Getting a DEXA scan

A DEXA scan measures fat, muscle and bone directly. Two of them, twelve weeks apart on the same machine, show what happened to your muscle while the weight came off. This page is how to get one and what to ask for. ProForta has no arrangement with any centre; you pay the centre, you own the report.

What it is

A DEXA scan is a low-dose X-ray of your whole body. It takes about ten minutes lying still, fully clothed. It reports total mass, fat mass, lean mass and bone, for the whole body and by region, and on most machines an estimate of the fat around your organs. The dose is a few microsieverts, less than a day of ordinary background radiation. It is the reference measurement that consumer scales are compared against.

Why two, and why twelve weeks

One scan is a snapshot. The comparison is the point: how much of the weight you lost was fat and how much was muscle. A scan can tell a change of roughly two kilograms of muscle over three months on the same machine. Shorter gaps, or a different machine, read as noise. So the pair is one scan in your first week and one twelve weeks later, on the same machine at the same place. Book the second when you book the first.

What to ask for

• A whole-body composition scan. Not a bone-density scan of the hip and spine; that is a different protocol and answers a different question.
• The same machine for your second scan, and a note of which machine it was. Centres run GE Lunar or Hologic machines; the two do not read the same, and your node compares scans only within one.
• Your report as a PDF, and if the centre can, the numbers as a file. The report is yours. Most centres email it the same day.
• The total, fat, lean and bone figures on the summary page. Those are the seven numbers ProForta needs; everything else on the report is optional.

What it costs

Walk-in body-composition scans in the United States run from about forty to one hundred and fifty dollars, with most around eighty. Many centres sell a pair or a pack of scans for less than two singles. Insurance does not cover a wellness scan. A diagnostic bone-density scan ordered by a clinician is a separate matter and sometimes covered.

Where to find one

Three networks list centres by city: BodySpec (fixed sites and mobile vans in several states), DexaFit (studios in many metros) and Fitnescity (a booking site covering several hundred imaging centres). Hospital radiology departments and sports-medicine practices also offer the scan; ask for body composition, self-pay. Some states ask for a referral; the centre will tell you and usually provides one. ProForta does not recommend a centre and receives nothing from any of them.

Getting the report into ProForta

On Android, press and hold the ProForta app icon, open Connected data, choose Add a scan report, and pick the PDF or a photo of it. You can also share the file to ProForta from your email or your files. The app reads the numbers on your phone, shows them to you to check, and sends only those numbers to your own node. The report stays on your phone and is deleted once you confirm. On any phone, open ProForta, Profile, Your scans, and type the seven numbers from the summary page.

Your node holds the numbers. ProForta shows you words about them: whether your pair is complete, whether muscle held, and whether a bone reading is worth a clinician's look. No one else sees the scan.

If you are in the ProForta Challenge

Add your scans the same way. During your twelve weeks the app confirms they are saved and says nothing more about them; what a pair means is part of the result that is measured, and it is read at the end, with everyone's. Your scans are the reference that keeps the published numbers honest.

Questions

• Is it safe to do twice? The dose of a whole-body scan is a small fraction of a chest X-ray. Two a year is routine for people tracking body composition. If you are pregnant or think you might be, do not have the scan.
• Can I use an old scan? Yes, as your first one, if it is from a machine you can return to. Add it with its original date.
• What if my second scan is on a different machine? Both are saved. They are not compared, and the next scan on either machine starts a new pair.
• Can ProForta book it for me? Not yet. When a partner centre exists it will appear in the app, and this page will say so.

Ten questions about muscle and weight loss · Install the ProForta app · How we handle your data · Back to home