Lori Esarey MS, APRN-C, ABAAHPGoing Beyond Weight Loss to Achieve Wellness For Life

Unlock Muscle Mass Your Guide to Body Composition

6 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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1:13

In this brief dialogue, two clinicians discuss the role of body‑composition scanning in primary‑care or specialty practice. Speaker A highlights that low lean skeletal (muscle) mass can indicate bone health status and advocates for early, in‑office scanning to monitor patients. Speaker B does not have a scanner on site and currently refers patients elsewhere, but recognizes the scanner’s value as a teaching and motivational tool: it provides patients visual feedback that weight‑bearing exercise can increase muscle mass, helping them perceive weight loss as muscle gain rather than mere scale reduction. The exchange underscores the practical considerations of having versus referring for scans, and the psychological impact of objective body‑composition data on patient engagement.

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And I do think that low lean skeletal mass, muscle mass, we can extrapolate from that data too is where is a person in respect to their bones too. And so, using scanners like— and I don't know if you have a body composition machine as a part of your practice, but having brick-and-mortar practices, we have the beauty of having that, right? Yes. And I do feel like doing that early and monitoring that is really, really important for Yeah, I love that you have that.
So I don't have it. I'm just— I'm sending patients now to get it done somewhere, and we're actually just trying to figure out. But yes, I mean, if you have that available, of course I would do that because that is a great teaching tool, right? And you can monitor it, and it, it gives the woman some perspective, you know, in terms of, oh, let's do some, you know, weight-bearing exercise. And, you know, it shows them I'm actually gaining muscle and, you know, not just Actually not losing weight, but I'm gaining muscle. It makes them feel much different about their weight. So I like congratulations. I would I'm probably going to think about it.