Dexa: My Experience & Visuals

Friday afternoon I finally had my first highly anticipated Dexa Scan.  As mentioned in a previous post I have booked in for 3 scan package so I can start tracking my progress with a little more science and accuracy.
My main reasons for wanting a Dexa Scan were

• To give me a realistic number for goal weight instead of Dayna's magic number.
• Assist me with the body dysmorphia I have.  (Can see changes in photos but not in mirror, sadly this is assisted by a combination of gravity, & excess skin from losing weight) 
• I'm struggling with the tape measure in waist & hip measurements as my fat is moving around with the help of gravity 
• To keep me in the right mindset for when I start lean & strong in a couple of rounds as the scales won't be my friend during this time as I trade fat for muscle.

A few surprises came out of the scan and I'm feeling very positive about them.

My "Magic Number" was (at the moment) set too low.  Now to put this in context, my magic number is 65kg.  I set this number as it is 2.5kg under the BMI line of overweight and healthy weight range.  I didn't want it to be exactly 68.5kg as this meant in my mind that I would see-saw between overweight & healthy.  An interesting fact to add to this discussion is that originally I had set my goal weight to 75kg & changed it a few weeks into my first round of 12WBT when each week I would see my BMI score drop and looked into why we should measure BMI.  75kg before 12WBT was to me the Holy Grail as it was a number I had not been since early Primary School  and it was a bit more than my "skinny" friends which I never thought I could mirror.  Surprise, Surprise the Dexa Scan advises my goal weight to be inbetween 73 - 78.6kg and this number is purely based on the kilograms of "fat" that is still currently on my body to muscle/ bones/ organs etc.  At the moment I have 35.98kgs of 'fat' and I need to reduce that between 12 - 23.2kg to be in healthy/ lean fat mass range.  So if I want to be classed as lean & not healthy I need to lose 20kgs of 'fat'

The second surprise you can see on the top diagram 'Fat-Free Mass (kg)' that I'm sitting well above excellent at 61.02kg now this calculation includes skin, organs, fluid, & muscle.  Dr Shaw advised me because I've been overweight my entire life my body has conditioned itself to have more muscle than the average person as I required it to haul my body around.  He projects that as I keep losing weight this number will reduce and sit closer to the excellent range as my body will no longer need the muscle to keep me moving.  After I reach goal and have Abdominoplasty surgery there will also be a few more kilograms gone. The extra muscle makes sense but it was a surprise as it is something you don't think about.  We hear how much stress we put on our organs & joints through the extra weight but you don't hear about the extra muscle you need that actually weighs more than the fat itself.

Now you might have noticed that I highlighted "at the moment" when talking about my magic number.  Now I highlighted it due to it could change if my muscle mass does reduce.   It's not guaranteed especially if I start major strength training like Lean & Strong. So if my muscle doesn't naturally reduce I will have a 73kg goal if it does we could see it change at a later date when I have my progress scans.   So I am transitioning away from BMI and will use Dexa now ongoing to set my number goals.

In the second image it's a very visual representation of where my fat is, everything that is 

yellow is fat, 

orange/pink muscle & organs 

blue bones.

It also gives Fat Mass grams per body region.  I am someone who has always declared that I have no upper body strength and yep page two really confirms it.  My arms have the highest % of Fat to total mass than anywhere else in my body, it's time to stop skipping out on my Tuesday strength training for Cardio & building up the gun show ;)

The last Page I have included as it's about Bone Density and likeliness of developing osteoporosis.  As you can see by the blue diagram/ graph I have absolutely nothing to worry about WooHoo!!! Now I was not looking forward to this part of the scan as growing up I was allergic to dairy and didn't grow out of this allergy till late Teens.  I'm sure most of us can remember the constant milk advertisements about healthy bones and the link between dairy serves and osteoporosis, so I was terrified about that and the combination that my Nan (Mum's Mum) has the horrible disease.  I was surprised to find out when googling about osteoporosis after my scan that Calcium's effect on the development of the disease is highly debated now though we still use it with combination of Vitamin D for though who are susceptible or in the early stages of the disease.

If you have any questions lay them out for me, but I highly recommend getting a Dexa.

Dr Shaw asked me why I didn't come 30kg sooner so I could have tracked some amazing results. My response to him was that it was too scary! Mentally I was not ready to see the visuals but in hindsight it would be amazing to see how far I've actually come.
So for though of you starting your journey I encourage you to get it done but if you don't think you will be able to deal with the results like I couldn't don't get a copy of your report until you come back for a progress scan and set your goals without it.  If you are already deep in your journey put your magic number to the test, track the positive changes to you body in a new way away from the scales & tape measure.

OMG can you believe I could be 15 - 21kgs away from my goal weight??? Only Thursday it was 29kgs away.  To be honest with you I'm aiming for 21kg but 15kg just sounds so much closer ;)

Have a great week everyone.  I will try a quick close off for Round 4 on Wednesday but no promises the week ahead is chaos before heading to Brisbane for finale WOOHOO!!!!.