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How Does Near Infrared Interactance Help in Determining Your Body Fat Percentage?
March 3, 2009
As promised I am back with information on Near Infrared Intearctance (NIR), one of the techniques used to estimate your body fat percentage. This body composition analysis technique is completely safe, fast, inexpensive, and completely non-invasive, which to me seems the biggest factor working in its favor.
This method is based on principles of light absorption, reflectance and near infrared spectroscopy. The biceps of a person’s dominant arm is usually the site preferred for estimating his/her body fat using the Near Infrared Intearctance method.
A computerized spectrophotometer with a rapid scanning monochromator and a fiber optic probe helps assess your body fat. The monochromator, which is also called light wand, sends a low-energy beam of near-infrared light. This beam penetrates the underlying tissue before it is reflected back to the built-in detector of the wand, which measures the intensity of the re-emitted light. Using the shifts in the wavelength of this light the body fat percentage is calculated with the help of a prediction equation. The prediction equation also takes into consideration the person’s height, weight, frame size and level of activity to give a correct body composition analysis.
Near Infrared Intearctance is one of the popular body composition analysis techniques outside of the laboratory owing to its simplicity and speed, as I have already mentioned before. It is inexpensive too, You can easily get it done at health clubs and weight loss centers for something between 20 and 40 dollars.
But I must also make you aware of the downsides of this method. It is not one of the most accurate methods of determining your body composition, especially in case of lean and obese people. Further, the readings may vary depending on the amount of pressure applied to the probe. The skin color and hydration levels can also result in errors. The validity of a single-site measurement is also a major bone of contention. So, my concluding remarks would be that more research is required to prove the validity and accuracy of Near Infrared Interactance.
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