Stop guessing.
Know exactly what
your body is made of.
An InBody 580 Body Composition Analysis measures body fat, muscle mass, visceral fat, metabolism and more — helping you understand real progress beyond the number on the scale. Every scan at Sanjiva includes medical provider interpretation, not just a printout.
Cash pay. No membership required.
- InBody 580 body composition scan
- Provider interpretation of every value
- Printed result sheet to take home
- Personalized protein, training & treatment recommendations
Enroll in a Sanjiva Optimization Membership within 30 days and your $75 is credited toward membership.
- Physician Owned & Operated
- Board Certified Obesity Medicine
- Board Certified Internal Medicine
- Dallas Observer Best Med Spa 2024
- 5633 W Lovers Lane
What is an InBody scan?
An InBody scan is a medical-grade body composition test that uses direct segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis to separate your body weight into fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, body water and visceral fat. The InBody 580 takes roughly 30 seconds, requires no radiation and no blood draw, and reports muscle and fat separately for each arm, each leg and your trunk. At Sanjiva Medical Spa in Dallas, an InBody 580 analysis is $75 and includes medical provider interpretation of your results.
Your scale measures gravity. It has no idea what you’re made of.
A bathroom scale reports one number: the force your entire body exerts on the floor. Bone, muscle, organs, fat, glycogen, stool, and the water you drank an hour ago are all bundled into that single figure. Two people can weigh exactly the same and be metabolically unrecognizable from one another.
32% body fat
Low muscle, elevated visceral fat, slower resting metabolism. Labeled “normal weight” by BMI.
19% body fat
Higher muscle mass, low visceral fat, higher basal metabolic rate. Identical number on the scale.
Illustrative composition profiles at identical body weight. Individual results vary.
The 10-pound illusion
A patient starts strength training and improves protein intake. Twelve weeks later the scale has moved four pounds. She’s discouraged. Her InBody tells a different story: fat mass down 10 pounds, skeletal muscle up 6 pounds. Her body recomposed dramatically. The scale simply averaged two opposite changes into a number that looked like failure.
Water moves faster than fat
Every gram of stored carbohydrate holds roughly three grams of water with it. Sodium, menstrual cycles, travel, alcohol, poor sleep, a hard workout, and creatine all shift total body water. Those swings routinely produce three to five pounds of overnight “weight change” that involve no fat whatsoever. The InBody separates intracellular and extracellular water so we can see which is which.
Rapid loss changes what you lose
The faster weight comes off — and the lower your protein intake and training stimulus — the greater the share that comes from lean tissue rather than fat. Losing 30 pounds is a very different clinical outcome depending on whether 5 pounds or 15 pounds of it was muscle. Weight alone cannot answer that question. Body composition can.
Why patients panic when muscle goes down — and why that reading is the most useful one on the sheet
Seeing skeletal muscle mass drop is the moment most people want to quit their program. It is also the moment intervention works best. A decline in skeletal muscle mass early in a weight-loss phase is a signal, not a verdict: it can reflect inadequate protein intake, insufficient resistance training, a rapid rate of loss, or simply short-term fluid and glycogen shifts that affect BIA. The finding is a reason to review the full picture — nutrition, training, hydration, symptoms and the trend across scans — rather than react to one number in isolation.
What is the InBody 580?
The InBody 580 is a professional-grade body composition analyzer built on direct segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (DSM-BIA). You stand on the platform, hold the two hand electrodes, and stay still. Painless, imperceptible electrical currents pass through your body along multiple pathways while the device measures how much each tissue resists them.
Fat is a poor conductor. Muscle, which is roughly three-quarters water and rich in electrolytes, conducts readily. By reading resistance and reactance at four frequencies (5, 50, 250 and 500 kHz) across five body segments — right arm, left arm, trunk, right leg, left leg — the 580 collects 20 separate impedance measurements and builds a detailed map of your tissue.
Two design choices matter clinically. First, the trunk is measured directly rather than inferred, which is where most consumer devices fail, because the torso holds the majority of body water and nearly all visceral fat. Second, the InBody 580 does not use empirical estimations: your results are not adjusted by age, sex, or ethnicity-based population averages. It reports what it measures on you.
30 seconds, fully clothed
Remove shoes and socks. Stand, hold the handles, breathe normally. Most patients are done before they’ve settled in.
No radiation, no needles, no discomfort
Unlike DEXA, there is no ionizing radiation exposure. Nothing is injected and nothing is drawn. Nearly all patients feel nothing at all.
Repeatable enough to trend
High test-retest reliability is what makes monthly scanning meaningful. Using the same device under standardized conditions improves repeatability and makes serial trends more meaningful, while still allowing for normal biological and hydration-related variation.
Validated against DEXA
Published comparisons of InBody multi-frequency devices against DEXA report correlations for percent body fat in the r = 0.94–0.98 range. Strong agreement — with honest limits we explain below.
What does an InBody 580 measure?
One 30-second test produces a full metabolic picture. Here is what lands on your result sheet — and what each value actually tells us.
Percent Body Fat (PBF)
Fat mass as a share of total weight. The single most useful number for tracking fat loss, and the one your scale cannot produce. Interpreted against sex-specific healthy ranges rather than a universal target.
Skeletal Muscle Mass (SMM)
The muscle attached to your bones — the tissue you actually train, and the tissue that drives strength, glucose disposal and metabolic rate. This is the number we protect during weight loss.
Visceral Fat Area & Level
Estimated cross-sectional fat around your abdominal organs, in cm². Metabolically the most dangerous fat in the body and the compartment most responsive to treatment. A visceral fat area above roughly 100 cm² is widely used as a risk threshold.
Segmental Lean Analysis
Lean mass in each arm, each leg and your trunk, scored against what your height and weight require. Reveals asymmetry after injury, disproportionate leg-muscle loss with aging, and whether training is actually working.
Total Body Water (ICW & ECW)
Water split into intracellular (inside your cells, where muscle lives) and extracellular. The distinction is what lets us tell genuine tissue change from a fluid shift.
ECW/TBW Ratio
Fluid balance. Elevated ratios can accompany inflammation, edema, or fluid retention — clinically meaningful context in patients with cardiac, kidney, or metabolic disease.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Estimated calories burned at complete rest, derived from your lean mass rather than a population formula. The anchor for setting a deficit that produces fat loss without stripping muscle.
Body Fat Mass & Weight
Fat in pounds, alongside total weight and BMI for reference. Seeing fat mass in pounds beside scale weight is where most patients finally understand their own trend line.
Segmental Phase Angle
An advanced output of the 580, reported for the whole body and by segment. Phase angle reflects cell membrane integrity and is used in research as a marker of cellular health and tissue quality — not just how much muscle you have, but its condition.
Protein & Mineral
Dry lean mass broken into its structural components. Low protein mass alongside falling muscle is a clear signal that dietary protein needs to rise before anything else changes.
Skeletal Muscle Index & FFMI
Muscle and lean mass normalized to height. These indices are how sarcopenia and low muscle mass are formally assessed — and how we know whether “enough muscle” means enough for you.
Body Composition History
Every scan stacks against the last, charting weight, muscle, percent body fat, visceral fat and fluid balance over time. The trend, not any single day, is the clinical signal.
Illustrative segmental lean analysis. Both legs are carrying less lean mass than this patient’s frame requires — a pattern invisible on a scale and easy to miss on a lab report.
Five segments, not one total.
Total muscle mass is a useful number. Where that muscle sits is often the clinically important one. Because the InBody 580 measures each limb and the trunk independently, it produces a lean-mass score for each segment against what your height and weight would predict.
In the profile shown here, total muscle mass might read as acceptable while both legs sit near 80% of expected. That pattern shows up constantly — in patients losing weight quickly without resistance training, in adults over 50, after knee or hip surgery, and in people whose exercise is entirely walking or cycling. Lower-body lean mass is the strongest functional predictor we have of stair climbing, fall risk and independence later in life.
It also changes the plan. Falling leg lean mass moves training toward loaded lower-body work and raises the protein target. Asymmetry between limbs after an injury changes rehab. An elevated trunk fat reading with normal limb composition points the conversation toward visceral fat, insulin resistance and cardiometabolic screening — which is where clinical interpretation matters most.
Most gyms print the report. We read it.
The same InBody hardware sits in commercial gyms across Dallas. The scan is not the product. What the scan means for your medications, your labs, your training, your protein intake and your next 90 days — that is the product.
GLP-1 and peptide therapy decisions
Falling skeletal muscle mass on semaglutide or tirzepatide is a dose, protein and training conversation — sometimes a reason to hold escalation, sometimes a reason to add resistance training and raise protein before going up. That decision requires a prescriber who is looking at the same sheet.
Visceral fat as a cardiometabolic finding
Visceral fat is not a cosmetic measurement. Imaging research including the MESA cohort has shown visceral fat associates with metabolic syndrome and coronary calcification independent of BMI. An elevated visceral reading in a “normal weight” patient is a prompt for lipids, A1c and blood pressure — not a prompt for a discount package.
Fluid shifts versus real tissue change
A rising ECW/TBW ratio can reflect inflammation, sodium load, a new medication, or fluid retention with cardiac or kidney disease. Interpreting body water without clinical context is how people get told they gained fat in a week. We look at the water compartments first.
Obesity medicine, formally trained
Obesity is a chronic disease with staging, comorbidities, pharmacology and relapse patterns. Board certification in obesity medicine means the interpretation you receive is built on that framework — including when body composition indicates a treatment should change or stop.
Metabolic rate that reflects your tissue
Because BMR is derived from your measured lean mass, we can set a deficit that is aggressive enough to work and conservative enough to preserve muscle — instead of guessing at 1,200 calories and hoping.
A plan with a next scan on it
Every interpretation ends with specific numbers: a daily protein target, a training minimum, a treatment adjustment where warranted, and a date to re-measure. Data without a decision is just paper.
If you’re on semaglutide or tirzepatide, this is the measurement that matters.
GLP-1 medications work. The clinical question is no longer whether patients lose weight — it’s what tissue that weight came from. Published body composition substudies give us real numbers to work with.
In the DEXA substudy of the STEP 1 trial, adults treated with semaglutide 2.4 mg for 68 weeks lost about 15% of body weight. Total fat mass fell roughly 19% and visceral fat mass fell about 27% — an excellent result. Total lean body mass also fell, by roughly 10%. Because fat fell faster, lean mass as a proportion of total body mass actually improved by about three percentage points. Both statements are true at once, which is precisely why the topic gets distorted in both directions online.
Reported the other way: in STEP 1, lean tissue accounted for a substantial share of total weight lost — analyses have placed it near 39–40%. The tirzepatide body composition data from SURMOUNT-1 have been more favorable, with approximately 75% of weight lost coming from fat and 25% from lean mass — close to the ratio seen with weight loss generally. Meanwhile, an MRI substudy in SURPASS-3 found reductions in muscle fat infiltration with tirzepatide, suggesting muscle quality can improve even as muscle volume declines.
The practical conclusion is not “GLP-1 medications destroy muscle.” It is that some lean mass loss is expected, the amount varies substantially between patients, and it is modifiable. Protein intake, resistance training, rate of loss and overall nutrition may influence body-composition outcomes. Serial measurement can add useful context alongside strength, symptoms, dietary intake and clinical follow-up — information the scale alone cannot provide.
| Finding | Semaglutide 2.4 mg (STEP 1 DEXA substudy, 68 weeks) | Tirzepatide (SURMOUNT-1 body composition analysis, 72 weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| Mean total weight change | About −15% of body weight | Substantial weight reduction across dose groups |
| Fat mass | About −19% | Roughly 75% of weight lost was fat mass |
| Lean / fat-free mass | About −10%; lean proportion of total mass improved ~3 points | Roughly 25% of weight lost was lean mass |
| Visceral fat | About −27% regional visceral fat mass | Reductions reported alongside overall fat loss |
| Share of loss from lean tissue | Reported near 39–40% in analyses of this substudy | About 25% — comparable to the placebo ratio |
| What this means for you | Population averages describe a range, not your outcome. Monthly InBody scanning tells us where you fall in that range while there is still time to change it. | |
Protein first
Appetite suppression is the mechanism — and the risk. Patients eating a fraction of their prior intake frequently fall well below the protein their lean mass requires. We set a specific daily gram target from your measured lean mass, then verify it against your next scan.
Resistance training is non-negotiable
Loaded strength work is the strongest available signal telling your body to keep muscle during a deficit. Two to three sessions weekly, progressively loaded, changes what tissue you lose. We track whether it’s working segment by segment.
Rate of loss is a dial, not a race
Faster is not better if a third of it is muscle. When scans show muscle declining, holding a dose or slowing escalation is often the right clinical call — a decision that requires a physician and a measurement, not a refill.
Where this fits in your care at Sanjiva
Body composition analysis is the objective backbone of our physician-led medical weight loss program. Patients on semaglutide or tirzepatide scan at baseline and monthly. Patients using peptide therapy for recovery and lean mass goals scan on the same cadence, because “feeling better” needs a number attached to it. When the goal is adding muscle rather than only losing fat, EMSCULPT NEO and other body contouring options are chosen based on what the scan shows — not on what’s on promotion.
More than a printout.
Sanjiva Medical Spa is physician-owned and led by Praveen Guntipalli, MD, FACP, who is board certified in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine. Your InBody 580 results are interpreted in the context of your goals rather than simply handed to you as a report.
- ABIM Board Certified
Internal Medicine - ABOM Board Certified
Obesity Medicine - Dallas Observer
Best Med Spa 2024 - Physician Owned
& Operated
InBody scan cost in Dallas
One price. No packages to decline, no consultation fee stacked on top, no upsell required to receive your results.
Per scan · cash pay
- InBody 580 body composition scan
- Provider interpretation of every value
- Printed result sheet
- Personalized recommendations — protein target, training minimum, next scan date
Your $75 is credited
Enroll in a Sanjiva Optimization Membership within 30 days of your scan and the full $75 is applied toward your membership. Body composition tracking is built into ongoing care, so members are re-measured as part of their program rather than paying per scan.
- Monthly re-measurement included in membership
- Physician oversight of medication and protocol adjustments
- Medication, where prescribed, billed separately
Body composition analysis is an elective wellness service and is not billed to insurance. Pricing is current as of publication and subject to change.
Who should get an InBody scan?
If your goal involves changing your body or protecting your metabolic health, you need a baseline. These are the patients for whom a scan changes decisions rather than just satisfying curiosity.
Anyone on a GLP-1 medication
The highest-value use case, without exception. Semaglutide and tirzepatide patients should have a baseline scan before or early in treatment and monthly scans thereafter. Muscle loss is the primary preventable complication of otherwise successful therapy, and it is silent without measurement.
Weight loss patients of every kind
Medication, diet, surgery or lifestyle — the question is identical: is this fat loss or is this weight loss? Bariatric patients in particular benefit, given the magnitude and speed of change and the well-documented risk to lean mass.
Peptide therapy and recovery patients
When patients pursue physician-supervised optimization programs with body-composition goals, objective measurements can add useful context to symptoms, training, nutrition and other clinical data. InBody trends can help determine whether body composition is moving in the intended direction without implying that a scan alone proves a therapy is effective.
TRT and hormone optimization patients
Testosterone and other hormone therapies are expected to shift lean mass and fat mass. Serum levels tell you the dose landed; body composition tells you whether it produced the clinical effect you were treating for.
Athletes, lifters and physique competitors
Segmental lean analysis exposes asymmetry, quantifies whether a bulk is actually adding muscle or mostly fat, and makes a cut measurable instead of a guessing game in the mirror.
Adults over 45 focused on longevity
Skeletal muscle is an important part of healthy aging: it supports strength, mobility, glucose handling and physical independence. Tracking muscle alongside function and strength can make age-related changes easier to identify and address earlier.
Normal-weight patients with metabolic concerns
Normal-weight visceral obesity is real and well documented — and it carries meaningful cardiometabolic risk despite a reassuring BMI. If diabetes, hypertension or heart disease runs in your family, your visceral fat area is worth knowing regardless of what you weigh.
Anyone stuck, discouraged, or done with the scale
A weight plateau does not always mean nothing is changing. Body composition, water balance, training adaptation and other factors can move differently from scale weight. An InBody scan can add context when the scale alone is not telling the full story.
InBody vs. BMI
BMI was devised in the 1830s by a mathematician studying population averages — not by a physician assessing individuals. It divides your weight by the square of your height. That’s the whole calculation. It cannot distinguish muscle from fat, and it has no access to where fat is stored.
| BMI | InBody 580 Analysis | |
|---|---|---|
| What it actually measures | Weight relative to height. Nothing else. | Fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, body water, visceral fat, protein, mineral — measured, per segment. |
| Distinguishes fat from muscle | No — a muscular athlete and a sedentary adult of the same height and weight receive the same BMI | Yes — reported separately in pounds |
| Detects visceral fat | No | Yes — visceral fat area in cm² and a visceral fat level |
| Identifies normal-weight metabolic risk | No — a “normal” BMI can conceal high body fat and high visceral fat | Yes — the exact pattern it’s designed to surface |
| Shows limb or trunk differences | No | Yes — five segments scored against expected |
| Useful for tracking a program | Only reflects total weight change; blind to recomposition | Separates fat change from muscle change from fluid change |
| Informs treatment decisions | Determines eligibility thresholds; little guidance beyond that | Can inform protein goals, training priorities and broader treatment planning when interpreted with the clinical picture |
| Where it’s still useful | BMI remains a legitimate population screening tool and is embedded in medication eligibility criteria and insurance coverage rules. We record it. We simply don’t mistake it for a description of your body. | |
InBody vs. DEXA
DEXA is the clinical reference standard for body composition, and we won’t pretend otherwise. The honest comparison is about accuracy versus practicality — and about which method you’ll actually repeat often enough to see a trend.
| DEXA (DXA) | InBody 580 | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; two X-ray energies differentiate tissue | Direct segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance at 5, 50, 250 and 500 kHz |
| Accuracy | Reference standard for fat, lean and bone mineral | Strong correlation with DEXA for percent body fat and lean mass in validation studies (commonly r = 0.94–0.98). Bland–Altman analyses show a device can correlate highly yet still differ in absolute value — so InBody is excellent for tracking change, not a numerical substitute for a DEXA figure. |
| Radiation | Low-dose ionizing radiation | None |
| Time | Roughly 6–20 minutes, lying still on a table, plus travel to an imaging center | About 30 seconds, standing, fully clothed |
| Typical cost | Typically the most expensive of the practical options when paid out of pocket, and priced per facility — confirm directly with the imaging center | $75, including medical provider interpretation |
| Measures bone mineral density | Yes — the reason DEXA is also used for osteoporosis | No — reports mineral content, not bone density |
| Measures body water compartments | No | Yes — intracellular, extracellular, and the ECW/TBW ratio |
| Phase angle / cellular health | No | Yes — whole-body and segmental phase angle |
| Realistic frequency | Once or twice a year for most people | Monthly — which is the interval at which programs are actually adjusted |
| Sensitive to hydration & timing | Less sensitive | Yes — which is why we standardize conditions and always compare like to like |
| Best used for | A precise baseline, bone density assessment, research-grade measurement | Frequent, low-friction tracking of fat, muscle, visceral fat and fluid during active treatment |
How other methods compare
| Method | Measures | Practical reality |
|---|---|---|
| Bathroom scale | Total weight only | Free and useful daily, but blind to everything that matters about tissue. |
| Smart scale (foot-to-foot BIA) | Estimated body fat | Two contact points, single or dual frequency, and heavy reliance on population equations. The current travels up one leg and down the other, largely bypassing the trunk. Fine for a rough trend; not a clinical measurement. |
| Skinfold calipers | Subcutaneous fat at specific sites | Inexpensive and legitimate in trained hands, but highly operator-dependent and blind to visceral fat. |
| Hydrostatic weighing | Body density → fat and lean | Historically accurate, logistically impractical, and rarely available. |
| Air displacement (BOD POD) | Body density → fat and lean | Accurate and comfortable, but limited availability and no segmental or visceral output. |
| MRI / CT | True visceral fat volume, muscle quality | The genuine gold standard for visceral fat and muscle composition. Cost, access and radiation (CT) make it a research tool, not a monthly one. |
| InBody 580 | Fat, skeletal muscle, visceral fat, water compartments, phase angle — by segment | The best available balance of clinical depth, speed, safety and repeatability for ongoing care. |
Why monthly scans matter more than the first one
A single scan is a photograph. Four scans are a film. Body composition earns its value in the delta — and four weeks is roughly the shortest interval over which real tissue change reliably exceeds day-to-day variation.
| Visit | Weight | Body fat mass | Skeletal muscle | Visceral fat area | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 212 lb | 81 lb | 72 lb | 134 cm² | Elevated visceral fat; muscle adequate for frame |
| Month 1 | 201 lb | 72 lb | 69 lb | 119 cm² | Strong fat loss, but 3 lb of muscle lost — protein raised to a set gram target, resistance training added, dose held |
| Month 2 | 195 lb | 66 lb | 69 lb | 108 cm² | Muscle stabilized while fat continued down — the correction worked; escalation resumed |
| Month 3 | 190 lb | 60 lb | 70 lb | 96 cm² | Fat down 21 lb, muscle down 2 lb net, visceral fat below the 100 cm² risk threshold |
Illustrative case constructed to show how scan data changes clinical decisions. Not a specific patient; individual results vary.
Fat
Is fat mass in pounds actually falling — or has the scale stalled while fat kept dropping?
Muscle
Are you holding skeletal muscle? If not, protein, training and dose all get revisited before the next month is lost.
Water
Fluid shifts explain most alarming week-to-week swings. Seeing them separately prevents bad decisions.
Visceral fat
The measurement with the most direct bearing on your long-term cardiometabolic risk — and it moves.
How to prepare for your scan
Bioelectrical impedance is influenced by hydration, food, exercise and body temperature. None of these prevent a useful scan — but keeping conditions consistent is what makes month-to-month comparison trustworthy.
- Avoid eating for 3–4 hours beforehand. Food and fluid in your digestive tract register as mass and shift readings.
- Drink water normally the day before. Do not dehydrate yourself — that distorts results rather than improving them. Simply avoid drinking a large volume immediately before the scan.
- Skip exercise the same morning. Training shifts fluid into working muscle and raises body temperature.
- No alcohol for 24 hours. It measurably alters fluid balance.
- Use the restroom right before testing.
- Remove shoes, socks, and heavy jewelry. Bare feet and palms must contact the electrodes.
- Avoid lotion on hands and feet the day of your scan — it interferes with conduction.
- Wear light clothing and skip anything heavy in your pockets.
- Rebook if you’re acutely ill. Fever, vomiting and diarrhea all shift fluid substantially.
- For repeat scans, come at the same time of day under the same conditions. Consistency beats perfection.
What happens at Sanjiva
Check in and quick intake
Height, current medications, goals, training history and any prior weight-loss attempts. Takes a few minutes and shapes how your results are read.
The scan — about 30 seconds
Bare feet on the platform, hands on the electrodes, arms slightly away from your sides, still and quiet. Most patients feel nothing.
Your result sheet prints immediately
A full page of measured values, segmental scores and graphs. Yours to keep.
Line-by-line interpretation
We walk the sheet with you: what each value means, which numbers are strong, which need attention, and what is genuinely urgent versus merely suboptimal.
A plan with numbers on it
A daily protein target in grams. A weekly resistance-training minimum. Treatment recommendations where they’re warranted — including the recommendation to change nothing. And a date for your next scan.
Ongoing tracking
Results are stored so every future scan compares directly to your history. Your baseline becomes the most valuable thing in your chart.
InBody scan questions, answered
The questions patients ask most often, answered the way we’d answer them in the room.
What is an InBody scan?
An InBody scan is a medical-grade body composition test that separates your body weight into fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, body water and visceral fat using direct segmental multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis. You stand on the device holding two hand electrodes for about 30 seconds. Unlike a scale, it tells you what your weight is made of.
How much does an InBody scan cost in Dallas?
At Sanjiva Medical Spa, an InBody 580 body composition analysis is $75. That includes the scan, provider interpretation of every value, a printed result sheet, and personalized recommendations. If you enroll in a Sanjiva Optimization Membership within 30 days, the $75 is credited toward your membership. Prices at gyms and imaging centers around Dallas vary widely, and most do not include clinical interpretation.
How accurate is the InBody 580?
Validation studies comparing InBody multi-frequency analyzers against DEXA commonly report correlations for percent body fat and lean mass in the r = 0.94–0.98 range, with high test-retest reliability. One important nuance: research using Bland–Altman analysis shows that strong correlation does not mean two methods produce identical absolute numbers. In practice, InBody is excellent for tracking your change over time and should not be treated as numerically interchangeable with a DEXA reading.
Does an InBody scan use radiation?
No. The InBody 580 uses bioelectrical impedance, not X-rays. There is no ionizing radiation exposure, which is one reason it can be repeated monthly while DEXA typically cannot.
Should I fast before an InBody scan?
A true overnight fast isn’t required, but avoid eating for about three to four hours beforehand. Food and fluid in your digestive tract register as mass and shift your readings. For repeat scans, what matters most is consistency: same time of day, same conditions.
Can I drink water before my scan?
Yes — and you should be normally hydrated the day before. Do not deliberately dehydrate yourself to “improve” your numbers; that distorts results rather than improving them. Just avoid drinking a large volume in the hour immediately before your scan, and use the restroom right before testing.
Can I exercise before my InBody scan?
We recommend not exercising the same morning as your scan. Training shifts fluid into working muscle, raises body temperature and alters impedance. If you always train before your scan, then always train before your scan — consistency is what preserves comparability.
How long does the scan take?
The measurement itself takes roughly 30 seconds. Budget about 20–30 minutes for the visit overall, since the interpretation is where the value is. Most of that time is spent going through your result sheet with a provider.
How often should I get an InBody scan?
Monthly testing is a practical cadence for many people actively losing weight, using a GLP-1 medication, building muscle or participating in an optimization program. The ideal interval depends on the goal, rate of change and clinical context. For general tracking without an active program, less frequent testing may be appropriate.
Does insurance cover an InBody scan?
Body composition analysis at Sanjiva is an elective wellness service and is not billed to insurance. It is cash pay at $75. Some patients use HSA or FSA funds; eligibility depends on your plan administrator, so confirm with them directly.
Can I track Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or Zepbound progress with an InBody scan?
Yes. GLP-1 and dual-agonist medications can produce substantial weight loss, and body-composition studies show that lean mass can decrease along with fat mass. Serial InBody scans can add context by tracking estimated muscle, fat and body water alongside strength, nutrition and clinical follow-up. Lean mass is not identical to skeletal muscle, so results should be interpreted carefully.
Can InBody measure muscle gain?
Yes. Skeletal muscle mass is reported in pounds, and segmental lean analysis breaks it down by each arm, each leg and your trunk. Muscle accrues slowly, so evaluate it over two to three months rather than week to week — and always compare scans taken under similar conditions.
Can I monitor peptide therapy with an InBody scan?
It can be used as an objective tracking tool when body composition is one of the goals of a physician-supervised optimization program. Baseline and follow-up scans may show whether estimated fat, muscle and water are trending in the intended direction, but an InBody result alone does not establish the effectiveness or appropriateness of a peptide therapy.
What is visceral fat, and why does it matter more than the fat I can see?
Visceral fat is the fat stored deep in your abdominal cavity around your liver, intestines and other organs, as distinct from the subcutaneous fat just under your skin. It is metabolically active, releasing inflammatory signals, and imaging research including the MESA cohort has linked it to metabolic syndrome and coronary artery calcification independent of BMI. A visceral fat area above roughly 100 cm² is widely used as a risk threshold. Encouragingly, it is also among the most responsive fat depots to treatment.
What is skeletal muscle mass?
Skeletal muscle is the muscle attached to your bones — the tissue you train and control voluntarily. It’s a subset of lean body mass, which also includes organs, water and connective tissue. Skeletal muscle drives strength, glucose disposal and a meaningful portion of your resting metabolic rate, which is why protecting it during weight loss is a clinical priority rather than an aesthetic preference.
Is an InBody scan safe if I have a pacemaker or defibrillator?
No — we do not scan patients with implanted electronic medical devices. InBody advises against testing anyone with a pacemaker, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or similar implanted electronic device, because the measurement passes a low-level electrical current through the body. Please tell us before your appointment if you have any implanted device and we will use alternative methods to assess your goals. If you’re unsure whether your device qualifies, ask us or your cardiologist first.
Can I have an InBody scan while pregnant?
We defer body composition testing during pregnancy. Impedance-based measurement has not been established for use in pregnancy, and the substantial fluid changes of pregnancy make the results uninterpretable regardless.
What is a healthy body fat percentage?
Ranges are sex-specific and vary between organizations, but commonly cited healthy ranges fall around 10–20% for men and 18–28% for women, with athletic populations lower and both extremes carrying risk. Rather than chase a single target number, we interpret your percent body fat alongside your skeletal muscle mass, visceral fat, age and goals — because the same percentage means different things in different bodies.
What is phase angle?
Phase angle is a raw bioimpedance value that reflects the integrity of your cell membranes. It’s reported by the InBody 580 for your whole body and by segment. In research settings, higher phase angle is associated with better cellular health and tissue quality, and lower values have been studied as a marker of poor nutritional and clinical status. We treat it as supporting context for muscle quality rather than a standalone diagnosis.
Is InBody better than DEXA?
Neither is simply “better.” DEXA is the clinical reference standard and also measures bone mineral density. InBody adds body water compartments and phase angle, takes 30 seconds instead of 20 minutes, uses no radiation, costs less, and can be repeated monthly. For frequent trend tracking, InBody is often more convenient, while DEXA remains valuable when imaging-based body composition or bone-density information is specifically needed. Because the methods are different, avoid treating their absolute values as interchangeable.
Why did my muscle mass go down? Should I be worried?
It’s a signal, not a verdict — and it’s the most actionable finding on the sheet. Declining skeletal muscle mass during weight loss usually reflects protein intake that’s too low for your deficit, absent or insufficient resistance training, loss that’s happening too fast, or dose escalation that outpaced your nutrition. Each is correctable. Small single-scan changes can also reflect fluid shifts, which is why we look at your water compartments before drawing conclusions.
Do I need a consultation, or can I just come in for the scan?
You can book the $75 scan on its own — no membership, no package, and no obligation to start treatment. Interpretation is included regardless. If your results point toward medical weight loss, peptide therapy or body contouring, we’ll tell you clearly and you can decide on your own timeline.
What should I wear, and do I need to undress?
You stay fully clothed. Wear something light, remove shoes and socks so your bare feet contact the foot electrodes, take off heavy jewelry, and empty your pockets. Skip lotion on hands and feet that day, since it interferes with conduction.
Do you scan children or teenagers?
Body composition testing at Sanjiva is offered to adults 18 and over. Minors with weight or growth concerns should be evaluated by a pediatrician or pediatric obesity medicine specialist, where interpretation uses age- and sex-specific growth references.
Where are you located, and do you see patients from outside Dallas proper?
Sanjiva Medical Spa is at 5633 W Lovers Lane in Dallas, Texas 75209 — minutes from Highland Park, University Park, Preston Hollow and Bluffview, with easy access from the Dallas North Tollway and Love Field. Patients travel to us from across DFW. You can book online any time or call 469-336-6769.
Your scan informs what we recommend next — and just as often, what we tell you that you don’t need.
Your baseline is the most valuable scan you’ll ever take.
Every future measurement is compared to it. Forty-five seconds today gives you a reference point for the next decade of your health — and a medically guided plan built on measurement instead of assumption.
- Location
- Sanjiva Medical Spa
5633 W Lovers Lane
Dallas, TX 75209 - Contact
- 469-336-6769
Book online - Medical Director
- Praveen Guntipalli, MD, FACP
Board Certified — Internal Medicine
Board Certified — Obesity Medicine
This page is provided for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and does not create a physician–patient relationship. Body composition analysis is a wellness assessment, not a diagnostic test, and results should be interpreted alongside your full medical history by a qualified clinician. Individual results vary. Research findings cited here describe study populations and may not apply to your circumstances. Never delay seeking care from your physician because of something you read here. InBody® is a registered trademark of InBody Co., Ltd.; Sanjiva Medical Spa is not affiliated with or endorsed by InBody. Ozempic®, Wegovy®, Mounjaro® and Zepbound® are registered trademarks of their respective owners and are referenced for identification only.