[PSA] DEXA is not what most of this community thinks it is
DEXA is not what most of this community thinks it is — with the reasoning, because a rule without a reason gets ignored. On comparing yourself to composition figures from trials. Published composition data comes from supervised populations with structured protocols, standardised scanning, and analysis populations…
Strength retention is an imperfect but free longitudinal proxy: it is affected by neural factors and by being in a deficit, so it tracks tissue change loosely rather than exactly.
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protein and resistance training, that is the entire intervention
FFMI is a ratio and it moves when either term moves
resistance training first, cardio if there is time left
How to make a DEXA comparison mean anything.
Same machine, same clinic, same protocol. Same hydration and fasting state, as far as you can manage. At least three to four months apart, because the measurement error is large relative to short-term change. Three scans rather than two, because the first pair cannot distinguish a trend from noise.
Do less than that and you have two numbers with an offset of unknown size, which people then react to by rebuilding a training programme. The free alternative — a few tracked lifts and a monthly waist measurement — is directionally informative, costs nothing, and is far harder to over-interpret.
Lost slower for six months deliberately and my composition change was not obviously different. Training was what mattered.
Removed a prescriptive nutrition target aimed at another member. Describe your own intake instead.