This article was originally published by SportTechie.

SportTechie’s Startups series looks at companies and founders who are innovating in the fields of athlete performance, fan engagement, team/league operations and other high-impact areas in sports.

Elevator Pitch: “We’re an aggregator of lab tests and a platform that helps you get results you can understand and apply.”

Body fat percentage chart for Women:

Under 15%: Low Body Fat Risk.

15%-18%: Ultra Lean.

18%-22%: Lean.

22%-30%: Moderately Lean.

30%-40%: Excess Fat.

Above 40%: High Body Fat Risk.

Abdominal, or visceral, fat is of particular concern because it's a key player in a variety of health problems — much more so than subcutaneous fat, the kind you can grasp with your hand. Visceral fat, on the other hand, lies out of reach, deep within the abdominal cavity, where it pads the spaces between our abdominal organs.

Visceral Fat: How to Measure It

DEXA Scan: It is well-established that both the distribution and volume of fat, especially visceral adipose tissue (VAT), is a predictor of future health.

The Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR is the minimum number of calories you need to perform basic functions, such as maintaining heart rate and body heat, breathing and keeping up brain activity. You will need this minimum amount of energy each day, even if you are not moving around.

The RMR measures how many calories you burn at rest, if you were to do nothing more than sitting all day.

The quarantine that followed the COVID-19 outbreak has forced most of us to become more sedentary, making it harder to maintain or lose weight. At-home exercise —whether it’s through virtual classes with your favorite trainer or with a new at-home exercise equipment— is a great way to stay active. However, it is also crucial that you adapt your nutrition to this new lifestyle if you would like to maintain or lose weight effectively.

Everything You Need to Know on How to Complete your At-Home Blood Test with Fitnescity. We highly recommend you watch the short video below before beginning and/or while completing your at-home blood test.

Make sure you are in a fasted state. The best time to complete the test is the morning.

Drink plenty of water before performing your screening. Being hydrated will help with blood flow.

Fill out all of the required personal information on the Test Requisition Form.

As the number of coronavirus infections approaches 100,000 people worldwide, researchers are racing to understand what makes it spread so easily. In the immediate term, there are a few steps everyone can take to help strengthen their immune system. Physical activity and sleep come first. Other steps include a general health check: Vitamin D testing, Test for inflammation: Hs-CRP, Blood glucose testing: HbA1c, Full Lipid panel testing: Cholesterol.

Having a well balanced diet is not just desirable but critical for anyone looking to stay healthy and perform well. One the of most common signs of nutritional deficiencies —whether it’s Vitamin D, Iron, Magnesium, Vitamin B12 or Zinc— is reduced energy and increased perception of effort in training. As an athlete, you may feel like that you need longer to recover between sessions.

A wealth of measurable variables of task-specific performance, training load, physiology, health and wellness exist to facilitate this, which can be used to guide coaches and athletes. In many cases this now includes blood profiling and monitoring […] For example, a high testosterone-to-cortisol ratio suggests greater anabolic drive and has been strongly associated with positive training and performance outcomes [3]; chronically low energy

Body composition testing — also called body fat testing — has long played a role in medical research and weight-loss studies. But over the last decade or so, biohackers, athletes and science-minded fitness buffs have begun to test their own body makeup, determining what percentage of their volume comes from fat, versus muscle, bone, blood and other matter. Now, I was doing the same — frozen still inside the vessel as the machine measured the amount of air displaced by my mostly-bare body. I held perfectly in place for two 30-second measurements, then breathed a big sigh of relief as the machine unsealed itself.

In this article, you will learn the basics about Cholesterol (Total, HDL, LDL and Triglycerides), along with the healthy ranges by blood lipid marker, age and gender.

In this article, you will learn the basics about Cholesterol (Total, HDL, LDL and Triglycerides), the healthy ranges and most importantly, what you can do to maintain your cholesterol within a healthy range.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that occurs naturally in your body. At normal levels, it is essential for the body to function properly. This includes making hormones, vitamin D, and substances that help you digest foods.Your body generally makes all the cholesterol it needs, thus eating too much saturated and trans fats leads to an excess of cholesterol in your blood. This, in turn, can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Individuals who are sedentary, overweight or obese, consume a diet high in saturated fat, have a family history of high cholesterol and/or are middle-aged or older are at particularly high risk of hypercholesterolemia and subsequent cardiovascular complications. The good news is that cholesterol levels can be improved with a little TLC; that is, therapeutic lifestyle changes.

In the realm of fitness, blood biomarker testing is a window inside your body. It allows you to better understand your wellness, nutrition and fitness levels by providing you information on indicators such as injury risk, hydration status, muscle status and more. These indicators are essential to ensuring optimal performance and health. Additionally, blood tests are easy and fast, whilst also providing a wealth of information.

UFC fighter Jimmie Rivera (#8 Bantamweight Division • 22-3-0) has been using Fitnescity's DEXA assessments during training to prepare for his weight cut with Couterstrike Combat Sports. Combat fighters have an edge when they turn to the latest data-driven tech to help them compete at an elite level.

Follow Jimmie’s journey with the UFC here.

Optimizing body composition requires fighters to change weight by losing body fat, while maintaining as much muscle as possible. As we can see from Conor McGregor’s case, achieving both goals at the same time requires masterful training and nutrition management. The DEXA scan is great tool for hitting the target weight for a fight, while maintaining a good body composition.

We previously discussed What It Takes To Pass The F.B.I Fitness Test and The Candidate Physical Abilities Test For Firefighters, but on the topic of required fitness tests for different occupations, let’s not forget the police officers we see almost every day in our lives. The duties of a police officer also require continuous physical readiness as with the previously mentioned careers, and are definitely just as rigorous.

Fitness testing —in the context of a Firefighter’s duties— embodies elements of strength, endurance and agility. The Physical Abilities Test for Firefighters consists of eight steps that simulate actual events that can happen while on service. The entire assessment must be completed in 10 minutes and 20 seconds or else the candidate fails.

There are a lot of tests you can do, such as a resting metabolic rate test, that will provide you with information about your health and how to improve it. One test I really like, and think everyone should experience, is the DEXA scan.

This is a description of my experience with 23andme’s wellness report, which covers nutrition, exercise and sleep. As some of you may know, I often share my test results and findings (even though I take the right for privacy very seriously!) with the goal of starting the discussion on self-collected data and learning about other people's experiences. The links and screenshots of the results are available below.