DEXA Scan Experience

Sageyoku
Sageyoku Posts: 77 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
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:
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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?

Replies

  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,092 Member
    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
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,976 Member
    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
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,613 Member
    I found it interesting that your right and left sides have different bf%!
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,413 Member
    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
  • Beautyofdreams
    Beautyofdreams Posts: 1,009 Member
    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.

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