How does body composition measurement work?
The body composition feature works by sending a small, harmless electrical current through your body. The current flows more easily through muscle than through fat, so by measuring how much current flows at various frequencies an estimate of the percentage of body fat and muscle can be calculated. Everything else that your body is composed of falls into the “other” category, for example water or bone. Your body composition results for body fat, muscle, and “other” add up to 100%.
Your body composition measurement is stored by your TomTom Touch and then transferred to the MySports app and MySports website where you can see it alongside your steps, calories, distance, and active time metrics. This means that you can track your efforts and results in the same place.
Why measure body composition?
Measuring what your body is made up of gives you more relevant results than simply measuring your weight or calculating your BMI (body mass index). Since muscle weighs more than fat, you could gain weight from strength training, yet look slimmer. By measuring your body composition over time, you’ll be able to see if your muscle and fat percentages go up or down and you’ll have a more accurate picture of how your body is changing.
Accuracy of measurements
When looking at body composition measurements, the important thing to note is the trend over time. Many factors, such as exercise, eating, and hydration levels can influence a single measurement and therefore cause daily fluctuations. You’ll be able to see how your fat and muscle percentages change over time in the MySports app and on the MySports website.
We recommend that you measure your body composition at the same time of day and follow the steps in Measuring body composition.