So I had my latest DEXA Scan today. For those not familiar with it, a DXA scan (aka DEXA Scan) is a low level x-ray that is often used to monitor bone density but it will also ready your body fat percentage and lean tissue percentage.
After starting with a Body Fat % of 34.6% in June 2018, and then seeing it drop to 28.1% in October 2018 and then to 23.1% in January 2019… I was expecting it to be somewhere in the 18-20% this time… I won’t lie. What it came back as STUNNED me!
I also use BodySpec, that location
Where were you with the Visceral Fat loss lbs/%
On the next page I believe?
I’m sure just as impressive
So awesome
Dang
Congrats!!
“I’ll have what he’s having.” 
Seriously, please tell what you are doing to achieve this.
Does the total mass lbs of 195 sound/feel right to you? Ie have you lost 28lbs in the last 4 months? The DEXA says you have kept all your lean mass, and all your weight loss has been fat. Weight training?
Flippin’ awesome!! 
That’s really exciting! I got my first one 2 months ago and I’m exciting to have that as a benchmark. Congrats on your awesome result!
That’s cool.
Great job! Do you have a pic of the first scan and is your green body mostly red in it?
Edit: I’ve just looked this up in my area and think I’ve found it. They call the machine the BodPod and the test sounds similar. The price is plenty reasonable. Thanks for sharing!
Based on OP current results
Yes…more red for sure
There is a difference like you said
“One major difference between these two methods is the variables they measure. The air displacement method (Bod Pod) uses a two-compartment model and therefore is only able to measure totals and percentages of fat and non-fat mass. Unlike the CompID Scan, it is not able to measure the distribution of lean mass and fat mass throughout the body, and does not provide information on bone health.”
Im not going to say what is better
YMMV
Either way, Good Luck in your testing and baseline😄
That is truly fantastic. Congratulations!
Even if it were off by 50% (I’m sure it’s not) you would be doing wonderfully.
I have been depending on my “scale” for this, and though I know it isn’t very accurate using the “trends”. My target weight has always been “fat %” not a poundage, and it keeps going up.
If correct, this means my lean mass has been increasing as well.
Now you have motivated me to go find a DEXA scan.
Thanks.
Yeah, here is that page at the bottom of this post. I am not at that location though, I am up here in the Seattle area and they have a van that goes to gyms and such.
And for those of you who are new and have ever done caloric restriction and saw your metabolic rate drop significantly, look at the RMR numbers (also called BMR for Basal Metabolic Rate). I eat 1800-2400 calories of 5%/20%/75% macros daily while doing 20:4 IF. Some days this means OMAD, some days 22:2, occasionally on Sundays we get breakfast before bowling and it is 16:8 and my metabolism is pretty stable. I work out VERY little and pretty much not at all this last 6 months.
The 195 is right or at least close. Their calculations are always a little less than what I see on the Shipping department scale at work each day but then again they are not factoring in my clothes and after the 2nd time it happened… work INSISTED that they didn’t care how accurate I wanted to be… I was not allowed to weigh myself naked. 
That morning I weight myself at 199 on the shipping scale. On 1/11 - my previous scan - they calculated 222.7 and I weight myself at 225 that morning.
As for the last part, I am just doing my thing which isn’t much. I live a pretty sedentary life. I drive forklift for a living and play on the computer or watch TV when I get home. For a couple weeks in March a co-worker and I would run the 21 steps to the office 3 -5 reps each break but I haven’t done that since I got the flu around that time. My wife and I bowl 3 games a week on Sunday mornings and occasionally go for a mile or so walk through some of the lovely parks here in the Seattle area. No set regimen though. The key, IMHO, is simply keeping to what I have been eating. While so many of you have such great recipes, for me it is basics. Steaks, burgers, bacon, eggs, pork pelly, pork roast or beef roast. I eat a lot of omelettes/scrambles/frittata kind of things with 4 eggs, 100-150g chicken/SPAM/sausage and things like fresh jalapeno, cheese, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, etc. as they are easy dinners and I can easily pack all my macros into them. I do similar things with tuna or chicken salads that surround a base of around 100g of avocado mayo, 85-120g of the protein, 60g or so of dill pickles, fresh jalapeno, radish/daikon, adding in other things I might have on hand.
While many don’t like to track or want too, I am a data guy in that I can’t quantify what I don’t measure. I log everything I eat, in grams, in My Fitness Pal. For some of the knocks it gets, it works well enough for me to keep track of what I am eating as well as my weight.
This quarter I will be getting back to the gym and starting doing more weight training and cardio as well as increasing my protein and lowering my fat at the recommendation of Dr. Naiman and this is why it is important for me to be able to trust this result. I mean, if it was really 18% and not 11.9% and next scan it came up 15% I could only logically conclude that the changes increased my fat by 3% rather than it being an actual drop of 3%.
Thanks. They are indeed great for being able to monitor your progress and see what is really happening. Before I started keto I started IF and that was why I wanted the scan. I knew that a lot of people who would hear I was losing weight would simply say, “Yeah, but you are probably losing muscle mass by doing that.” Having the scans I can confidently say that “No, I have lost a very small amount of lean tissue but most of it has been fat as you can see on this report.” It is also helpful because, as my lovely wife has pointed out, that while you can’t spot reduce when you are trying to lose weight (i.e. you can’t say, “I just want to lose fat from my butt”) you CAN spot increase and choose where you work to put muscle back on. The scans can help quantify how much you gained in those locations as well as help you choose what might be most important to work on first.
Absolutely. I will add it at the end as well.
In some places they are illegal without a doctors script which is idiotic IMHO. And many doctors simply won’t do them. My doctor was fine with it but was confused at first. His comment was “I have sent many people down for DXA scans for bone density but I am not really sure how that would help you with your goals.” Originally that was the purpose but then some people realized you could see OTHER things as well. And some have made a business out of it. He looked into the cost at the hospital and said, “Through the hospital it does not go on your medical record like you had hoped, it is cash only and it is $125. I think your $45 scan on the van is a much better deal. I can always scan your reports into the system.”
And you’ve kept all your lean mass, that is really interesting. Are you calorie counting in any way, or are you going on hunger?
This is a lesson: keep it simple stupid! I totally agree!
That’s impressive. I’ve been trying for 3 months and have only moved from 25% to 22.5%. I can seem to get into the teens, even with extended fasts and weightlifting.
Congrats!
Wow. Thanks for sharing this tid-bit. I had previously searched for DEXA in my area and wasn’t finding any, the closest being in Seattle, so I was considering opting for the BodPod instead. But, just now I searched ‘BodySpec Van locations’ and have found some upcoming events down here in the South Sound!
Jealous. I’m too far and out of his network. I’ve gone to see him once, and paid out of pocket, just to have a conversation and get his thoughts on my hyper responding lipids. Wish he could be my GP. And what’s lame is that I actually moved away from Issaquah a number of years back right when I was on the verge of discovering keto. 
Great job on your progress. Love that red versus green body image!
Yep, and what really shocked me this past scan was that my lean mass showed a minor increase. I really thought it would have gone down a bit so that was a surprise.
I don’t calorie count so much but I do monitor it in some respects but it also falls around my macros. What I mean by that is that I will eat and then log my food a bit later and then see where I am. The actual numbers for me right now are set at 25g carb/105g protein and 176g fat and 2106 calories. Sometimes I am surprised because I ate a BUNCH and am still at only 1700 calories, 8g carbs, 89 protein and 126g fat. I will then often use that information to decide what I can have for a nighttime snack before my window closes. Typically it is 30g of pecans/walnuts with 32g (2 tbsp) of Mixed Nut or Almond Butter and 10g of 72%+ dark chocolate or some combination of that or maybe some pork rinds if I carbs are higher and my protein/fat is a little lower. Some days it might push me to the 2200-2400 calorie range but get the macros on line and that is fine. Other days the macros are right but the calories are lower but rarely less than 1800. If you have My Fitness Pal you can look up my logs. I am UncaToddly on MFP.
One of the things I started doing for a while was learning to how to recognize my body and not worry completely about the numbers. I would still log but what I would do is write down everything I ate as I always do, but not actually log it until the next day. This allowed me to learn how it relates to what I was feeling as opposed to logging it and then saying, “OK, I can eat 12 more grams of carbs, 40g of protein and I need to eat 58 more grams of fat and how do I do that with what I have here?” Logging the next day helped me get a feel since I can’t go back and eat more yesterday…today.
LOL, I read this to the wife and she said, “Timing is everything.” That is actually the reason I went to see him. My doctor is up the hill at Swedish and I was stunned when I looked up Dr. Naiman and saw he was like 3 miles down the road LOL. My doctor fully supports me going to see him as he wants to learn right along with me. Sometimes I feel like an art project to him. He looks at me with the look of, “OK, I don’t know what exactly is going on with this one but I really like it.”
For me, Dr. Naiman (who we all know is a big protein guy) feels that my lipid numbers are a combination of familial hypercholesterolemia and overeating fat at this point in my journey. We will see how it goes. I need to get with him on what targets he thinks I should be shooting for but he was talking about flipping my fat and protein so I have an idea of it. I have tested higher protein days recently though and found that, for me, the higher fat kept me satiated longer during the subsequent fasting window but as I am getting toward goal weight I recently set (187 to make 200 down from my known peak) I know I will have to make some adjustements and need to make sure I do what I must to stave off the effects of sarcopenia.
As for the red vs green images… I hadn’t looked at them again until this thread and it was asked. Looking at them it is CRAZY!
So interesting to hear your story. Ya, I don’t have any familial hypercholesterolemia (boy that’s a finger-ful) but he did mention to me trying to reduce liquid fats (cream, butter, coconut oil) as well. I’m a big coffee with cream drinker, so this is tough. I recently shortened my eating window to be intermittent fasted around 17/7 daily. That is helping to reduce my overall consumption of coffee and cream. But, it’s been tough. I’ve been pretty grumpy and irritable in the mornings. Hopefully it’ll improve with time. Aside from playing around with lowering fat, he confirmed what I was already finding and that is that we are in a state of not fully understanding the hyper responders. He took a look at all my other markers and said every single one of these is excellent, not just barely in range, but all at the excellent end of range. So… high ldl, it’s not matching my other health indicators if we are still thinking ldl is bad. Something to that affect and so kind of an open ended response from him. To be continued as time reveals more science for us all. My appointment with him was actually a couple years ago. Bummed to have not made it to Low Carb Seattle this weekend. Hoping his and some other talks find their way to YouTube.
Your timing with this post is awesome! I’ve just scheduled my appointment for next Friday! It’s crazy close, just up the road, and less than a week out! And like you said, “one of those vans that goes around to gyms”. This one is an open event too which is great as I’m not a member.
What do you think about the intake form question about comparative statistics? It says “choose the population you would like to be compared to” and you select a height and weight. So, this will be my before (or red) scan.
I’m not at my ideal weight. Does it make sense to compare myself to people at my current not ideal weight, or does it make more sense to compare to people at what would be my goal weight?? Thoughts?
DEXA. I was previously thinking I had to resort to BodPod but then he mentioned the van and that’s how I finally found a DEXA, by searching for DEXA vans.
It wasn’t coming up in searches otherwise. BTW, thanks for that comparison article earlier! Might even be ‘fun’ to get both, though the DEXA does sound more thorough.
Nice!
Happy for you
I Set up the appointments in the AM
NO water in the morning
And NO Coffee within 12 hours
Remember, it’s fun geeky stuff, charts , and colors
Just don’t forget about all the NSV w this WOE as your going over the results
have fun🙂
Enjoy
Well, I went for an after work appointment. Actually they didn’t have any morning. So it was either leave work in the middle of the afternoon or just do after work. I did read their instructions specifically looking for info on this and they said to just do your day like normal and then whenever you retest, do it under the same conditions and same time of day. So should be easy to keep up the testing time in the future.
Seriously though, you really think no coffee? Oh boy. I’m already struggling with no morning coffee due to intermittent fasting. No coffee after noon is going to be a “fun” challenge!
Yes. Geeky stuff I love. I’m looking forward to it. Actually a bit bummed I didn’t think or know to do this 2 months ago. I’m restarting keto, for the 3rd time,
and this is the first time I haven’t seen results yet at this point in. I had the initial water weight drop during weeks one and two which reduced just enough bloating to make my jeans feel better, but nothing since. No inches and no weight. So I’m really curious if any amount of lean mass versus fat mass has been moving around and I just can’t tell. A DEXA would’ve been fun to see. But, it’ll be a baseline from here and that’ll be good too!
