My first DEXA scan results with photos! [28F/5'2''/108 lbs/27.3% body fat]

[tiffaniemichele]

@amydoodles Well crap... If that's 27%, I'm like 35%.

 

[ruky]

@tiffaniemichele It's just a number

 

[godismyredeemer]

@amydoodles Ahh I'm 5'3, 113 and Asian too! Boba always gets to me too :/ I've been trying to cut down on it but it's so good!

 

[arisemydarling]

@amydoodles 74.3 lb of lean body mass is quite low, even for someone on the shorter side. I wouldn't worry so much about your diet as about increasing your strength workouts (whether it's weightlifting or rock climbing more often or whatever works for you).

Muscle mass starts a natural process of decline in the mid 20s and literally just disappears little by little until you die -- unless you actively work at keeping it and/or building it back up. I think you look awesome, but if you want to do something really good for your health, I would focus on maintaining and building muscle, not worrying about fat right now. Percentages don't tell the whole story when your lean mass is so low.

 

[amydoodles]

@arisemydarling I agree that this is more important. The personal trainer who did the caliper test on me told me it would be benefit me to gain 10 lbs of muscle. Unfortunately weight-lifting and/or bouldering gave me pain in the neck and traps so I've had to lighten it up to recover.

 

[amydoodles]

@raika Yes it's pain. But it may have actually been due to a really intense bouldering session, and maybe irritated and perpetuated by weight-lifting in bad form.

 

[dawn16]

@amydoodles If weight lifting gave you pain, it's most likely a form issue. Pick a good program, start light, focus on form, and enjoy dat linear progression and noob gains for as long as you can!

 

[amydoodles]

@dawn16 I bought a bunch of personal training sessions to learn weightlifting in hopes that it would help my form. Unfortunately that didn't work for me even though I started light, so I am currently limiting myself to lower body work for weights, while working out the upper body with bodyweight exercises.

 

[dawn16]

@amydoodles I would have never, ever guessed 27%. Honestly you look like 20-22% if I were basing it off of those images that float around or even other people's results. 27% seems high.

 

[leolion]

@dawn16 How much does this calculator give you? (http://healthiack.com/body-fat-percentage-calculator)
(it's the link from where you took the image)

 

[amydoodles]

@leolion I agree with gr8grafx. The BMI calculator that it links to is off, and there's no way you can approximate body fat % from just someone's age, gender, and BMI. Either way, based on their calculations I got 24.4%. I think that the info (body fat pics, body fat calculators) on healthiack is totally bogus...

 

[juanie123]

@leolion Tried that page and it seems WAY off.

First, it said my BMI was 23 ("you're ideal!"), which is off. I'm 24.2 on all other BMI calculators. 25 is overweight and I'm constantly right on the edge.

THEN, even at the 23 calculation, it said that my BF was 33.2% which puts me in the obese category! How can age + "ideal BMI" result in 33.2% body fat?

I know my body fat always registers as high, as does my BMI, but I run OCR's, weight lift and do HIIT classes 4X a week. I also watch what I eat-- no sugar or starches.

I've also been doing this for 2+ years.

YMMV, but the fact that their BMI calculator was that skewed makes me doubt the rest of the info.

 

[dawn16]

There isn't really a good way to measure body fat, really. Even DEXA has some pretty big problems.

 

[amydoodles]

@dawn16 Yeah everyone bases their estimates on that particular set of images so they all underestimate. I read that it's very typical to get a DEXA reading of 5% more than what you would think from visuals and calipers because what you see (and can pinch) is just subcutaneous (not visceral) fat! I scoured Reddit for DEXA results and did not find many, but pretty much every person was fatter in DEXA than they looked (based on popular perception)!

 

[kreelolwut]

@amydoodles It may be also that the people who post their DEXA results and who aren't afraid to show their pics are in the subset of people who carry their weight well/less subcutaneous...I'm pretty jealous of you since I'm in the latter category but I guess I also was able to guess my bf (confirmed by DEXA) super closely. So, win some you lose some?

 

[amydoodles]

@kreelolwut That's true, but I have yet to see DEXA verified photos on Reddit from a woman with a body fat % lower than 26.8%. I found this picture of a woman who supposedly has a 19.4% DEXA body fat reading and she looks fatless. I think visceral fat usually doesn't look very good either (beer belly). The other women who had shared their DEXA verified pictures (example 1,example 2) on Reddit had lots more subcutaneous fat than visceral fat (I also have more subcutaneous than visceral but with a smaller difference).

 

[wifee]

@amydoodles That fits with my experience. Looks and calipers were putting me between 19 and 21 but Dexa said a touch under 25%.

 

[dawn16]

@amydoodles Where did you read that?

 

[dawn16]

I agree! If she is 27%, I'm at least 50% lol

 

[dawn16]

Right? I want to get my percentage tested but I cannot for the life of me find a place in NYC. Even tried contacting schools that could have them, like users suggested, and no luck. It's crazy!