Quantifying Lean Mass

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One of the first order treatments for osteoarthritis in the knees is weight loss. However, muscle mass also protects knees, so losing weight by losing muscle isn't the ticket in working with high-mileage knees. The trick in working with high-mileage knees is losing fat while maintaining or even building muscle.

I've been thinking about this conundrum, and felt that I needed more information. As many of you know, I'm more than a little geeky, and I knew that dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans provide a high-resolution view of body composition. Unfortunately, my primary care doc only knew of DEXA scans as screens for bone loss, and was unaware of the many body-composition insights that can be provided by a whole body DEXA scan. To access the information only a DEXA scan can provide, I'd have to find a provider and pay for it out of pocket.


Does this DEXA scan make my feet look fat?

I consulted Professor Google, and found a nearby facility that offered what seemed to me reasonably priced DEXA scans. The personnel at DexaFit Madison clearly knew their stuff, and within minutes I had the information I was looking for. (no, I'm not getting any sort of financial reward for this endorsement - they were really that good)

Overall, my body composition wasn't threatening my overall health. In fact, I received an "A" grade, which made the academic in me happier than was probably merited. Upon further unpacking, however, I found more than a little room for improvement. In consultation with the staff dietician at DexaFit, they provided concrete suggestions to optimize my body composition. The numbers still kind of make my head spin!

Based on the results of the DEXA scan, I'm now working on gaining 8-pounds of muscle, and losing 22-pounds of fat. Thankfully I had relatively little of the visceral fat that's such a significant metabolic risk factor, though I'm still carrying around a fair bit of weight that's unnecessarily stressing my knees. The DEXA scan provided me a useful baseline, and then follow-up scans can help ensure I am building muscle and losing excess fat. I hope to keep my original equipment knees going for as long as possible, and reducing the daily load on them will likely support that goal.





 

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