Evolt is shifting the focus from weight loss to muscle mass in fitness and other related fields
Weight loss and scales have been synonymous with fitness almost since the latter’s inception. The fitness boom in the mid-to-late ‘90s relentlessly preached that skinny equals healthy. Cultural ideals reinforced that ideology in the decades that followed as well.
However, first impressions don’t always tell the whole story. Long-standing viewpoints aren’t always the clearest or most accurate either.
Today, with growing support from the scientific and medical community, muscle mass is taking its rightful place as an equally, if not more important, metric than body fat in health and fitness. Evolt, the Australian health tech company, argues it’s better late than never.
“I’m surprised it’s taken this long,” said Evolt co-founder and CEO Ed Zouroudis. “This is something that should have been known forever. This is the number one metric that matters.”
Why Muscle Matters
As a driver of metabolism and sarcopenia combatant which correlates to injury prevention, increased muscle mass has a stronger translation to increased longevity than weight loss. While lowering body fat remains beneficial for overall health, we now know that preserving and increasing muscle mass is more important.
“We’ve learned that muscle mass isn’t just about aesthetics anymore,” said Kylie Zimmerle, Research and Development Manager at Evolt. “It’s a driving force in overall health. People with higher skeletal muscle mass had reduced incidences of long-term hospital stays and further complications.”
It’s not so much not about ignoring body fat levels, but recognizing that a person’s weight is influenced by more than that alone.
“It’s getting away from the bathroom scale,” said Zouroudis. “That’s just a single metric. It just shows overall body weight. We really need to understand what the body is made up of and the difference between lean body mass and fat mass including subcutaneous and visceral fat.”
Evolt is in a prime position to guide everyone through this cognitive shift endorsed by Zouroudis. With its Evolt 360 device, an advanced body composition scanner that measures over 40 metrics including skeletal muscle mass and fat via bioimpedance technology, the brand helps users understand what’s really going on in their bodies to drive tangible results.
“Being able to track and monitor those small, incremental changes over time is an important factor,” said Zouroudis. “People should be scanning on the Evolt technology and tweaking their training regime or their diets accordingly.”
Helping Populations that Need it
As the years pile up, the importance of addressing muscle mass also follows. Muscle plays a vital role in how the body withstands illness and physical stress. The risk of each increases as most individuals age.
“Muscle preservation is crucial for preventing frailty and maintaining independence in our aging community,” said Zouroudis. “It’s like something that can be a defense mechanism. If you were unfortunate enough to fall into any kind of disease or anything like that, you want to make sure you’ve got enough skeletal muscle mass, to make sure you can win that battle.”
Scanning is arguably more important now than ever, as the World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that the 60-and-above population is expected to nearly double by 2050.
“Especially as we age, skeletal muscle mass reduction can affect balance, strength, coordination and other aspects of mobility,” added Cyrus Massoumi, founder of telehealth service Dr. B.
Evolt and its body scanning device also present advantages specific to women entering new life stages.
“The biggest problem with menopause is the big shift in body composition and the ability to store visceral fat,” said Zimmerle. “So the whole idea of adding muscle mass and eating enough protein fixes that, and we can monitor that very easily.”
Doing so is another opportunity to fix a longstanding belief or widely accepted concept that science doesn’t exactly support.
“Women have been taught from very early ages to focus on their physical appearance and body fat,” said Zimmerle. “We get hammered with this body fat thing. Now is the right time to be enforcing the new notion of tracking muscle instead.”
GLP-1s & Clinical Usage
New medications have also inspired new interest from the medical community when it comes to body scanning. Not only is the Evolt Health Tech Ecosystem currently being used in weight loss, hormone therapy, bariatric, aged care, telehealth and physiotherapy clinics, but also to monitor GLP-1 usage.
Nutritional deficiencies or muscle loss represent primary concerns when it comes to GLP-1s. By illustrating to users what they’re actually losing as their weight drops, Evolt Health makes the aforementioned issues identifiable and addressable.
“Through our platform, we can provide clinical care and resources that teach patients about how body composition changes might affect their longevity,” said Massoumi. “But we can’t provide the numbers. And without the numbers, they can’t visualize their future…Tools like Evolt’s scanner provide the puzzle pieces that complete the picture, so to speak, so patients can see where they are now and visualize where they want to be.”
Evolt predicts that muscle mass assessment will become as standard as checking blood pressure in the next 3-5 years. The brand also notes its already seeing an increase in installations across hybrid medical-wellness settings, illustrating a convergence of fitness and clinical applications.
