Tanita

Pat Francis has been using the professional TBF-300 Tanita Body Composition Analyser to compliment her regular diet and fitness classes.

At the centre in Milton Keynes, Pat oversees 19 different classes with an average of 500 people coming through the doors each week. At each class, the attendees are given advice on following a healthy, low fat diet, followed by 45 minutes of aerobic exercise.

The classes also feature regular 'weigh-ins' to monitor weight loss progress. Pat has been offering her clients body fat monitoring as an added service:

"We have been explaining to our clients that it is more important to lose body fat than weight. After monitoring their body fat percentage, we provide them with a printout of their results and run through the implications of body composition with each person. We've had good results - particularly noticeable is the impact of exercise on body fat."

Pat is anticipating an influx of new clients in the new year period, and hopes that the body fat monitoring will help to keep her clients focused and motivated.

Jill Metcalfe is a dietician at a new diabetes centre in Luton, where the professional Tanita Body Composition Analyser, TBF-410, is used by dieticians, nurses and clinicians alike.

According to Jill, "The Tanita monitor gives us a much clearer idea of insulin resistance in the individual, because it tells us more about the distribution of body weight."

Jill says that the Tanita monitor is particularly beneficial to the centre because they have a large number of exceptionally obese patients:

"When these patients begin a healthy eating and exercise programme, the beneficial change in their body composition is not immediately obvious. Monitoring their body fat regularly gives a clear indication of progress and is an extremely useful tool - not just in terms of health monitoring, but for their own motivation too."

In addition the Tanita monitor is useful for patients of Asian origin, who are not properly represented by the Caucasian-based BMI equations. They may have a 'healthy' BMI reading but actually have a dangerously high percentage of internal body fat. According to Jill,

"We also find that the non-intrusive nature of the Tanita monitor is particularly suitable for people of different ethnic backgrounds, who are sometimes uncomfortable about having waist/hip measurements because of their culture."

The centre recently used the Tanita monitor in a public health display in the local shopping centre during Diabetes Week, to encourage visitors to measure their body fat and raise awareness of the link between obesity and diabetes.