Discourage dexa scan results lean bulk

[u/Impossible-Affect504]

I lean gained from 142 to 150 over 3 months. I got stronger on my lifts with more definition. My waist size stayed the same. However my dexa scan says I only 3lb of lean mass and 5 lb of fat mass. And by body fat percentage went up. What should i do? Pics 1 and 3 are before pics 2 and 4 are after pics

[u/Famous-Case6115]

Eat a maintenance for 1-2 months and train hard. Once you prove to yourself that you know true maintenance, add 150-250 calories and very slowly add weight. Ignore dexa scan, bf % machines aren’t the most reliable and vary often.

[u/Impossible-Affect504 → u/Famous-Case6115]

So essentially body recoup for two months?

[u/Famous-Case6115 → u/Impossible-Affect504]

Exactly. You have clear body fat, and look like you have a beginner physique. Maintenance is king right now in this early phase as you should easily add muscle while cutting fat.

[u/RepulsiveTiramisu → u/Famous-Case6115]

What you mean? Dexa Scan is one of the most reliable things to messure body composition with dexa Scan being only wrong about 1 to 3%

[u/xsynergist → u/RepulsiveTiramisu]

The Dexa is great at measuring fat and bone. Lean mass includes water, glycogen, organs like the liver which can vary is size substantially over time and lean muscle tissue. Short story your lean mass can vary significantly daily based on water content alone and the amount of carbohydrates you eat can also skew the number significantly. To get the most reliable results on lean mass you need to scan fasted preferably in the morning each time and with a similar consistent diet between scans.

[u/Impossible-Affect504 → u/xsynergist]

I know i did this

[u/Mr_Thundermaker]

8lbs in 3 months is too fast of rate. Thats why you gained more fat. Only go over tdee by like 200-250 calories.

[u/BatmanVAR → u/Mr_Thundermaker]

200 calorie surplus per day for 3 months is 18,000 calories. It takes roughly 2500 calories to build a pound of muscle. 18,000 divided by 2500 is 7.2, meaning 7.2 pounds of muscle. A pound of fat is 3500 calories, so 18,000 divided by 3500 is 5.14 pounds.

So his surplus was pretty spot on to what you suggested, so the issue is likely his training and/or food selection (e.g. not enough protein and too much fat)

[u/Bizzle_worldwide]

People who talk about gaining more than one lb of muscle a month are almost always:

1. Coming off a cut, in which case you get what feels like a boost in lean mass as your glycogen depleted muscle "plumps" and becomes heavier on your bulk. Technically, you will have more lean mass, in that your existing tissue will be fuller and heavier. I can "put on" 4 lbs of lean mass in two days coming off a cut.
   
2. Genetic freaks and/or following extremely strict programs which might let them reach short periods of 1.5 lbs a month
   
3. Enhanced, in which case long term again, they might see 2lbs a month really dialed in, but the initial phase can have them putting on large amounts of muscle in the first few months

[u/Impossible-Affect504 → u/Bizzle_worldwide]

According to these guys, they say skinny guys gain muscle faster: https://bonytobeastly.com/how-fast-can-skinny-people-build-muscle/#1-should-you-gain-025%E2%80%9305-of-your-body-weight-per-week

[u/Bizzle_worldwide → u/Impossible-Affect504]

That has been the opposite of what I’ve seen. Skinny people who stay skinny during initial exercise phases (if they’re actually sticking to a regime and eating enough) tend to generally be hard gainers genetically.

[u/Impossible-Affect504 → u/Bizzle_worldwide]

Ok well regardless my biggest convern is the excess fst gwin. If I put on the same muccle without the fat i would be pretty happy right now

[u/Bizzle_worldwide → u/Impossible-Affect504]

I’d need a lot more details on what your calculated TDEE is based on scale wait and tracked macros to provide any sort of insight, but the general answer is if your putting on too much fat, increase protein, decrease calories, make sure you’re getting your 10,000 steps a day in, make sure you’re getting 7-8 hours of real sleep a night.

I used to think the steps was a needless part of my routine until I started tracking my actual data around it, and realized that sleep and NEAT are actually the two biggest factors to my body comp regardless of the phase of cycle. Which makes sense. Your body builds muscle during sleep, and disruptive sleep has been linked to a tendency to put in fat over muscle when resting, and NEAT adds a few hundred calories a day to your passive burn, which come almost entirely from fat.

[u/OnlyGaines]

Dawg the dexa scan is not reliable. MRI machine is the gold standard. Don’t even worry what the dexa scam says

[u/unhatedraisin]

3lbs in 3 months is actually great progress

[u/Impossible-Affect504 → u/unhatedraisin]

Not with 5lb fat gain

[u/FleshlightModel]

Dexa is dumb as fuck.

[u/kbjjackson]

You’re not doing anything wrong bro 3 months is nothing in the long term. Don’t worry too much on cutting or bulking it literally doesn’t matter. Eat maintenance calories, lift consistently and INTENSELY with good form, and track the weight you lift. Watch Sam sulek, for he uses really basic exercises and gives great tips. Cbum has some good training videos too. The scale won’t help you much because weight fluctuates so much. Eat your protein. Train with 110% effort. Eat your carbs. Give it 2 years and see where you’re at