The body fat numbers you have control over (and those you don’t)

On your Bodyscan DEXA report there more numbers you don’t have control over than those you do.

When it comes to fat, these are the Total and Subtotal results for

1.    Fat mass
2.    Fat percentage
3.    AM percentile
4.    YN percentile
5.    Fat mass index (fat mass/height^2)
6.    Estimated visceral fat (mass, volume & area)

You don’t have any control over the fat numbers for:

1.    Arms
2.    Legs
3.    Trunk
4.    Android region
5.    Gynoid region
6.    Android/Gynoid ratio
7.    %Fat trunk/%Fat legs
8.    Trunk/limb fat mass ratio

The reason is that you cannot spot-lose fat; you can’t control where it’s stored and where it comes off. To lose fat in your legs or to change you’re A/G ratio you just have to lose fat. Period. Your body will decide where it melts away and where it sticks around.

Lean mass (muscle) is a different story. You can of course target muscle groups in your arms, legs and trunk to make specific gains in these areas.

Bone density is something you can increase by doing weights and resistance training and with a good diet that includes calcium. I have seen a number of young male clients recently with low full-body bone density Z-scores. All of them said they did not like milk. Go figure. One of them was a guy in his mid-30s who’s full-body Z-score was minus three (-3.0). That is the lowest I have seen and lower than most 90-year-old women. And he knew it from a DEXA scan two years previously.