Fitness

A place to talk about fitness and health on Farcaster.

I got my first DEXA scan this week. I've been using INBody scans for a while to track my progress, but the dexa is way more accurate, heres what to expect from both.

- InBody consistently underestimates fat percentage (by ~8-10%).

- Use InBody for Trends, Not Absolute Values
While absolute fat and muscle numbers may be off, InBody is still useful for tracking trends over time (e.g., whether body fat % is going up or down).

- Pay Attention to Hydration Levels
InBody’s accuracy is affected by hydration.
If you're dehydrated, InBody will overestimate body fat.
If you're highly hydrated (e.g., post-workout), InBody will underestimate fat and overestimate lean mass.
To get consistent results, always scan at the same time of day, ideally in a fasted state before workouts.

- Use DEXA Every 3-6 Months for Precision

In my experience inbodys margin of error can actually be upwards of 15-20%

And Ive seen it both over- and under-estimate body fat % so wouldn’t always assume it’s underestimating because like he said hydration levels can have a big difference

DEXA scans are used for professional athletes and imo are overkill for regular people

A well-trained personal trainer with skin calipers can measure your body fat within 2% margin of error to DEXA scans

Every bodybuilder in the world knows how to do this

I really believe in simplicity and functionality so while good data is never a bad thing, what matters much more is what you do with it

I find that people will inundate themselves with data and then fall short on the changes that need to be made from that data

So I always recommend, and how I coach my clients, is you need to EARN your data

Knowing exactly your BF% down to the decimal is useless if you’re not implementing basic changes