Body composition is typically defined in terms of three parameters—lean, fat and bone mass. A safe and effective program or product will result in a depletion of excess body fat while preserving, or increasing, lean and bone mass irrespective of changes in scale weight. Indeed, an effective program could actually increase scale weight by means of the addition of metabolically active lean even though excess body fat has been depleted. For example, if the intervention increases lean by 5 pounds and decreases fat by 4 pounds, there would be a 1 pound gain in scale weight, which suggests an ineffective intervention or program. In reality, it was highly effective by facilitating a 9 pound improvement in body composition. This suggests that in evaluating an intervention, losses of body fat and gains in lean mass should be counted as positive outcomes, and gains in fat and losses in lean mass should be counted as negative outcomes. This approach has led IHT’s scientists to develop and use the Body Composition Improvement index (BCI) when evaluating the safety and efficacy of weight loss interventions. The BCI is simply the net result of scoring losses of fat and gains in lean as positive, and gains in fat and losses in lean as negative. IHT’s database contains over 30,000 body composition measurements and provides some dramatic examples of the different conclusions that would be reached regarding the safety and efficacy of the four different diets depicted in the following figures.
The 1.0 lb increase in scale weight suggests a 1.0 lb negative treatment outcome. But the weight gain resulted from a -3.0 lb loss of body fat and a gain fo 4.0 lbs of lean mass-both positive treatment outcomes. The BCI correclty despicts a +7.0 lb positive treatment outcome--an 8.0 lb difference from using scale weight changes.
The scale weight suggest a -2.0 lb positive treatment outcome. But the weight loss resulted from a +4.0 lb increase on body fat and a decrease of -6.0 lbs of lean mass- both negative treatment outcomes. the BCI correctly depicts a -10 lb negative treatment outcome correcting the distortion -- a
