InBody: 3 Basic Body Types
The second section of the InBody Results sheet…
is the Muscle-Fat Analysis section. It contains three components:
Weight: Total Body Weight
Skeletal Muscle Mass (SMM): The total weight of your Skeletal Muscle. These are the muscles that can be grown and developed through exercise. Unlike LBM, which includes everything that isn’t body fat, you can view an increase in SMM as actual muscle gain.
Body Fat Mass: How much body fat you have (combining both the surface level and internal fat)
The lengths of each bar on the Muscle-Fat Analysis' graph can at-a-glance break down into 3 different body types: C-Shape, I-Shape, & D-Shape.
C-Shape
A C-shaped person has a shorter bar length for SMM than for Weight and Body Fat Mass.
Potential Goal for C-Shape
Reduce Body Fat Mass (which would also lower your Weight) and increase your Skeletal Muscle Mass. Ultimately, you’d be trying to get your BFM as close to the recommended range as possible and SMM close to or above the recommended range.
I-Shape
An I-shaped individual has a “balanced” body composition, meaning their Weight, Skeletal Muscle Mass, and Body Fat Mass bars roughly form a straight line.
Potential Goal for I-Shape
First, consider your overall health goals, as people with an I-Shape are often at a healthy weight or body fat percentage - BUT there are still areas in which you can address to maintain or improve overall health.
Because I-shaped individuals typically have a proportional muscle-fat balance, you’d be in a good position to focus on gaining muscle mass or reducing body fat to improve your overall physique.
D-Shape
A D-shaped person has a longer SMM bar than their Weight and Body Fat Mass bar. Usually, this is indicative of an “athletic” body type and is considered to be the ideal body composition shape, but if the Weight and Body Fat Mass bars are above the recommended ranges, then they should reduce their fat mass to get to the ideal range.
Potential Goal for I-Shape
Consider improving your strength and shape. If this is your goal, you would want to monitor your SMM bar and Body Fat Mass bars to make sure that SMM increases without a significant increase in Body Fat Mass.
Other I-Shapes may want to lose body fat and become leaner. For this goal, monitor your Body Fat Mass while taking care to prevent the loss of SMM. If SMM losses become too significant, make the necessary adjustments.