve always enjoyed exercise but a few years ago I lost my focus and found myself at my heaviest weight and, with heart disease in my family, I knew I had to get back into shape for my health, well-being and self-esteem.

Three years ago I lost two stone through healthy eating and exercising regularly. Now aged 42, I still maintain my weight and I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been in my life. I train at the gym four times a week and practise advanced Pilates, with the odd 5k run in between. Despite having a regular routine, I wanted to see how fit I actually was and if there were areas I could improve, so I booked into Temple Clinic to be measured on their state-of-the-art body composition analysis machine, the InBody 770, which is often used to support world class athletes.

Now, I’m not claiming to be an athlete at all, far from it, but I found it hugely interesting from a health and fitness point of view. You literally stand on the machine and hold two probes in each hand for just 2 minutes and it calculates a fantastic report on your body’s composition. The medical grade analysis details your body composition of water, protein, minerals and fat mass and creates a more detailed snapshot of muscle, fat, visceral fat (which is the fat that surrounds your internal organs and can increase your risk of heart attacks and strokes) and even provides an analysis of each arm, leg and trunk.

The InBody assessment provides a great rundown of all the numbers important to fitness fanatics, such as weight, body mass index, percentage body fat and skeletal muscle mass. 

In addition to the numbers, there’s also the added bonus of all the expert knowledge of Dr Sam Robson, who explains the results in simple terms and offers advice and guidance on what areas you could work on to improve, how many calories you should be consuming daily and how you could change your exercise routine to get better results. Temple Clinic regularly uses the body composition equipment to provide the biometric analysis for their weight loss programme, Temple Vie. This helps patients to understand the changes in their body as they lose weight and can help them to make the lifestyle changes necessary to keep the weight off.

Some gyms can provide similar analysis but the InBody 770 is currently one of the most advanced and accurate on the market, so if you really want to set some good fitness resolutions for the future, booking in for a full body composition analysis would be a great start to focus on your goals of looking strong, fit and healthy.