Scale weight alone provides little information about a person's body fat, lean weight, or measure health. Body composition analysis can form the basis for a wide variety of therapeutic health and fitness prescriptions. Only body composition analysis can determine how much muscle or lean index, fat or percent body fat, and body water are lost or gained as the result of a health care professional's recommendation. An accurate measurement of these parameters is required to exercise professional judgment. Forget skin-fold calipers and the impractical hydrostatic scales and enter the Valhalla BC1 using Bioelectrical Impedance Body Composition Analysis and Ohms Modulation Logic (OML).

According to Wikipedia, bioimpedance is a term used to describe the response of a living organism to an externally applied electric current. It is a measure of the oppostion to the flow of that electric current through the tissues, the opposite of electrical conductivity. The measurement of the bioimpedance (or bioelectrical impedance) of the humans and animals has proved useful as a non-invasive method for measuring such things as blood flow (often referred to as bioimpedance plethysmography) and body composition ( known as bioelectrical impedance analysis or simply BIA).

At Valhalla, for the academically curious, this translates to:

Where:

V is volume of the conductor and elates to TBW

ρ is a fluid conductivity constant

L is the length of the conductor

Z is the measured impedance

More specifically, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) measures the impedance or opposition to the flow of an electric current through the body fluids contained mainly in the lean and fat tissue. Lean tissues contain electrically conductive cellular fluids and electrolytes while fatty tissues contained extremely small amounts of conductive fluids. Impedance to current flow or bio-resistance is then low in lean tissue and high in fatty tissues. Consequently, bioimpedance is thus proportional to body water volume (TBW).

The Valhalla BC1 Body Composition Scale uses a small constant current of 500uA at a 50KHz frequency, which is passed between electrodes handles through the hands gripping the handles. The internal electronics measures voltage drop between electrodes and calculates the body’s impedance. The BC1 Body Composition Scale measures and inputs weight into the Prediction Equation. Height, gender and age are also added to Prediction Equations previously generated from the regression analysis of thousands of laboratory measurements to accurately predict total Body Water (TBW). TBW is subsequently used in the calculation of Lean Body Mass. Fat mass is calculated as the difference between body weight and lean body mass. Academic validation has proven the BC1 to match up against Hydrostatic weighing to within 1%~2%.

The transformation of raw impedance data into body composition is achieved through the use of prediction equations or algorithms. Prediction algorithms are created by collecting the “raw impedance data” from a study population of people. This same study population has their body composition determined by alternative known standards such as radioisotope dilution or hydrostatic weighing. In this case, Valhalla has scientifically and collectively collected thousands and thousands of set of impedance data under laboratory controlled conditions. Linear regression analysis is then conducted on these data and used to create a prediction equation. This prediction equation generates an equivalent body composition analysis to the reference standard when the impedance data of a subject within the population study is entered into the equation. Valhalla has developed a proprietary predication equation incorporating Ohms Modulation Logic to create the most accurate Body Composition Scales available in the industry.