Research

Energy balance

Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy provides body fat measurements comparable to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in overweight and obese premenopausal women, making it a valid, rapid, and portable alternative for monitoring body composition changes.

If you are overweight or obese, relying solely on BMI or scale weight can be misleading because it doesn't tell you how much of your weight is fat versus muscle. FT-NIR technology offers a quick, non-invasive, and portable way to measure body fat accurately, similar to expensive lab scans like DXA. This allows for better monitoring of fat loss progress during diet and exercise interventions without the radiation exposure or cost of DXA.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
We report here that the FT-NIR method provided comparable measurements of subcutaneous body fat content similar to those of total fat obtained using DXA. The FT-NIR method is a lower cost, easy to use and transport, and, based on comparison with DXA, an accurate method to measure body fat content.
Andrea R. Josse et al. · Obesity · 2011

Why this rating

High-quality direct comparison (n=52) with strong statistical correlation (r=0.95) and Bland-Altman agreement against DXA.

Source

Body Fat Content Determination in Premenopausal, Overweight, and Obese Young Women Using DXA and FT‐NIR

Andrea R. Josse et al. · Obesity · 2011

DOI 10.1038/oby.2011.39

cross_sectional · n=52Cited 10×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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