DEXA 6'2"/32/187 lbs 38.7% on the bright side I have great bone density šŸ‘

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prophecy7777

New member
dexa results and current photos

EDIT: THANK YOU everyone for looking out for me. This is the Last time I post and then immediately go to sleep šŸ¤¦ identifying info removed, and necessary DEXA post info added. I also added a photo of my work out this week, my working weights over time, and Mandelbrot, my cat :)

I am a bit under 6'2" 187 and I have 38.7% body fat and 61% lean mass.

I have been losing fat and lifting weights for a few months now and just got in to lifting heavy around a month ago. I've lost just a little less than 10 lbs overall.

I started with Stronglifts at a cheap gym with no barbells and for about a month I've been working with a trainer on getting heavy and learning new accessories. As of this week I'm up to 4x lifting per week. I've added a photo of my program for this week and a chart showing my working weights over time for the big three. The grey line on that graph is when I started working with the trainer and the hashes are when I got sick. I've done cardio on and off, currently not doing anything on purpose, but walking and biking wherever I can instead of driving. Considering restarting couch25k.

I got a DEXA scan today and I thought I'd share because i always appreciate seeing them.

This is a higher result than I was hoping for, but I'm not too worried. I'm doing what I need to be doing to get into a lower range, and I'll use this to benchmark my progress. Happy to answer any questions, but not sure what's useful to add. I'm eager to ditch fat, but also build muscle, so I keep changing my mind about how much to eat. Any recommendations on cutting vs recomp are welcome.

My calculated TDEE is ~2000, and I was eating around 1600, but now that I'm lifting I'm struggling to stay that low. But even there I was losing slow and considering cutting down, so idk. I try to get protein, but it's hard at 1600 to get .8 or even .6 g/lb at a high body weight. I also don't love cooking meat or eating up a couple hundred calories with a boring shake, so a lot of the more convenient methods don't make it into my habits. I like the idea of recomping, but my weight loss has been stalled for a couple weeks, and I feel a lot of doubt that increasing my calories won't lead to gaining even more fat.

My favorite takeaway from this is that I can respond to any future weight queries with "80,442 grams" šŸ˜
 
@prophecy7777 I just wanted to say that I look pretty similar to your photos (I'm 5'4 138ish lbs), and I did a dexa scan in April and had almost exactly the same body fat percentage as you. I was embarrassed to post them here because I had never seen anyone post higher than 30% at the time (though I've seen more since then). Props to you for sharing, maybe next time I get a dexa scan I'll be a little more brave.
 
@prophecy7777 Easy non-cooked meat proteins: tofu, edamame, pb2/pbfit, nonfat greek yogurt, eggs, fish/tuna, high protein pastas. I don't cook meat and only eat seafood a couple times a week and poultry 1-2 times a week.

Also, at your height and weight, I bet you could life *A LOT* more. Have you tested 1RMs?
 
@thaonguyen225 Thanks for the protein ideas! I need to find better way to prep tofu-- when I do it comes out... not appealing. :p I didn't know about high protein pasta! that sounds like a dream come true.

No, I don't test 1RMs hardly at all. It's changing a lot right now since I am still fairly new, and I don't plan to compete so I don't see the point. I would do it if I thought the strength standards were useful, but I started out so dramatically below all the floors for my weight and it's just discouraging. The one time I tested a 1RM it was a lift I had more than doubled since starting, but I was still under the beginner number. I am more or less a noodle with a lot of other noodles attached (and apparently a lot more alfredo sauce than I thought ;)

Bench is plateaued at 75 3x5, but when I started, I couldn't do 40 1x5, so I'm not mad. I think squat at hopefully deads will keep growing slowly, but I am struggling to finish the last few reps, so I'm pretty sure that I can't lift a lot more right this minute. :)
 
@prophecy7777 So Iā€™m going to go against the current wave of comments saying that the DEXA was wrong, and say that it may actually be right. While Iā€™m not a fitness guru or anything- from experience, I do believe your results.

There could be the chance you were dehydrated or the machine might be improperly calibrated, but a similar thing happened with my DEXA results. I am a seemingly lean-ish person on this sub, but have a high bf % (36.7%) simply because I am just under-muscled (check my post history if you would like, but keep in mind I am a lot shorter than you).

I hate to say this, but these kind of DEXA posts come around frequently in which a slim woman posts a high bf% results, and then there are a bunch of comments which state the results have to be inaccurate. Then said comments suggest other bf% measuring (calipers, BIA, hydrodunk, pictures, etc), which supposedly are more inaccurate and have more variability in their results. I think these comments mean well, but I think itā€™s possible they are coming from a different perspective. Many people think high bf % means also having a high BMI and looking stereotypically obese, when in reality bf is a % of fat to total weight. There have been people who weigh much more than me in this sub with lower bf % simply because they had more muscle to offset their fat. Remember an award-winning body builder would probably have a high BMI but low bf%, so similarly the opposite can happen too.

That being said, you have a great bone density, which will be useful as you get older, and congrats on losing those 10 lbs! Fitness really is about the journey rather than the end result, so keep up the good work!
 
@inquiringmama I agree! I'm 5' 10" 153lb, was ~32-33% bf at my last DEXA. I've lost a couple of pounds and my legs have gotten even skinnier since then after a knee injury meant I had to stop working out my legs, but my scale (which matched all 3 of my DEXAs) is showing me up to 35% bf now because of muscle loss.

Lack of muscle has a ridiculous effect on bf% :(
 
@inquiringmama Thankfully it's not a bad injury, just makes it hard to work out, and it's getting better. But yeah, I'm definitely ignoring the scale and taking a long term cut for now. I already wasn't working out enough to build a ton of muscle, so just working on keeping what I can and cutting extra fat in the meantime
 
@inquiringmama Thank you for pointing me to your post!! I have no reason not to believe my results, tbh. In PE I always had high results on calipers, too.šŸ¤· Just a very sedentary person until quite recently. It's encouraging to hear from others that I don't look fat, and I wouldn't trade for the alternative, but it's also good to know I have a lot to work on.
 
@prophecy7777 I was/am in the same boat, in the sense I was a super sedentary person until recently. Hell compared to most people on this sub, I might still be considered a sedentary person since I donā€™t workout everyday.

Regarding the whole recomp vs cut, I think it really comes down to the fact if you want to lose weight/quicker results. Personally, I donā€™t want to lose weight (just lose fat/gain muscle) and Iā€™m more chill regarding fitness so I like recomp. But if you want faster results, are super disciplined, and want to lose actual weight, then maybe cut is more aligned with your goals. Still good luck with whatever methods you choose to obtain your goals!
 
@inquiringmama Thanks :) glad to meet sometime in the same boat. It's easy for me to look at your photos and think "she looks great! There's no reason to cut." And although I think you are more slim than me, I think some people look at me and say that, too. I guess I have to face myself and decide if I'm happy where I am or not. Thanks again!
 
@prophecy7777 Your BF % is way higher than I would have expected based on your photos. Are you eating low carb? Or is it possible you were dehydrated on the day of your scan? The reason I ask is because water content in your body is included in lean mass so being dehydrated can skew your BF % results. If that's not the case, I am wondering if there's something wrong with their machine like they need to calibrate it or something.

I mean, you're just a smidge lower than me in body fat (per my recent DEXA scan) and I look way different although I am 50+ pounds heavier and 4ish inches shorter but still, I have visible fat rolls and you have barely noticeable fat.
 
@dawn16 Hi, thanks for add your thoughts! I'm not eating low carb (lol, not by a long shot). I guess it's possible I was dehydrated-- I don't drink a lot of water in general. I didn't feel shitty, though. At least I know next time to make sure to drink lots of water beforehand just in case.

I appreciate the comparison photo! I did some looking around dexa posts here and I was also a little surprised. However, I did find one photo of someone around my height and she also had a higher than expected BF%. So far every "just how fat am i" metric has been messed up for me. A few weeks ago I was overweight by BMI, normal by waist circumference, and underweight by waist-to-height and waist-to-hip šŸ¤· so when I doubt I assume things are a feature of the bell curve.
 
@prophecy7777 I donā€™t get why everyone is saying she needs to block out her information. The average Facebook account contains a persons full name, city/state of residence, birth date, schools attended, sometimes even phone number and email, along with pictures of themselves...
 
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