DEXA vs InBody

If you don't know by now, we focus a lot on body composition. This week we are breaking down two of the most accurate ways that we can currently assess true body composition - DEXA and InBody. We will explain pros and cons of each. 

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/bayleethedietitian/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM! You can also follow the podcast https://www.instagram.com/mocktailminutes/

Featured Mocktails: 

Swoon

Body Health - perfect amino 

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

Baylee: 0:22

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey.

Brianna: 0:26

And this is Brianna.

Baylee: 0:27

This week I'm going back to this wounds Half lemonade. Half tea, A good og.

Brianna: 0:33

I haven't had one of those in a while.

Baylee: 0:35

Well, I forgot to cancel my Thrive subscription, not cancel it. I usually just edit it before it sends, and I did not do that, so I got a bunch of things.

Brianna: 0:44

You're like, which is all kinds I'm doing. These are new. Like friend brought them to me. They're called Better. They're by Body Health and they're called Perfect Amino. I don't know if you've heard of them. I looked up their website. I think they're back by like Mark Hyman and a couple other, like biohackers and stuff. It, it is just aminos. It seems fine. I mean, they're, but they're really expensive, so I'm kind of just like, I don't know. I don't think you need'em. And they taste okay. They taste better than the cayenne aminos, if you've ever had those. I,

Baylee: 1:16

any aminos, to be honest.

Brianna: 1:18

I hate them so much. They're horrible. The ca aminos, Megan really likes them. She's like, I love them. They're.

Baylee: 1:24

I didn't even know they had a taste, to be honest.

Brianna: 1:26

They're expensive too. I have two brand new bottles of'em that I'm like, never gonna use these.'cause I literally can't. I can't do it. So I think they taste better than that, but they're also like$80 I think for like a small travel pack. I'm like, oh, that's

Baylee: 1:39

Cool.

Brianna: 1:40

probably don't need that, but

Baylee: 1:42

Yeah.

Brianna: 1:42

not gonna kill you.

Baylee: 1:43

Yeah. Well, today we are talking about DEXAs and InBody scans. They can both be useful tools to kind of help track your progress beyond just like, oh, here's how much I weigh. So we'll go into both of these, explain what they are, and kind of go into the pros and cons of them and how to make them like the most reliable.

Brianna: 2:05

Yeah, so dexa, it stands for dual energy x-ray absorb entry. Any word that ends in mentory, I have a hard time like complimentary absorb aary. Anyways, so this is considered, I think like the gold standard for. Measuring body composition. It uses really low dose x-rays. It scans your entire body and it measures your bone mineral density, your fat mass, and your lean tissue mass all separately. And then it also provides like a regional rate breakdown to see like for example, how much muscle is in your legs, how much is in your arms, and then how much is in your trunk.'cause I think one thing people don't know is like your organs and stuff count as like your lean. Tissue, like muscle. And so, you know, that could be really variable, right? Like some people have larger organs, that sort of thing. So it really gives you a breakdown of like how much muscle is in different parts of your body. And then it's usually the one that's used, like in research when we're talking about body composition changes. They're using this machine, it's like thousands and thousands of dollars. It's less accessible than an in body.

Baylee: 3:14

Yes, I think they're usually about a hundred dollars every time you get'em. I've never gotten one before, but I am looking at a company nearby that I want to get one in. Embodies are definitely a lot easier to get. You can often find'em for free at many places. Embody is bioelectrical impedance analysis, BIA. So you can also do like the bioelectrical impedance analysis at home. There's lots of scales for those. If you are gonna look for one of those, by the way, I would make sure you get one like with the arm piece too. Not that just goes through your feet.

Brianna: 3:47

Yeah, so just both.

Baylee: 3:49

yes. So it sends a small electrical current through your body, like you're not getting shocked, you're not gonna feel it. And it measures how easily that current travels through tissue. So fat, muscle, water, conduct all those, conduct electricity differently and it uses this resistance to estimate your body composition. So it's a little bit quicker. It's easier, it's not invasive. It is a lot cheaper, but because there are pros and cons to both of them.

Brianna: 4:18

Yeah, I would say the DEXA is more accurate, so there's only like a one to 2% inaccuracy, whereas. The InBody is like three to five, meaning if I did an InBody today and then I did an InBody tomorrow, there could be like a 5% difference. So the InBody is a little bit, yeah, right. It's a little bit less accurate. It's a lot more accurate than other things that we have. So like if it's your only option, it's not bad, but it is really impacted by hydration status simply because. Water. So the more water you have in your body, electricity runs through it quicker. And so it says, oh, there must be less body fat.'cause this electrical, whatever is going through the body quicker. So if you're dehydrated, like I know a lot of gyms will do it, like after you've worked out, which I'm like, you're gonna be dehydrated. So like there's people who have like done it and then gone and drank a liter of water and come back and they're 7% less body fat after they've drank it. So. As long as you're doing it consistently every time, it's still data you can use. Just know it could be easily impacted by certain things, whereas like ad Dexa places will have protocols, but it doesn't really matter your hydration, it's not really gonna mess with it, but yeah.

Baylee: 5:30

Yeah, it's really good at showing fat distribution patterns. Your DEXA will be I mean there is a small radiation exposure very, but it's very minimal. I think that's not something I personally worry about. I'm not out getting x-rays all the time or anything. And usually you do have to make an appointment with the deck. I think that's important. The more you look into it, you probably have a place that's near you and you wanna make sure it's a dexa for body composition, not just like bone density city. There is a difference. So doing that, but in, and it's not to say like in bodies aren't accurate. They're, I think with anything, no matter what you use, as long as you're using kind of like the same tool to measure, then it's still giving you data

Brianna: 6:14

Yeah. It's like if your scale at home is five pounds heavier, but you're using it all the time and you're seeing changes on it, even though you don't know your exact weight, you're still losing or gain, you know what I mean? Like you

Baylee: 6:27

Yeah, you're, you're using the same form of measurement and so I would say use a dexa if you want more like highly accurate baseline measures. If you want some data on like regional fat distribution and bone density, and you track the. Changes over a few months in body, you could probably do more frequently and it's gonna give you a little bit quicker feedback. It's not gonna take as long, and it just gives you a general overview without needing a lab scan. And there's things you can do to make them like the most accurate. Like I wouldn't eat before. I would do these kind of faceted first thing in the morning, like empty your bladder, hydrate normally. Don't just go crazy that day or that morning. Kind of keep things pretty consistent and don't do like a heavy workout like 24 hours before. Avoid like any heavy exercise or sauna or just like heavy sweating in general, because that can. Kind of alter the results. And like when you think of exercise sauna or like heavy sweating, they're gonna affect your hydration status, which changes that electrical resistance readings. So that's why it can affect it. Same thing with like alcohol or sodium. So alcohol or high sodium meals the day before, it can cause some water retention shifts.

Brianna: 7:43

Mm-hmm.

Baylee: 7:44

Overall you just wanna keep things as consistent as possible.

Brianna: 7:49

Yeah, protocols matter. Just be consistent. And yeah, the InBody much more accessible, much less inexpensive. I know some states have like certain laws about Dexa too, so that can make'em a little less like some of some of them you need a doctor's referral, which I think. Companies get around it'cause they just have like a doctor on staff or I think if you go to most universities they have one'cause they use it for research. So you can get around that. So if you like I live by like UT Austin has a really nice one and like you can go pay and use it and you don't have to have a doctor's referral'cause it's for research. So that's an option too. But InBody cheaper, less accurate. We could still.

Baylee: 8:31

Track trends. Mm-hmm.

Brianna: 8:33

you're still getting data. It's still helpful to see, be consistent about it. Dexa, if you can, and I say Dexa, like I think every six to 12 months, like I don't think you need to get'em much more than that, but I mean you can. I mean, they say it's safe to get like every three months, like it's much less like X-ray than like even getting like your teeth at the dentist, like whatever. But for me, I'm like three months. Unless you're really like doing all the things, is that enough? Like

Baylee: 9:01

Yeah. That's why, because I'm like, if you're not doing all things, like you might just make yourself more stressed. Like six months can be good.

Brianna: 9:07

Yeah,

Baylee: 9:08

Honestly, I wouldn't do even the InBody, like I wouldn't do it before a month. I would give yourself a minimum of a month before you're checking in. And I think it's more exciting when you see kind of like a bigger fluctuation rather than just a tiny change.

Brianna: 9:21

yeah, yeah. It's exciting.

Baylee: 9:24

Mm-hmm.

Brianna: 9:25

Yeah.

Baylee: 9:25

Yeah, both are useful. Both can be a helpful attractant if you're gonna do it. Get the most accurate, hydrate, normal. Do it fasted, do it first thing in the morning, avoid heavy exercise, anything like that, so that way you have reliable data, but knowing your body composition, having at least 70% lean muscle mass is a great goal to work towards as a first step.

Brianna: 9:48

Yeah. Oh yeah. That's awesome.

Baylee: 9:51

All right, let us know if you wanna to dive deeper in this topic. We wanted to do just like a quick and dirty DEXA versus InBody because we've talked about InBody a lot, but we don't really talk about dexa, so we just wanted to compare them for you guys this week. And we'll be back next week with brand new episode. Bye.