does DEXA actually matter or is it forum lore at this point
Asking properly rather than in a comment on somebody else’s thread: does DEXA actually matter or is it forum lore at this point.
Compared two scans from different clinics and panicked over a difference that was inside the error margin.
Lost slower for six months deliberately and my composition change was not obviously different. Training was what mattered.
Started weighing protein rather than estimating it. The gap between what I thought and what I ate was embarrassing.
If somebody has the same thing measured a different way, post it next to mine and we will see whether they agree.
best — the order this archive was captured in
Nothing here is a training or nutrition prescription. Targets and programmes are matters for somebody who knows your history and your training background.
That protein figure is grams per day, not grams per kilogram. Different claim entirely.
Disagree — slower loss does not automatically preserve lean mass. Protein and training do the work, not the rate on its own.
Yes. Lean mass change during weight loss is expected; the useful question is the proportion, not whether it happens.
Agreed — protein and resistance training. Everything else in these threads is a rounding error on those two.
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.
resistance training first, cardio if there is time left
strength retention is a decent proxy and it is free
Yes. Nobody here is prescribing training or nutrition and the good posts say so.
protein and resistance training, that is the entire intervention
Push back: strength dropping in a deficit is not the same as lean mass loss. Related, not identical.
Push back: strength dropping in a deficit is not the same as lean mass loss.
Agreed — and same machine, same conditions, or the two scans are not comparable.