Health checkup, first dexa scan, quitting my diet

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  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    (In case it wasn't clear, I was replying to some spammer who went on about the importance of a healthy diet and then linked to some promoted site. I wasn't directing my comments at you, OP.)
  • globalc00
    globalc00 Posts: 103 Member
    Finally got my health report back. The dexa scan didn’t show as much info as I expected. Not sure if this is because it was an older model or what. I thought it would give me my tdee. Does anyone know what the %fat trunk/% fat leg and trunk/limb fat mass ratio under the adipose indices suppose to tell you. Those 2 measurements are really out of wack in my report. For YN and AM they are 79,47 and 91, 58 respectively.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,881 Member
    globalc00 wrote: »
    The fasting requirement wasn't specifically for the dexa scan. How the health checkups are done where I live is they do a bunch of basic test and let you pick some optional test. You go in to the facility in the morning and they herd you from station to station to do test after test. So basic test would include blood work, eye test, hearing test, urine test, heart rate, arteries stiffness and things of that nature. The fasting is probably more for some of those routine items. I know that being overly hydrated will make you appear leaner. I definitely was not overly hydrated or fasted for extended period of time. So my expectation of the scan as far as body fat goes is that it will be +-1% or 2% from what other devices have told me.

    As far as quitting my diet goes, I'm not finding an urge to eat up to my maintenance calories on normal days. I am having occasion piece of candy and snacks just for the heck of it, but not enough be at maintenance. I am also finding I'm not wanting to change my workout routine ever since I have the option to decrease it either I guess mentally for me telling my self I have to do it to reach a goal just made me hate it, but now that I don't have too, it doesn't seem that bad. I guess reverse psychology is a real thing. lol

    I'm with the US VA who obviously considers fasting blood work to be onerous as they give us a $5 voucher that we can use in the cafeteria upstairs immediately after the blood is drawn.

    Next year consider asking what tests require fasting and insist on getting them done first, then have a snack that you've brought like a protein bar or nuts or something easily portable like that.

    Many times I've found I'm told one thing is the procedure but if I emphatically explain why that won't work for me it's suddenly not as hard a rule as they first said.
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
    globalc00 wrote: »
    Finally got my health report back. The dexa scan didn’t show as much info as I expected. Not sure if this is because it was an older model or what. I thought it would give me my tdee. Does anyone know what the %fat trunk/% fat leg and trunk/limb fat mass ratio under the adipose indices suppose to tell you. Those 2 measurements are really out of wack in my report. For YN and AM they are 79,47 and 91, 58 respectively.

    Can you scan a copy of your report? Not sure what YN and AM means. It should give you a breakdown of %fat per arms/legs/trunk/Android/Gynoid and Total.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited January 2021
    globalc00 wrote: »
    I find my fitbit scale to be very consistent and almost predictiable the 3 years I been using it. After a vacation or fun weekend, the body fat goes up predictiably with my weight and comes down slowy as my weight drops. When I first got it, and was a litte heavier, it registered a higher body fat, and has come down with my weight loss. Whether it is accurate or not is another story. It didn't cost me any money for the dexa scan. It was included in one of the 3 options included in my anual health checkup. I am male.

    Just FYI - your experience there is EXACTLY why it can be so inaccurate for actually giving good calculation of BF%.

    It's not measuring it, it's measuring electrical resistance to pulses, and using stats and averages it's calculating after that.

    After a fun weekend you would not gain fat that fast, nor lose it that fast - that is water weight and prior measurements at different hydration levels.

    But good job using it and realizing it can provide a direction even if it is consistently inaccurate.


    Too bad on an annoying DEXA report, even if older the reports used to be translated over to normal human-speak.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,935 Member
    globalc00 wrote: »
    Finally got my health report back. The dexa scan didn’t show as much info as I expected. Not sure if this is because it was an older model or what. I thought it would give me my tdee. Does anyone know what the %fat trunk/% fat leg and trunk/limb fat mass ratio under the adipose indices suppose to tell you. Those 2 measurements are really out of wack in my report. For YN and AM they are 79,47 and 91, 58 respectively.

    I can see how they might be able to estimate BMR or RMR from body composition, but I'm not sure how accurate the estimate would be. I can't see how they could estimate NEAT or TDEE, without a lot of other information, since the scan itself doesn't know whether you're a bricklayer's apprentice carrying hods of bricks all day, or a reference librarian who mostly sits at a desk and answers questions. I grant that they could ask you questions, but that's pretty approximate . . . really no better than plugging a RMR/BMR to an online calculator. (Yes, some of the calculators let you enter your own BMR estimate. I assume that's because there are tests that provide a more personalized estimate.)
  • globalc00
    globalc00 Posts: 103 Member

    [/quote]

    Can you scan a copy of your report? Not sure what YN and AM means. It should give you a breakdown of %fat per arms/legs/trunk/Android/Gynoid and Total.
    [/quote]

    YN stands for young normal. Ie what someone between 20-29 would be. AM is age matched. Which is where I rank among people my age. So for those 2 measurement, I’m avg and sub avg while all my other measurements such as fat% are much better than compared against YN and AM.

    I does give the breakdown of my arms, legs trunks and so on and those were all fine. It also included my head which I thought was strange since I didn’t see other people’s report on YouTube report head fat.

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