I just had a DXA Body Composition Scan

Arleigh7
Arleigh7 Posts: 150 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Thought I would share this experience. It took all of about 15 minutes and cost $85. Basiclly you lie on a large table and a very low level xray scanner goes slowly over your body and then produces a 4 page report on body fat, muscle, bones and overal composition. It also did a high level chart of my bone density.

Not only did the test give me my overall Fat, Muscle and Bone but it actually detailed it out by body part (Right and Left Arms, Right and Left Lges, Trunk, Android (Stomach/midsection) and Gynoid (hips, butt and waist).

The reason I did this is I've been trying to figure out my target weight. I'm 54 and have been doing heavy lifting and working out failry steadily for many years. So I carry allot more muscle then an average person. If I use the BMI calculator on MFP it would have me dropping 60 or more pounds to get below the Obese category but with this data I can see I need to drop 30 pounds (but those 30 have to be all fat which is very hard to do!).

Anyway it was an extremely easy procedure and it has provided me with some great Data so thought I would share.

Replies

  • nerdieprofessor
    nerdieprofessor Posts: 512 Member
    Interesting! Thanks for sharing!
  • 1Cor1510
    1Cor1510 Posts: 413 Member
    Where did you have that.done?
  • Arleigh7
    Arleigh7 Posts: 150 Member
    I live in the San Francisco Bay Area so I did a Google search on DXA and an office in Redwood City came up so that's where I went. I called and made an appointment and went in. All in all it was very easy and from everything I have read the accuracy of DXA is very, very good. Much better then scales or caliperss.
  • 916lude
    916lude Posts: 305
    Thanks for the info! Bone density is something I'm very curious about
  • backinaction
    backinaction Posts: 28 Member
    Nothing like bringing up an old topic. I have been wondering how to use the DEXA scan results to come up with "ideal weight". How did you adjust your BMI figure using the DEXA results?
  • Bumbeen
    Bumbeen Posts: 263 Member
    I don't understand trying to pinpoint an ideal weight range. I just try to put on as much muscle and have as little fat as possible. My weight is a non-issue
  • dbhogan
    dbhogan Posts: 1 Member
    Correct me if I'm wrong. I think its more about understanding if your workouts are going the right direction. If your workouts are burning too much muscle it's easier to correct sonner than later. However, if the dexa scan isn't done before you first started on a serious body building program than it's diffcult to interpret the results. If your 6 months into your program and you currently weigh 200 pounds and your BF is 40 pounds or 20% and your lean muscle mass is 160 pounds or 80% it difficult to know if your losing more muscle than fat or visa-versa. So if your really concerned, plan to get more than 1 dexa scan periodically over time. Or go out and spend $130 on a scale that measures BF. I know these scales don't really give you an exact % of BF but overtime it will tell you if your trending up or down in BF verses muscle. Like the other posts say, it doesn't matter what % your BF is as long as your losing more fat than muscle. I hope this clarifies things.

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