Checking out a Dexa Scan

On Monday, I was able to try a Dexa Scan through Dexa Fit just off 494 and France in the south metro. Dexa Scan lets you get a REALLY detailed look into body composition by measuring fat, muscle, bone density, and even shows you imbalances in your body. They wanted me to come try it for free, and I was curious to check it out! They have locations all over the US, a few in the UK, and a few in Australia. (If South Dakota and Iowa both have a location, then you know they have a lot of locations.)

My visit was sort of divided into 3 parts: having a Dexa Scan, having a Fit 3D Scan, and then talking over my results with Brandon. The Dexa Scan machine was in its own small room and looks like this:

The machine. Not scary.


Brandon getting my info put into the machine pre-scan.

It’s much more open and WAY less claustrophobic than an MRI, as you can see. I laid down and Brandon helped align me on the mat - I had to have my hands a certain way, and he put a band around my ankles to help keep me from moving. Then I was told to just hold still for about 5-6 minutes as it scanned me. And it just felt (and looked) like a big scanner like we have in the computer lab at school: that arm moves down a few inches, and an element goes back and forth over me, and then it moves down a few more inches. You can watch it go over your face, down your body, and then down towards your legs. It gives off a little radiation, but much less than an standard X-ray. (It gives off something like the daily amount of radiation you receive by just existing in the world, but in those 5-6 minutes.)

Those scan results were ready immediately, but before looking at them, I was taken into another room to do the Fit 3D Scan. That was done upright on a machine that looks like this:

For that one, I had to hold the handles, and stand on that platform as it rotated. I didn’t time it, but it was quick: maybe 90 seconds at the most?

Here’s a look at just parts of my results that Brandon went over with me. This data is from my Dexa Scan, and he went over it all on a big TV screen in their office, and it was also immediately emailed to me as a multi-page PDF.

Brandon noted that body fat percentage tends to run 3-5% higher on a Dexa Scan, which is in line with the 13-15% I *think* I usually have. Above, you see I have 28.1 lbs of fat tissue, 129.2 lbs of lean tissue (which includes organs), 6.6 lbs of bones, and 0.56 lbs of visceral fat. Brandon went nicely in depth about how that’s much different than “normal” fat just under our skin (it's the fat around our organs), and that the visceral fat number you want to be low. (There was more info on that in a few pics I'm not showing here.)

Note the difference column on the right. My arms and legs are very similar,
but something is making my left side heavier (the “-2.5 lbs” at the bottom).


All parts of my body broken down.

Near the middle of that table, notice the “-1.9” under the “lean” column for my trunk. My weight is the least properly distributed in my truck, with 1.9 lbs more being on my left. (Positive means more on the right, and negative means more on the left.) Brandon noted that being within 0.5 lbs isn’t a big deal in any given spot, but my trunk is where I was the most “off.”

This is the deepest view of me you’ve ever seen. My Dexa Scan image.


Showing my bone density is good. Average is around 0.8.


Body fat breakdown.

Brandon went over what a lot of these things meant in a 20 minute meeting about all of this post-scan. And then I downloaded an app for the Fit 3D results, and we went over those. (It took about 5 minutes for the scan to render and to get sent to my phone.) The first thing I said when my Fit 3D scan popped up is “holy cow... that even LOOKS like me!”

Yes folks, it’s detailed enough that I had to cover my bits.
But yep, THAT’S ME! (Sans body hair.)


Back dimples and tiny butt. You're welcome, ladies.


I'm not joking when I say next time I would TOTALLY
do this naked instead of just scrunching up my boxers.

Those 3 images above are 3 screenshots from a "revolving" image that was rendered. Here’s just part of my results from the Fit 3D scan:

My right bicep, forearm, thigh, and calf are all a bit bigger than my left.


My “body shape rating” is just grand.


My waist is on the “average” side of “ideal.”


My “waist to hip ratio” (hubba hubba) is good.


My “trunk to leg volume” ratio was the worst.


If I had questions about anything in these results, there were a lot of parts that were “clickable”
that would take me to more info. I could even dive deeper into their references if I wanted.

Here’s 2 final big thoughts about my Dexa Scan and Fit 3D experience:

First, I think this would be very interesting to do a 2nd or 3rd time to compare the results. Many areas of my results said “baseline” as we were just establishing my baseline numbers on that visit. If you come back every so often, your results get plotted out on a graph for many of these factors. Brandon brought up the app on his phone and showed me the results of like 10 of his scans (I think we glanced at his visceral fat chart and his basic body fat % chart). Watching these numbers change over time would be really interesting: how's my bone density during base building (right now) compared to in the "thick" of racing season? Do my imbalances get more or less pronounced as I'm cycling more in the summer? What happens if I focus on olympic lifts for 4 months and then come back? Will things get better? Etc, etc. I didn't show some of my results that were just a dot on a graph because they are less interesting. But come back a few times, and that graph starts to share usable data. You can see if you are doing the "right" things for your body!

Second, the Dexa Scan just gives you these numbers. Then it's up to you what to do with them. I asked Brandon how to counteract that imbalance in my trunk, and he gave me a possible exercise to do. But it'd be best to take these numbers to someone "in the know" like a personal trainer or a good coach. There's a PRO and a CON to my next thought here: it would be great if they could say "here's what these numbers MEAN so start training like THIS." But at the same time, I see why they don't because it could become something like "we recommend seeing this personal trainer who has a relationship with us" and then it'd start to feel like the start of a bigger chain of connected businesses leaching off of each other. So you get the raw numbers, and you can have them examined by whoever you'd like. Or nobody. It's your call. (And to be clear: Brandon did a good job defining the numbers and values and what they really mean, but not necessarily telling me what to do about them: it was not his job to say "you should really be running more like THIS or swimming by focusing more on THIS.") I'm totally curious about my measurements on the right being bigger in those 4 areas - should I be weight training a certain way to counteract that? I bet I could go to some of my smarter friends and get their opinions on these numbers. I bet if you're an athletically inclined person reading this, you might have an acquaintance or 2 who could tell you what to do about some of your numbers should you decide to get scanned.

Normally, it's $150 to have these scans done. (I believe it might vary by location, but it was $150 here in the metro.) Brandon mentioned that they have packages if you want to start out and come back to compare your numbers over time. And again, I really think that's where a lot of interesting things could pop up - seeing how your numbers shift with training or life in general.

Overall, it was a good experience with some interesting data for me to use. Thanks Dexa Scan and Dexa Fit!