amydoodles
New member
Hi everyone! I've always been curious about DEXA scans and finally got the chance to do one when the BodySpec truck came around. My results, with many photos (possibly NSFW?) are here for anyone who is curious. I haven't really seen DEXA results for women with my body type (I am short and relatively slim with pretty much no muscle definition) so I thought I'd share this.
I have more visceral fat than I'd like so I'll have to work a bit on my eating and exercise habits. This pattern is commonly found in East Asians. I generally eat a good amount of fruits and vegetables but I do not have a well-controlled diet and I drink a ton of boba (I am Taiwanese American). I exercise regularly but pretty lightly compared to most of the women on here: 4-5x/week, mostly elliptical; 2x/week I'll add some bodyweight exercise (e.g., pull-ups, leg raises) or light resistance exercises (e.g., dumbell squats, kettlebell swings, rows, etc); 3x/month I'll go rock-climbing!
For reference, 4 months ago, a personal trainer did a caliper test which gave me 24.5% (pretty close!), and 13 years ago (yes I know that's a loooong time) hydrostatic weighing gave me 22.5%. I should note that I looked a lot fatter then, and was a lot weaker, but maybe wasn't full developed. I find the online fat calculators very inaccurate. This one gives me 18%. A couple years ago I used an omron handheld scanner at the gym and found the results so ridiculous that I never did it again--13.5%.
EDIT: People seem surprised by my body fat %. First, the photos that are commonly sourced by Redditors on Body Fat Friday were really just based on a blogger's whim. Body fat looks very different based on factors such gender, ethnicity, height, body structure, and type (visceral versus subcutaneous). For instance, my boyfriend (European American, 5'11'', 155 lbs, slim build) also got 27% and people have called him skinny. Next, I'm not sure if I'm as physically weak or at risk for muscle decline as people think. For instance, I can do 7 pull-ups right now, which I mention because it's related to strength-to-body-weight ratio. Page 2 of my print-out also says I have 6.17 kg/m[sup]2[/sup] Relative Skeletal Muscle Index, which means that I have a good amount of muscle in my arms and legs (recommended is 5.45 for women). I've also included several articles below that indicate that Asians, particularly women, are fatter than Europeans (whom most of the research had been based on) despite having a lower BMI. One study (Deurenberg et al., 2002, number 3 in my list) found that for the same BMI, the body fat % of Asians was typically 3-5% higher.
I have more visceral fat than I'd like so I'll have to work a bit on my eating and exercise habits. This pattern is commonly found in East Asians. I generally eat a good amount of fruits and vegetables but I do not have a well-controlled diet and I drink a ton of boba (I am Taiwanese American). I exercise regularly but pretty lightly compared to most of the women on here: 4-5x/week, mostly elliptical; 2x/week I'll add some bodyweight exercise (e.g., pull-ups, leg raises) or light resistance exercises (e.g., dumbell squats, kettlebell swings, rows, etc); 3x/month I'll go rock-climbing!
For reference, 4 months ago, a personal trainer did a caliper test which gave me 24.5% (pretty close!), and 13 years ago (yes I know that's a loooong time) hydrostatic weighing gave me 22.5%. I should note that I looked a lot fatter then, and was a lot weaker, but maybe wasn't full developed. I find the online fat calculators very inaccurate. This one gives me 18%. A couple years ago I used an omron handheld scanner at the gym and found the results so ridiculous that I never did it again--13.5%.
EDIT: People seem surprised by my body fat %. First, the photos that are commonly sourced by Redditors on Body Fat Friday were really just based on a blogger's whim. Body fat looks very different based on factors such gender, ethnicity, height, body structure, and type (visceral versus subcutaneous). For instance, my boyfriend (European American, 5'11'', 155 lbs, slim build) also got 27% and people have called him skinny. Next, I'm not sure if I'm as physically weak or at risk for muscle decline as people think. For instance, I can do 7 pull-ups right now, which I mention because it's related to strength-to-body-weight ratio. Page 2 of my print-out also says I have 6.17 kg/m[sup]2[/sup] Relative Skeletal Muscle Index, which means that I have a good amount of muscle in my arms and legs (recommended is 5.45 for women). I've also included several articles below that indicate that Asians, particularly women, are fatter than Europeans (whom most of the research had been based on) despite having a lower BMI. One study (Deurenberg et al., 2002, number 3 in my list) found that for the same BMI, the body fat % of Asians was typically 3-5% higher.
- Larger Amounts of Visceral Adipose Tissue in Asian Americans
- Asians have lower body mass index (BMI) but higher percent body fat than do whites: comparisons of anthropometric measurements
- Asians are different from Caucasians and from each other in their body mass index/body fat per cent relationship
