three years of resistance training threads, summarised so you do not have to read them
Something I keep coming back to: three years of resistance training threads, summarised so you do not have to read them.
Protein was the whole problem. Appetite dropped and I was eating well under target without noticing for a month.
Tracked grip strength and three lifts monthly. Cheaper than scanning and directionally the same answer.
Compared two scans from different clinics and panicked over a difference that was inside the error margin.
Happy to answer the boring questions. Those are usually the ones worth asking.
best — the order this archive was captured in
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.
do not compare your composition to a trial average
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I would not change the programme on the strength of one scan. The measurement error is larger than the effect you are reacting to.
Push back: strength dropping in a deficit is not the same as lean mass loss. Related, not identical.