Your colleague, your brother, and your gym buddy are all aiming for 15% body fat. Should you jump on this bandwagon? But what does that really mean? Why is 15% the seeming “magic” number for body fat in men? Get the facts about the impact of body composition on your health. To learn more about your own numbers, schedule a body composition test.

VO2 max is more than just another fitness number. This metric, which expresses how well your lungs use oxygen during activity, interacts with body composition to have a big impact on wellness. Legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong has won countless races, broken records, and received accolades. Unless you're a superfan, however, you probably don't know that his reported VO2 max rate of about 85 is one of the highest in the world. What does this mysterious number mean, and why does it matter to you?

We hear a lot about losing water weight and the human body's significant percentage of H20. But what does water really mean for our wellness? Explore more about our water content, how much we should really be drinking each day, and why it matters to our body composition and is key to reaching optimal health.

We are excited to announce that KORR has joined us in our mission to make metabolic (resting metabolic rate/RMR) and cardiovascular (VO2 max) assessments easier to find and easier to understand.

By working together, Fitnescity will continue to expand their national partnerships of DEXA, BOD POD, RMR and VO2 max testing allowing consumers across the United States to quickly find and access the important wellness information they’re looking for.

Hydrostatic weighing illustrates your body’s internal makeup, providing a ratio of fat to lean muscle that can drive fitness and disease prevention goals. Understanding how this displacement-based method works and what to expect during the process can unlock a whole new way of tracking progress toward your wellness objectives. Understand how this method is similar and different than BOD POD and DEXA scans for body composition.

If you’re like many Americans, you already shell out hundreds on your health and fitness each year. You’re already investing in a pricey gym membership, personal training sessions, and meal subscriptions. Is it worth setting aside some of those funds for routine DEXA body composition analysis?

Every day we are fortunate to connect with people nationwide who are interested in learning more about their well-being through wellness lab testing. We thought we’d take a moment to tackle some of the questions we hear most. Everything from how often to get tested, the difference between DEXA and BOD POD, to how to book and use a Fitnescity package, we’ve got the answers to the questions you ask us most.

A DEXA body scan provides a detailed analysis of your body composition, from bone density to body fat. But why would you want one? Simply put, it’s all about helping you make the right wellness decisions that work for your body. Let’s look at five key DEXA concepts and how they help you reach your fitness and wellness goals with confidence.

Your VO2 max tells you how efficiently your body uses oxygen during workouts. Improve your VO2 max, and your athletic performance should improve, too. Our secret weapon for a better VO2 max is a little something called the crowd effect. If you want to up your athletic game, start with the people around you.

One of the key take-aways that Sierra discusses in her review of her results, is that not only does DEXA offer a body fat percentage, but it also offers a percentile based on your age, gender and ethnicity. That percentile is arguably the most key component of your DEXA scan to monitor. Reason being, DEXA body fat percentages are unique to DEXA and therefore cannot be compared against body fat percentages found elsewhere.

Cosmetic surgery is on the rise. But what's the real cost of sculpting and shaping your natural form? We compare trending techniques to slim and accentuate the body with the effects of tried-and-true lifestyle changes.

Oh, visceral fat, how we loathe thee. Let us count thy ways: it increases the risk of chronic disease (including cancer), it can cause inflammation, and it can make us feel sluggish and slow us down. The good news: exercising for 30 minutes or more each day can decrease visceral body fat, and we’ve got the scoop on great—and fun!—exercises to do the trick and help you change your body composition for the better.

Brown, white, or beige? No, we aren’t talking about skin color, we’re talking about types of fat. Yes, there are in fact three! When it comes to fat cells, the answer to this color question could provide insight into how healthy we really are. Explore the different types of body fat to understand why achieving good health means more than just the number on the scale and how the different types impact your body composition.

After probiotics, the second category of foods for our gut microbes is: prebiotics. Coming from plant material high in fiber, they serve our health through the flourishing of specific strains of microbes, microbe fermentation of these foods, and their production of SCFA byproducts. SCFA can regulate our immune system and inflammation (5, 6), regulate our appetite (7), influence our brain physiology and behavior (8), regulate blood pressure (9), protect against metabolic disease (10), and many other health functions.

Even though more and more Americans are trying to lose weight, obesity rates are on the rise. If you are also having a hard time losing weight, there are a number of factors that could be getting in your way, including insufficient protein, a slow metabolism, hedonic hunger, and even too narrow a focus on scale weight.

When you think about foods that benefit your digestive system, what comes to mind? Oftentimes when I ask this question in lectures, the answer is typically Probiotics. Indeed, probiotic-rich foods (read: microbe-rich) do benefit our microbiomes (and act on the Species level, as we discussed in our last post). Probiotics, defined, are live bacteria that have been shown to provide a health benefit to the host (aka, YOU) when consumed in adequate amounts.

Couples live together and tend to develop similar habits. If you and your partner also have kids, they are watching your every move, learning from what you eat and how you spend your time. Use your familial influence to develop defenses against future obesity and chronic illness. Preventing childhood obesity and reducing obesity rates among adults can have an unmatched impact on health and wellness. If you want to reduce disease risk and ward off these complications as a family, start with a DEXA scan to know where you stand and where to go from there.

When you think about foods that benefit your digestive system, what comes to mind? The answer is typically Probiotics. Indeed, probiotic-rich foods (read: microbe-rich) do benefit our microbiomes (and act on the Species level, as we discussed in our last post). Here are some examples of probiotic-rich foods: kefir, tempeh, kimchee, buttermilk, lassi, miso and more.

Taking steps to prevent illness can change the course of your wellness journey. Health insurance and the overall cost of healthcare represent a major expense for most American families. According to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average cost of an employer-sponsored health plan in the U.S. includes $6,015 in annual insurance premiums and nearly $1,300 in out-of-pocket costs every year. If this scenario sounds familiar, it's time to learn how to make the most of your healthcare coverage.

We've all heard about calories in, calories out as a can't-miss weight loss formula. Understanding exactly how this process works at a molecular level provides valuable insight into weight optimization and chronic disease risk.