Metabolic Age - Tying Body Composition to Longevity

Prism Labs has added  Metabolic Age to the insights available from our body scanning platform. Metabolic age is a wellness metric that compares your basal metabolic rate (BMR) to the average BMR of other people in your age group. The measurements provide an estimate of how efficiently a person's body burns calories in a resting state compared to others of the same age. A metabolic age that is lower than your chronological age indicates that your body is functioning as if it was younger while a higher metabolic age signifies that your body is aging faster than expected. ‍

BMR‍

BMR is the minimum number of calories your body needs at rest - powering vital functions like breathing, heartbeat and cell growth.

Factors influencing metabolic age

These key elements influence this measure of metabolic efficiency, reflecting how well your body functions relative to your age group: 

• Muscle mass: Higher muscle mass increases your BMR and improves your metabolic age
• Body composition: A lower fat-to-muscle ratio is associated with a more favorable metabolic age
• Physical activity: Regular exercise boosts metabolism and supports a younger metabolic profile
• Diet: Nutrient-dense, balance diets contribute to a better metabolic efficiency
• Lifestyle factors: Stress levels, sleep quality, and hydration also significantly impact metabolic performance.
  

Significance of metabolic age

1. Health indicator: It can provide insights into your overall health and fitness level
2. Disease risk: Some studies suggest that a higher metabolic age may be associated with an increased risk of heart disease and metabolic syndrome (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
3. Longevity: A lower metabolic age we can say is linked to better health outcomes and potential longer life -(American Association for the Advancement of Science)

Why you should help your customers determine their metabolic age

By providing regular metabolic age testing, you can help your customers visualize their progress and encourage longterm engagement with your services.  Metabolic age data allows you to provide more tailored services:

‍Customer health benefits

• Early health risk detection: Metabolic age can indicate underlying health issues. Identifying these risks early allows customers to take proactive steps to improve their health. 
• Personalized goal settings: Understanding metabolic age enables customers to set more meaningful and tailored health goals. This personalization can lead to more effective fitness and nutrition plans. ‍
• Motivation for lifestyle changes: Seeing improvements in metabolic age can be a powerful motivator for your customers to maintain health habits, like regular exercise, balanced nutrition and stress management.‍

‍Business advantages

• Increased customer engagement through personalization:Metabolic age assessment provides a unique selling point that can attract and retain customers interested in comprehensive health monitoring. 
• Holistic wellness approach: Offering metabolic age testing allows you to build more comprehensive wellness strategies.
• A simple measure is easy to understand: While more complex tracking of body composition can be valuable, a metabolic age is a simple concept that is easy for users to understand.

By helping customers determine and understand their metabolic age, you do not only contribute to their health and wellness journey but you also position your business as a comprehensive health partner.