DEXA Scan! (Read if you are thinking about doing it!)

bazfitness

Getting Dexa scand every 6 months is like getting a cat scan every 6 months, i scan pateints all day and its a high dose of radiation. I would not suggest them as often as people get them.

This is worrying. I didn't realise there were high doses of radiation involved. Not so sure now if it's such a good idea to have this done!

mcarter99

While calipers and the BF scales are not accurate, they can show a trend. Most of us who are just trying to get healthy, not be in fitness competitions, probably just could stand to see a rough estimate and a trend.

"My main problem with working out, especially with all the strength training I have done in the last year, is maintaining my energy consistently. This was pretty difficult to do on 1200 calories, even with eating back my exercise calories. "

That's a quote from the OP. I would love to know how much our daily intake typically affects our 'energy levels'. Once past the initial slump from changing calorie levels, I find that I get energy from stored body fat just fine and don't feel like I'm lacking energy. I can see if blood sugar levels are getting low, that would make most people feel slumped. I think most of us can keep our blood sugar levels constant at 1200-1500 of the right foods at the right times. I don't know. If anyone has articles about how today's intake affects today's energy level, I'd love to read them.

sfdcubfan

Does the DEXA take into account loose skin? At 46, mine just doesn't snap back anymore.

I'm 130 lbs, 5'8, and the blasted Tanita tells me I fluctuate between 23-28% bf, even though I pretty much workout 6-7 days/wk, lifting 5 of those days. I do Body Beast, Asylum and P90X. Gonna zero in on just Beast with Asylum for cardio from now on, but I do want to do a DEXA, get a baseline read.

I'm also a strict vegan (six years this July), and I try to limit the processed foods, just because I'm concerned about GMO's. I don't have a gluten issue, but I have intolerances to Dill, Cabbage, Sunflower and Strawberry.

My resting HR is 46. I can spike it to 210 and still carry on a conversation during Asylum. I hate the loose skin, so I'm hoping the DEXA sees past that. If it does a bonescan too, awesome.

fleetzz

I was wondering about the radiation exposure as well. Not sure if having DEXA every 6 months is worth it. If you have had one, correlated it with the standard measurements for body fat % and just use it as a trend.
Or radiate the hell out of your body every 6 months just so you know your body fat % to the 0.01% accuracy, because what the hell, its your body.

_Zardoz_

A Dexa scan has the equivalent skin does of a Chest X Ray. Personally as a Radiographer I wouldn't have one. As I was always taught there is no such thing as a safe dose of Radiation. The benefits of any x ray procedure need to out weigh and possible negatives. As there is no real medical reason to get a Dexa scan in these cases and there are other pretty accurate methods of working out your body fat why do it? Yes it's not a huge dose but it's still a needless dose of radiation.

fgrell

I can't believe there are people claiming to be radiology techs that don't understand simple concepts of radiation. Any real tech that works in radiology (or even any random person with internet access) can tell you that DEXA is not a huge amount of radiation. To put it in perspective, a normal person just going about their normal life recives 2.4 mSv/year. In a typical DEXA scan a patient receives between 0.0084-0.0105 mSv in an exam. To compare it to other common examinations a chest x-ray has a dose of about 0.02 mSv(more than twice the dose of DEXA), an abdoinal CT scan has a dose of around 8.0 mSv. This just goes to show you can't trust so called "professionals" take 5 minutes and do the research yourself. To the two "techs" that are spewing this garbage STOP IT! The one intelligent thing that you mentioned was that a extra radiation should be weighed risk vs benefit. In the long run are 2 or 3 DEXA scans going to hurt you? Probably not. Doesn't mean it hasn't or in the future will cause a problem, just the risk is lower then what two ignorant people might have you believe. fatdoob until you can post any official article that proves differently stop poluting the message boards with your false "facts"

Just so you can get some rea info from real medical professionals:
Http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2948153/

isaacdg

Ha, hijacking a very old thread. I found this while doing some dexa research, your post looks like you have a great grasp on things. Do you have an update on progress?

Theo166

Think I'll save this for when I get closer to ideal body weight.
I already know I'm a fatbastard now, it's too early in my loss journey to help me set goal weight.

SCoil123

I got one once and it was an eye opener. My bf% was only a few % higher than calipers and measuring tape but it was enough to bump me up into the overweight category which was a motivator to get more proactive.

I really want to do it again. My goal is to get and stay at the 20-25%bf range.

Difference for me was 27-29% with calipers and measuring tape

32% with dexa

I had it done last year when I got seriois about getting back in shape.

LessCookiess

I'm curious how are things going for you Op? @alpepp

CSARdiver

I work in a metabolics lab and have access to this and use this regularly. Not something I would spend a great deal on, but $75 is very reasonable. I also have a handheld impedance reader which is very accurate - within 1% of the DEXA. Note that all these machines are operator dependent and your accuracy increases with the routine you build.

lkpducky

What I find confusing is how to figure out muscle tissue gain. The scan tells you your LBM increase, but that would include water, glycogen, muscle, connective tissue, etc. I can't tell how much muscle tissue I gained from the before-and-after scans.

deannalfisher

Theo166 wrote: »

Think I'll save this for when I get closer to ideal body weight.
I already know I'm a fatbastard now, it's too early in my loss journey to help me set goal weight.

its never too early to set a goal - maybe it would be an intermediary goal - instead of 50lbs overall, you aim for 10lbs - but getting an assessment done at periodic intervals can help

deannalfisher

lkpducky wrote: »

What I find confusing is how to figure out muscle tissue gain. The scan tells you your LBM increase, but that would include water, glycogen, muscle, connective tissue, etc. I can't tell how much muscle tissue I gained from the before-and-after scans.

I had an inbody assessemtn done - not sure its accuracy as compared to Dexa, but on the results it gave me the following:
intra/extracellular water
dry lean mass
body fat mass

so by subtracting the intra/extra measurement from DLM, I could see the change

PAV8888

Necro thread @xchocolategirl

One of the things dexa scans do that is "different" is that they separately measure fat, bone and lean mass wheras many other measurements lump bone and lean mass into one. This is probably an only 6-8lb difference in terms of total lean mass, but I find it interesting when evaluating my protein goals.

Of course dexa is also susceptible to lean mass (usually inadvertent) manipulation.

If you carb load and/or eat a salty meal vs arrive fasted and glycogen depleted​ your total weight and fat % will change a bit because all that water will now be part of your lean mass on the day of the test.

This is true with other tests too; but it should be kept in mind when sometimes people get inconsistent results.

graphics1125

I've thought about doing a DEXA scan but my self esteem is to fragile.

macchiatto

Thanks for the info! That's actually a lot more affordable than I was assuming. I need to find out what the options are around here.

macchiatto

SCoil123 wrote: »

I got one once and it was an eye opener. My bf% was only a few % higher than calipers and measuring tape but it was enough to bump me up into the overweight category which was a motivator to get more proactive.

I really want to do it again. My goal is to get and stay at the 20-25%bf range.

Difference for me was 27-29% with calipers and measuring tape

32% with dexa

I had it done last year when I got seriois about getting back in shape.

Thanks for sharing your results, too.
I wonder if DEXA often ends up being higher than other methods or if it just depends on how the individual carries their weight.

sgt1372

macchiatto wrote: »

I wonder if DEXA often ends up being higher than other methods or if it just depends on how the individual carries their weight.

I have been measuring my BF/LBM quarterly for the past 6 months by both DXA scans and hydrostatic testing.

DXA is always higher than hydrostatic by about 3-4%. My last hydro test was 10.1% and my last DXA was 14%. 3 months before that the results were 12.1% hydro and 16.4% DXA. And, 3 months before that the results were 16.9% hydro and 20.3% DXA. A very consistent variation in the results.

trigden1991

lkpducky wrote: »

What I find confusing is how to figure out muscle tissue gain. The scan tells you your LBM increase, but that would include water, glycogen, muscle, connective tissue, etc. I can't tell how much muscle tissue I gained from the before-and-after scans.

Autopsy & disection