DEXA scans

[Occindemure]

Scheduled for mine on the 7th @ $80I want to have a real body fat % to set my future goals.

 

[sa12uk]

Any experience with dexa from anyone in the UK. It doesn't seem very easy to get a scan generally here. If you can they tend to be near London and require a doctor referral from what I can tell.

 

[Ruckus4519]

$65

Anyone charging more then $100 would be outrages to me but maybe my area is cheaper LOTs of places to chose from here... if i buy 2 of them they are $50 each

Thanks for saying this. idk if it’s applicable to my city, but it definitely got me looking up alternatives to my goto, which costs me $140 per.

it won’t be 1-1 but the local university has inbody for less than $20. i can get one every month if i wanted to at the same cost as my old goto

i can’t particularly justify the costs of a fancy weighing scale atm, but that’s also one of the options i guess



they also do have a dexa machine but idk if that’s even open to the public lmao

 

[Sid the SeaGull]

I'm pretty keen to see how the soon to be released body scan 2 compares to a dexa . The body scan 2 seems to have more sensors than others in the market and also measures via two methods, so I'm hopeful of a high level of accuracy for the trend data provided.

 

[Peptidedudez]

Here is my dexa scan to get an idea on what type of info you can get from them

 

[theoretical_maximum]

Any experience with dexa from anyone in the UK. It doesn't seem very easy to get a scan generally here. If you can they tend to be near London and require a doctor referral from what I can tell.

DEXA machines are expensive, and as such you're probably only gonna find them in the big cities because you need enough customers to make buying the machine worthwhile. If you search for cash pay DEXA, or DEXA body fat testing, you might find them. DEXA is mostly used for bone density testing, but if you look for body fat testing you'll find a different type of provider of the service. I'm pretty sure that in the US they require a prescription as well, but these clinics are just set up such that a provider rubber stamps everyone's appointment.

For US people, DEXA in my area is $85-110 depending, sometimes there are deals like buy 2 or 3 scans and get reduced rates, etc, but I live in a somewhat high cost of living area so I wouldn't expect it to be any cheaper than that.

 

[Wallydog]

Thanks for saying this. idk if it’s applicable to my city, but it definitely got me looking up alternatives to my goto, which costs me $140 per.

it won’t be 1-1 but the local university has inbody for less than $20. i can get one every month if i wanted to at the same cost as my old goto

i can’t particularly justify the costs of a fancy weighing scale atm, but that’s also one of the options i guess



they also do have a dexa machine but idk if that’s even open to the public lmao

Where I live, the local university offers a range of services from the Dept of Movement Sciences. Cheaper for students/faculty but available to community too. What I'm seeing as a Dexa (Dexa 3 scan package) would cost $380 for me, a community member. That seems way too high. EDIT - $350 to $380.

Here's their price list.

Department of Movement Sciences

 

[Ruckus4519]

Dexa (Dexa 3 scan package) would cost $380 for me, a community member

Yeah I called mine up yesterday and they said non students needed a $50 pass for the health center, but honestly it’s a steal still. It’s InBody though, not DXA.

The goal is to buy my own DXA machine 🤑

Jk that probably takes a shitton of power. The InBody probably doesn’t, so that’s more realistic …

 

[woundcarping]

Yeah I called mine up yesterday and they said non students needed a $50 pass for the health center, but honestly it’s a steal still. It’s InBody though, not DXA.

The goal is to buy my own DXA machine 🤑

Jk that probably takes a shitton of power. The InBody probably doesn’t, so that’s more realistic …

Only a couple kW from what I’ve read.

The cost vs needing a licensed rad tech and or being under someone else’s supervision was a bit off putting😂

 

[Ruckus4519]

Only a couple kW from what I’ve read.

The cost vs needing a licensed rad tech and or being under someone else’s supervision was a bit off putting😂

See I didn’t even think about that… Since I just laid there and they handed me a printout afterwards, I assumed it was ezpz and forgot about the “xray” part of dexa lmao

 

[Rock Solid1]

In my research, I found prices all over the place. Some places wanted $350 for a scan. A local gym does them for $70 and decided to do that.

 

[SpiralJetty]

Any experience with dexa from anyone in the UK. It doesn't seem very easy to get a scan generally here. If you can they tend to be near London and require a doctor referral from what I can tell.

Here in the UK I can get a private one in london for around £100-£150, no doctor referral needed. It's pretty useful to have one done to understand your body composition before starting glp-1 agonists and then again when you're at your target weight so you can work out if you need to start building up muscle.

 

[woundcarping]

To me, assuming traditional high starting BMI levels, a baseline and progress reports would be more useful than start and finish in terms of making proactive trajectory adjustments, especially for lean mass.

Finding out at your goal weight that 40% of your weight loss was muscle would be tough.

 

[Foggy-Hollow]

Yeah I called mine up yesterday and they said non students needed a $50 pass for the health center, but honestly it’s a steal still. It’s InBody though, not DXA.

The goal is to buy my own DXA machine 🤑

Jk that probably takes a shitton of power. The InBody probably doesn’t, so that’s more realistic …

Double check their model vs specs online but InBody is usually impedance.

If you’re checking measurement to measurement impedance can reasonably tell if you’re trending the correct direction. As absolute numbers go it’s too dependent on water content and other variables.

My first smart scale did impedance est of BF. It was feet only. In body will have more info on arms vs legs and the comparison with peers is nice.

My gym has InBody $25 and can or 2 for $40.

It’s not the gold standard but for trending it’s pretty nice, and it has the tissue breakdown.

 

[80s.diver]

I had my 3rd Dexa scan today, doing one every 3 months to keep my progress recorded. Between the first and second one, I had lost more muscle mass than I anticipated, but between the second and third, I ended up gaining some muscle mass back. I knew that this was a potential since I have been hitting some PR's in my deadlifts and squats and close to PR in my bench presses.

I still have stubborn visceral fat, that hasn't been going down like I want it to, but the guy running the machine gave me some insight. It is either the first or the last thing to go, guess in my place it is the last thing to go.

I am down 45 lbs and have 15 lbs more to go, so here is to losing some belly fat.

I do have an InBody scale and it is about 7-10% lower in BF % than the Dexa scan, so I really think the Dexa is worth it, at least to me it is.

 

[Dilbert4Life]

Are there different types of dexa scans? I started looking locally in my city and costs varied enough to make me think what's the difference.

 

[woundcarping]

Are there different types of dexa scans? I started looking locally in my city and costs varied enough to make me think what's the difference.

Body comp and bone density are the two types I know of. Here, a bone density requires a Dr order.

 

[5byfive]

One thing to keep in mind, not all scans are created equal. Dr. Mike (love him or hate him) did a couple videos on this and I had exactly the same experience. I usually get my scans done at a local university. They have a really nice GE machine. Well I was getting near my final goal and I had a jump in weight that didn't make any sense. I didn't know if I should keep cutting or stop so I made a quick appt at a local women's center. Their scanner was obviously not as nice and they couldn't even get both my head and feet in the scan.

The results showed that I had more fat than I though. Didn't really make sense based on looks or my program but I went with it. When I did a scan a couple months later at the university I had over shot and was very lean. Definitely believe the university scan. Their equipment is much better and the results match what i would have expected based on past scans, my program, and what I see in the mirror.

They are a great tool and they can be very accurate, but they are not perfect and they are not all created the equal.

 

[DunningKruger]

They're often sold in packs of two at wellness clinics or high end gyms. Mine cost $150 for two scans, two eight page reports, and two consults with a chiropractor for 20 minutes post-scan. DEXA has a locator on their page. My location wasn't on the list, but the machine read DEXA, so maybe they're out of date or newer locations aren't listed.

It's kinda fun. While "not a diagnostic tool," I learned my spine is as crooked as a politician! 😆

It will definitely tell you your bone density, and the report summary looks like a bit like this.

 

[FlowerFairy]

$65

Anyone charging more then $100 would be outrages to me but maybe my area is cheaper LOTs of places to chose from here... if i buy 2 of them they are $50 each

What part of the country are you in?

 

[FlowerFairy]

I get them at no cost from my doctor's office. They're a "direct primary primary" care doctor where we pay a monthly membership fee and DEXA scans are included in the monthly fee. We also get prescriptions at wholesale cost and basically 24/7 access to our physician via email/text. I highly recommend into searching these out.

If I thought they would accept my insurance, I’d go. In my area it’s all medical groups and I hate it.

 

[MTSpace]

My insurance covers Dexa Scan every 3 years for bone density and muscle mass. Check with PCP as this is included a small co-pay or no co=pay on both my wife's insurance and my seperate insurance.

 

[domin8brix]

I have only done one, last July, and plan to do another this July. I am a little mad that I didn't do it prior to my bariatric surgery for a baseline, because that would've been WILD. But last July, I was at 117lbs and 9.7% body fat (my surgeon actually wants me to regain 4-5 lbs of body fat but I am not really interested lol). Since I am off my normal routine post shoulder surgery I have regained about 11lbs and now I am trying to get back to normal to shed that before my next one. I had an InBody in November that was pretty much the same results, it had me at like 10.4% fat but 115 lbs.

 

[ThatNextGril]

I really like them. I luckily live in LA and there's no shortage of places to get InBody scans or DEXA, if you shop around. I use a company called BodySpec, and they have a clinic for in house scans, but it's farther than I want to drive. So, every month at various gyms around town they have their mobile scan vans for anyone to get a scan (not just members of the gym). I did one last month, which ended up being exactly 3 years from my first scan. The changes in the results were so cool to see (losing ~40 pounds is quite visible!) and I think I want to buy a package deal of multiple scans to do them every 4 months or so. Numbers are great for tracking and trending, but I admit I like checking out the comparison scans every now and then just to get that visual hit.

 

[staffn1]

Listened to the Stronger by Science Oct 17, 2022 podcast today reviewing the literature on how good (more like how aweful) these measurements are including DEXA. They link the articles and review articles for reading.