Why should I use a body composition scan?

If your goal is to lose weight (lose fat mass), increase muscle (lean mass) or both, then it is extremely important that you are aware if you are reaching your goals and to accurately benchmark and track changes in your muscle and fat tissue. By measuring your body’s muscle mass, fat mass, and bone mineral density, Telemed can determine your total body fat percentage, and changes in regional body composition and show you clearly what is really going on inside your body.

Accurate results of your body composition can help you plan more productive exercise programs and create more efficient nutrition plans.

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Accurate results can also help athletes improve their performance. It enables them to determine precisely whether or not fat tissues need to be trimmed and lean tissues need to be gained in certain areas of their body.

The accurate measurements of your body’s lean and fat mass allow us to identify potential health risks associated with extremely low or high levels of total fat and excessive accumulation of intra-abdominal fat.

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The DEXA Scan can also determine your ideal body weight and composition enabling you to design more appropriate nutrition and exercise plans to help you achieve your goals.

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How can you be sure that you are losing fat and not muscle?

Having regular DEXA Scans allows you to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition and exercise interventions in altering your body composition. You will be able to know exactly whether you are loosing and/or gaining fat or muscle, getting a better perspective on your program and weather it is effectively working for you or not.

What will the results tell me?

• Your total body fat percentage (%);

• Total body muscle (lean) mass (g);

• Total body fat mass (g);

• Muscle and fat mass (g) of each leg, each arm, trunk, abdomen and head;

• Total bone mineral density (non-diagnostic);

• Android/Gynoid fat distribution

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What does the scan involve?

For a DEXA total Body Composition Scan, you will be required to lie still on the scanning bed for around 5 to 10 minutes but some scans may take up to 30 minutes depending on your height and width.

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Is there any preparation for the scan?

There is no preparation for this examination we do ask that you wear clothing which is loose fitting and free of metallic attachments such as buttons, zippers, buckles, wired bras and fasteners, as these can give an invalid result.

DO NOT schedule you DEXA scan within one week of having a barium x-ray, a nuclear medicine study or an injection of contrast.

You must NOTIFY the Radiographer if you’re are under 18 years of age or think you could be PREGNANT.

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How long will the procedure take?

The procedure should take no more than 20 minutes

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Is it safe?

During your examination you will be exposed to a very small amount of radiation. The amount of radiation a DEXA scan emits is very low and significantly less than a chest x-ray!

 

Telemed has acquired the latest in modern DEXA systems that have very controlled x-ray beams and dose control methods to minimize stray (scatter) radiation. This ensures that those parts of a patient’s body not being imaged receive minimal radiation exposure.  The technologist can sit just a few feet from you without a protective barrier because the levels are very low.

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How often should I get a scan?

Your body composition can change quite rapidly and given that weight loss programs and various aerobic or hypertrophy (muscle building) training programs are usually of 8 – 12 weeks’ duration we would not warrant measuring a change in your composition for at least a minimum of 12 weeks. There is really no need to have more than 3 – 4 total body composition scans over the course of a year.

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For best results we also suggest that you try to maintain a similar regimen in the 24 hours preceding each scan – i.e. eat at the same times, exercise at the same times, maintain similar hydration etc.