WHY DEXA?
Understand Your Body. Improve Your Results. Track What Matters.
The number on the scale only tells you how much you weigh. It does not tell you how much of that weight is muscle, fat, or where that fat is stored.
A DEXA body composition scan provides a detailed look at your body composition, including body fat percentage, lean mass, muscle distribution, and high risk fat like Android fat or Visceral Adipose Fat (VAT).
At Bodymass, we use DEXA testing to help you establish an accurate baseline, identify areas that may deserve attention, and objectively track how your body is responding to changes in training, nutrition, and lifestyle.
Whether your goal is improving body composition, maximizing physical performance, or supporting long-term health, better data can help you make better decisions.
Why Do a DEXA Scan?
Most people use body weight, progress photos, clothing fit, or consumer body fat scales to measure progress. These tools can be useful, but they provide an incomplete picture of what is actually changing inside your body.
You can lose weight while also losing muscle. You can gain weight while improving your body composition by adding lean mass. Your body weight can remain exactly the same while you lose fat and build muscle.
A DEXA scan helps separate these changes.
Instead of simply asking, “Did I lose weight?” you can begin asking better questions:
Did I lose body fat?
Did I maintain or gain lean mass?
Is my training program producing measurable changes?
Is my nutrition strategy supporting my goals?
Are there areas of my body composition that may deserve more attention?
DEXA testing gives you objective data that can help you evaluate your current strategy and make more informed decisions about what to do next
What Does a DEXA Body Composition Report Show?
Your DEXA report provides a detailed analysis of your body composition and fat distribution.
Total Body Fat Percentage
Your total body fat percentage represents the percentage of your body weight that is made up of fat tissue.
Tracking body fat percentage over time can help determine whether changes in your nutrition, training, and lifestyle are producing meaningful improvements in body composition.
Total Lean Mass
Lean mass includes muscle and other non-fat soft tissue throughout the body.
Monitoring lean mass is especially important during fat-loss programs, aging, athletic training, and periods of calorie restriction.
Losing weight is not always the same as improving body composition. Ideally, fat-loss programs should reduce body fat while preserving as much lean mass as possible.
Regional Lean Mass and Muscle Distribution
DEXA measures lean mass in different regions of the body, including the arms, legs, and trunk.
This allows you to evaluate how muscle is distributed throughout your body and identify differences between the left and right sides.
Regional lean mass data can be particularly useful for athletes, strength-training clients, individuals returning from injury, and anyone interested in monitoring muscle development over time.
High Risk Fat: Android Fat & Visceral Adipose Fat (VAT)
Total body fat percentage tells only part of the story. Where your body stores fat can be just as important as how much body fat you carry.
Your DEXA report provides a measurement of one of two important types of abdominal fat that we categorize as High Risk Fat: Android Fat and Visceral Adipose Fat (VAT).
Monitoring High Risk Fat provides additional information about your body composition and metabolic health.
This can be especially valuable for individuals with a family history of cardiovascular disease or Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol or triglycerides, insulin resistance, significant abdominal fat accumulation, or a goal of improving long-term health and longevity.
One of the primary goals of improving body composition should be to reduce excess body fat while maintaining or increasing lean mass. Tracking High Risk Fat allows you to see whether your nutrition, training, and lifestyle changes are reducing fat in areas that may have the greatest impact on your long-term health.
DEXA testing does not diagnose medical conditions, but monitoring changes in Android Fat and Visceral Adipose Fat over time can provide valuable information about how your body is responding to changes in exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle.
Bone Mineral Density (BMD)
Bone Mineral Density (BMD) provides an estimate of the amount of mineral contained within your bones and offers another valuable measurement that can be tracked alongside body fat and lean mass.
Maintaining strong bones becomes increasingly important as we age. Bone health can be influenced by resistance training, weight-bearing exercise, nutrition, hormone status, and other lifestyle factors.
Because Bodymass performs DEXA scans for body composition purposes, your scan is not a clinical diagnostic test for osteopenia or osteoporosis. A clinical bone density exam uses specific diagnostic protocols and skeletal sites and should be performed and interpreted by a qualified healthcare provider.
However, the Bone Mineral Density information provided by your Bodymass DEXA scan can still be valuable when evaluating your overall health, training, and nutrition strategy.
Just like muscle mass and body fat, bone health can change over time. Establishing a baseline and periodically monitoring your BMD provides another objective measurement that can help you evaluate whether your training, nutrition, and lifestyle are supporting your long-term health.