How to Read and Understand Your InBody 570 Results

A complete guide to body composition, accuracy, and meaningful progress tracking

The InBody 570 is one of the most powerful tools for understanding how your body is changing—not just your weight. Instead of simply showing total body weight, the InBody breaks your body into muscle, fat, and water. This helps you track the progress that actually matters, especially when your goal is fat loss, strength, muscle gain, or overall health.

Below is a full breakdown of every major section of your InBody report, what each measurement means, how accurate the device is, and how InBody compares to other body composition tools like DEXA and MRI.

Section 1: Beginner Guide

A simple explanation for anyone new to InBody testing

1. Body Weight

Your total body weight is the least important metric on the InBody. Two people can weigh the exact same amount and look completely different depending on how much muscle or fat they carry. The InBody helps you understand the quality of that weight.

2. Skeletal Muscle Mass (SMM)

SMM measures the muscle attached to your bones—the muscle responsible for strength, performance, posture, and movement.

Why it matters:

Muscle burns more calories at rest
Helps maintain metabolism during dieting
Improves function and longevity
Helps track whether you’re losing muscle or fat

If you’re building muscle and losing fat at the same time, this number helps you see progress even when scale weight barely changes.

3. Body Fat Mass (BFM)

The total pounds of fat on your body. This is one of the best indicators of fat-loss progress because it tells you whether you’re actually losing fat—not just losing water or muscle.

4. Percent Body Fat (PBF)

Your body fat percentage is your fat mass divided by your total weight. Because muscle gain and water fluctuations affect this number, it changes more slowly than most people expect. Trends over months—not day-to-day shifts—are most important.

5. Segmental Lean Analysis

This shows how much lean mass is in each part of the body: right arm, left arm, trunk, right leg, and left leg.

This section helps you determine:

Whether one side of the body is weaker
Whether upper and lower body muscle is balanced
Which areas may benefit from more targeted training
Whether muscle mass is improving over time

Green bars generally mean you're within a healthy range for your height.

6. Visceral Fat Level

Visceral fat is one of the most important health markers on the entire InBody report.

What Is Visceral Fat?

Visceral fat is the fat stored beneath the abdominal wall, deep inside the body surrounding your organs—especially the liver, pancreas, and intestines. Unlike normal (subcutaneous) belly fat that sits under the skin, visceral fat is metabolically active and much more harmful when elevated.

Subcutaneous fat = “pinchable” fat.
Visceral fat = internal fat around organs.

You cannot see visceral fat in the mirror.

Why Should We Care About Visceral Fat?

Higher visceral fat is strongly linked to:

Insulin resistance and prediabetes
Type 2 diabetes
High blood pressure
Elevated cholesterol
Increased inflammation
Hormonal disruptions
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Higher risk of cardiovascular disease

The reason is simple: visceral fat releases inflammatory chemicals that interfere with normal hormonal and metabolic function.

The good news?
Visceral fat responds faster to healthy habits than subcutaneous fat. Walking, strength training, protein intake, whole foods, sleep, and consistent calorie control all rapidly reduce visceral fat—often before major changes appear externally.

What Is a Good Visceral Fat Level?

The InBody scale generally reads:

1–5 = excellent
6–10 = moderate/normal
10+ = elevated risk

7. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

This is the number of calories your body burns at rest. It helps you estimate maintenance calories and determine how many calories you need for fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.

8. Body Water Balance (TBW and ECW/TBW Ratio)

The InBody provides a detailed breakdown of your body’s water distribution.

Total Body Water (TBW) tells you your general hydration level.
The ECW/TBW ratio tells you whether you’re holding water or inflamed.

Typical healthy range: 0.360–0.390.

A higher value may reflect:

Inflammation
Sodium spikes
Stress or sleep issues
Injury
Water retention from training

A normal or low ECW/TBW ratio indicates healthy fluid balance.

Section 2: Intermediate Guide

A deeper explanation for clients who want more detail and context

1. Why InBody Trends Matter More Than Single Readings

Your numbers will vary based on:

Hydration level
Recent meals or sodium intake
Caffeine
Sleep quality
Hormones
Training within 24 hours

This is why you should always test under similar conditions and track long-term patterns, not day-to-day fluctuations.

2. Why Skeletal Muscle Mass Is Lower Than Lean Body Mass

Lean Body Mass includes everything except fat:

Skeletal muscle
Water
Organs
Bones
Connective tissue

SMM represents only your muscle tissue. This is why your lean body mass may be much higher than your skeletal muscle mass.

3. Strength Gains vs Muscle Size

Two people with identical muscle mass may have very different strength levels due to:

Technique
Neuromuscular efficiency
Training experience
Lever lengths
Muscle fiber distribution
Consistency and effort

InBody measures the amount of muscle—not how strong it is.

4. Understanding Segmental Lean Analysis for Training

Segmental values compare your muscle levels to reference standards for your height.

Above 100% = above average
90–100% = balanced
Below 90% = could benefit from strength focus

Coaches use these values to address asymmetries and refine training programs.

5. Visceral Fat and Aging

Visceral fat tends to increase as people age because of:

Lower activity levels
Hormonal changes (testosterone, estrogen, cortisol)
Poor sleep
Higher stress
Slower metabolism
Loss of muscle mass

Strength training, steps, higher-protein diets, and maintaining a healthy bodyweight are the most effective ways to reduce visceral fat as you age.

6. InBody 570 Accuracy

The InBody uses multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), which is highly advanced compared to consumer devices.

Strengths:

Good correlation with DEXA for changes over time
Fast and non-invasive
Provides detailed muscle, fat, and water analysis
Ideal for frequent check-ins

7. Limitations of the InBody

It’s a powerful tool, but it’s still an estimate.

Limitations:

Hydration greatly affects readings
Less accurate in extremely lean or obese individuals
Estimates visceral fat rather than directly measuring it
Cannot measure bone density
May overestimate muscle in highly muscular individuals

The value of the InBody lies in trend tracking, not single-number precision.

Section 3: How InBody Compares to Other Body Composition Methods

Including MRI, the most accurate method available

DEXA Scan

Strengths: very accurate, measures bone density, regional fat, and lean mass.
Limitations: expensive, uses small radiation, not ideal for frequent testing.

InBody 570

Strengths: quick, accessible, great for trends, detailed segmental analysis.
Limitations: hydration dependent.

Skinfold Calipers

Strengths: inexpensive, useful for trends.
Limitations: depends on technician skill.

Circumference Measurements

Strengths: very consistent and reliable.
Limitations: doesn’t separate fat from muscle.

BodPod

Strengths: comfortable and reasonably accurate.
Limitations: hydration and clothing affect results.

Underwater Weighing

Strengths: historically accurate.
Limitations: rarely available today.

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

MRI is the most accurate body composition method known today. It directly measures:

Fat
Skeletal muscle
Organ fat
Visceral fat
Intramuscular fat