@kabriana Actually, the same thing happened to me. I went in for a DEXA thinking I was going to get a pat on the back for all the weight I'd lost, but it turns out I was skinny fat and had lost a lot of muscle mass on my diet. I had so little muscle that even though I was fairly thin, I was at 37% body fat, which qualified as obese. I was upset and wanted to get a different answer so I went for a BodPod body composition test. The result was within 1% of the DEXA. They recommended that I increase my muscle mass. I was super mad for days, but eventually I was like, DEXA is considered the gold standard of body fat measurement and BodPod is a close runner up, they couldn't both be wrong. I just accepted it and moved forward with a goal of gaining muscle mass.
@kabriana Thanks for sharing your DEXA scan! I’ve been wondering what this looks like on paper. The grass is always greener, it could have been 39% body fat! Now that you know, you can apply some healthy steps!
@kabriana I took a similar one at my gym and was equally appalled. I talked to the gym and they said that sometimes these aren’t accurate especially if you’ve eaten already that day and some other factors. For reference I’m 5’4” 114 lbs and it said I was borderline obese with my BF%.
@kabriana So I just had a Dexa scan done and my chart I was given with the fat percentages and the categories they correspond to did not include an “obese” category - it was simply “unhealthy”. It is very possible that you have a very high body fat percentage compared to lean mass which can in turn mean you don’t look medically obese in the way we would typically associate the term but that yes unfortunately your fat to lean mass ratio is unhealthy. As some people here have pointed out you may want to work on body recomposition - building your strength and lean mass - if you work on strength training and eating healthy you may find that you naturally start to build more lean mass and lose fat and shift to a healthier ratio. Don’t do intense cardio - that will be your enemy. Walking and resistance training and healthy eating will be your best friends.
