DXA Scan for bodyfat percentages

[Ken "Skip" Hill]

I had one of these done today as they were doing a promo at my gym. I thought it was free, as most all promos are, until I got done and they asked me how I wanted to pay. I said, "pay for what?" LOL I felt like a dick but dropped the 50 bucks as it was WELL worth it.

This is the most accurage bodyfat measurement out there. The margin is like .1 or something rediculously small. You lie on a table, still, for about 6 minutes and this scanner runs slowly over you, kind of like an x-ray and gives a picture of your muscle, bones, and subq fat. It is incredible. It also gives you a readout of your lean body mass, bodyfat percentage and bone density. Not only THAT but it gives you bodyfat percentages for different areas of your body. As an example, it showed me as having a 1% difference in bodyfat from my left arm to my right arm and from my left leg to my right leg.

I am going to have this done every 4 weeks until the show.

If you get a chance to get this done, I highly recommend it as it is dead money accurate.

Skip

[GetnBigr]

sounds pretty cool to me; technology is awesome, but at 50 bucks for 6 minutes, i think i need to buy one of those things!!

[BiggerStronger]

sounds awesome...I'd hate to see what it would read for my body...lol

[Ken "Skip" Hill]

I don't know if you guys remember Carol Semple, one of the first fitness pros (or figure, can't remember). She is the one that I spoke with yesterday and it is her business and equipment. She has GOT to be doing well with this. I would wonder how much one of those machines cost.

Skip

[homonunculus]

They run over 50 grand, maybe more these days.

They have improved and are constantly changing the software for the machines.

However, Lunar and Hologic are the two big manufacturers and there have been several studies demonstrating differences between the two. They will not reveal the prediction equations that underly their machines' software. Bastards.

On the other hand, the DEXA can give you dead on body mass measurements, simply calculated from density and volume. Its also amazingly accurate when validated against cadavers / animal body parts that can be analzyed chemically for body fat content.

Years ago - I have heard this problem has been fixed - I had one done a couple weeks after a show.

It put me at 4% for my entire body, but told me that my torso had a NEGATIVE body fat %, which of course is impossible. LOL. This is essentially an error that derives from the 2 dimensional nature of the scan. (They do have 3 dimenstional scanners now, but I know nothing of them. You can also on some machines do a two differnt 2 D scans to generate a 3D analysis.)

The machine passes low intensity Xrays through from anterior to posterior on the body, but it can't "see" around or directly under bone (e.g., ribs in the torso). Thus, its software is guided by assumptions regarding the nature of the soft tissue under the bone and simply uses this in its analysis for the whole body and segments.

Apparently, a BB'er in contest shape violated some of the assumptions of the early software. LOL. I'd like to try it again just to see what happens, but don't have easy access right now.

As a side note, the same thing has happend with teh Bod Pod. I was given a 15% bodyfat reading on that same day. Skinfolds, underwater weighing, radiolabelled water, etc. all had me at 4%. I heard that a guy had come in a couple weeks before - 1 week out from the state show, which he won as a totally shredded superheavy. He paid like $50 for a Bod Pod assessment, which told him he was 17%. The dude was PISSSED!!!!

Skip, I remember Carol S. Hottie, big time!

-R

[jaywooly]

Wow Randy....thanks for that. Very informative.

I'd give it a shot skip, sounds kinda cool