DEXA Scan Experience

Sageyoku

I am a 38-year-old female, 5' 5", weighing between 119-123 at any given time of day.
For years I have been using MFP to lose weight gradually (I mean VERY gradually, 0.5lb to 1lb per year) with the goal of being healthy and making lifestyle changes.
(If you want more details on my process, see my post about it on Quora)
Last year was the first time I saw the number on the scale go below 120, and I immediately thought, "OK, this is a good place to maintain!"
But for all these years I have been self-guided, only used MFP and whatever knowledge I gathered myself. I decided that it would be worthwhile to finally find out what my body fat percentage is, and my resting metabolic rate, and bring that information to a dietitian for advice and guidance.
This week I was able to get a DEXA scan in Des Moines (I travel for a living). I wanted to share my results, as so far I haven't gotten much guidance on what all these numbers mean.
Here is a blog post that I wrote about the experience of taking the DEXA, and my results (CLICK HERE to read)
...and here is the main summary page of my DEXA:

I did take these results to a dietitian, who said everything looks fine and that I should just do more resistance training/weights to increase lean mass. But she also said that she's not totally familiar with interpreting DEXA results.
Does anybody see anything of concern?

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I’ve no idea how to read those results but I read ur post on quora. Good post.
Ur body fat is fine
Resistance training is good for all of us at any age but particularly women. I’m 10 years older than u and in perimenopause. Muscle loss is a real concern as is loss of bone mass. One of the best things you can do to attenuate this is lift weights.

sgt1372

For a woman of your age/size, you look to be in good shape as the results of the scan indicate.

If you WANT to increase your muscle/bone strength, resistance training would be useful but you will not necessarily reduce your body fat % (which really is not an issue based on the scan) doing so, unless you change what/how you eat and your level/type of physical activity.

DancingMoosie

I found it interesting that your right and left sides have different bf%!

springlering62

DancingMoosie wrote: »

I found it interesting that your right and left sides have different bf%!

It’s very common to be asymmetrical. I’ve got one foot a size bigger than the other, know women with one boob bigger than the other. I’m much stronger in one side than the other, and have better one-legged balance on one side.

Yoga strongly encourages building balance on both sides. My instructor has an interesting take: “you’ve reached balance when you lose track of which was your better side”.

When I got my DEXAs, they made sure to tell me that seeing different weights on each extremity or side, body fat percentages, etc was all perfectly normal.

I’ve even read that those we consider the “most beautiful” women are actual the most symmetrical, because our brains unconsciously recognize and find the symmetry appealing.

I’m not an expert, and the type is mice type, but it looks like your body fat % is 26.3?

You’re bordering the low end of “normal” BMI range. If you’re feeling a bit “fluffy”, instead of losing more, I second these folks advice to consider some weight training.

I’m in the 21% range in both BMI and Body Fat%, hovering around 134-135 right now at 5’7”. I’m fairly tight everywhere except an inner tube of extra skin on my waistline, hanging around from 90+ lost, and I attribute a lot of that nice (don’t hate me, gang, because I’m fixing to use the forbidden word) “tone” to lifting and weight machines.

Weight training doesn’t have to mean lifting heavy or going all “bro”, and you’re not going to look like a muscled up bodybuilder without a hell of a lot of effort. I’ll never break any records, that’s for damn sure, but I’m happy with the results I’m getting.


https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky/p1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat

springlering62

PS I’ve had three DEXAs, each on my 12 month anniversary since starting weight loss. If someone didn’t sit you down and spend 10-20 minutes going over the numbers, they weren’t doing their job. You should be able to simply call their office and say,”hey! Can you run over these results with me again?”

Both DEXA scan services I used told me to feel free to call or email if questions.

I’m not doing another. I found myself so wrapped up in the minutiae and disappointed over tenths of a percent, I decided it was doing more harm than good.

There’s a point I had to say,”I’m not a body builder or pro athlete, and I’m pushing 60. My weight is less than 60% of what it was three years ago, I’m happy where I am, namaste, happy feet, alls’s right with the world, the end, she and her food scale lived happily ever after in mindful maintenance”.

Beautyofdreams

We must of had our dexa scans done by the same hospital organization. My scan is laid out identical to yours. Could you ask imaging if they can give you a printout explaining the categories? I received one when I did my scan. The technician really couldn’t answer questions outside of the bone density related ones since that is what most women have done along with mammograms.

The important numbers are vat area. A vat area over 100 increases the likelihood of cancer, diabetes and cardiac events. Your number is 32.7 so normal. Andoid/gynoid ratio just tells you where you tend to carry your weight(pear, apple, hourglass). Lean/htsquared measures the amount of lean mass relative to height. The higher the number the more muscular you are. The appen score measures the amount of muscle in your limbs relative to your height. The higher the number, the more functional muscle you have. It is also used to monitor muscle sarcopenia. You want the percentile numbers to be higher the more muscular that you are. If there is anything else that I can help with let me know.