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BODY COMPOSITION

Fast track your health, fitness or weight-loss goals with a DEXA Body Composition scan, along with advice from our Accredited Practising Dietitian and your personal trainer or exercise physiologist. Do you often become frustrated or dissatisfied staring down at a number on the scales, and wonder how much of your weight is made up of muscle or fat? Unlike the scales, which lie, DEXA delivers a three component scan, measuring your fat, lean muscle and bone density with 99% accuracy.

A DEXA scan and subsequent consultation with our Accredited Practising Dietitian will give you a report outlining your:

  • Total body fat percentage
  • Total muscle mass percentage
  • The weight of your bones (and find out if you really are “big boned”)
  • Ratio of total composition (i.e. muscle and fat mass of the trunk and each of your arms and legs)
  • Bone mineral density score
  • Age matched comparison
  • Ratio of total composition (trunk and each of your arms and legs)
  • VAT score (Visceral Adipose Tissue) — a precise quantification of any dangerous fat deposits around your organs
  • Central abdominal fat measurement
  • Disease risk (e.g. Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease)
  • Basal Metabolic rate (BMR)
  • Specific calorific & macronutrient requirements

ATHLETES & DEXA SCANNING

Athletes are always striving for the perfect body fat to muscle ratio in order to optimise exercise performance. Weight, strength, speed, agility and endurance are highly dependant on body composition. Achieving an ideal lean body mass combined with a personalised training program and diet are all intrinsically linked with optimal athletic performance. Therefore, a DEXA scan is an important  tool that allows you to objectively measure the effectiveness of your training and nutrition program, and if changes need to be made.

The scales do not accurately depict whether the weight being lost or gained during a training program is lean muscle, or fat, and therefore a detailed body composition analysis is important. For athletes, knowing their total body composition is much more valuable than simply measuring fat or weight. A DEXA scan allows athletes and sporting teams to monitor and develop specific training programs that achieve the desired results,  develop personalised meal plans and other nutrition strategies, monitoring progress and optimise athletic performance. It is for this reason that many athletes and sporting teams use DEXA to:

  • Monitor the effectiveness of new training regimes and nutrition programs
  • Assess nutrient requirements pre, post and during competition and develop meal plans (e.g. athletes with higher muscle mass typically need more calories and protein compared to athletes with higher body fat)
  • Monitor changes in body composition and dietary intake during the off season (e.g. during the off season when athletes are typically on a tapered maintenance program, many are still fueling for competition despite working out significantly less
  • Help formulate a training programs that build muscle and/or reduce fat, or both
  • Establish a baseline, from which athletes can compare their lean and fat mass distribution to elite athletes in their respective sport or at your position