Who benefits most
Weight management: seeing fat fall while muscle is preserved, rather than watching a number that hides both. Training and sport: tracking muscle gain by limb, spotting imbalances between sides, and monitoring recovery. Rehabilitation: measuring muscle loss in an injured limb and its recovery, which guides how hard to push. Older adults: monitoring skeletal muscle mass, since muscle loss with age drives frailty and falls and is reversible with the right training and protein. Fluid retention and lymphatic work: the BWA measures extracellular water precisely enough to show whether swelling is fluid and whether treatment is clearing it. Health programmes: a baseline before starting nutrition, exercise or treatment, so progress is measured rather than felt.
Who should not have it
Anyone with a pacemaker or other implanted electronic device, because the scan passes a small current through the body. Pregnancy, as a precaution and because body water changes make results uninformative. People who cannot stand still holding the electrodes for the duration of the scan; a seated version exists for some models.
What affects results
Hydration, recent food, recent exercise, alcohol, illness, menstrual cycle phase and time of day all shift body water and therefore the reading. None of these make the scan unsafe, but they make it less comparable, which is why scanning under consistent conditions matters.
Children and teenagers
InBody has paediatric settings and is used in clinical practice, but at Omnia scans for under-18s are done with a parent present and with the results explained carefully; body composition in growing bodies needs context.
At Omnia
InBody BWA scans at our Chiswick clinic are quick, explained by our team, and used as the measurement backbone of our Fitness and Nutrition programme and rehabilitation work.