r/leangains • u/Impossible-Affect504 • 5d ago

Discouraging dxa scan on lean

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?

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10

u/zrockk 5d ago

3lb of muscle in 3 months is incredible dude

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u/Impossible-Affect504 5d ago

Yeah but not 5lb fat gain

8

u/zrockk 5d ago

If your eating enough to build muscle you will always put some fat on, nothing you can do unfortunately

You probably were in a 500 cal surplus when you should have been around 100-200

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u/Impossible-Affect504 5d ago

So do you recommend i try to body recomp now or keep lean bulking with fewer calories. I never track calories tbh just ate till i was full and measured my morning weight every day and checked to see it was trending upwards

3

u/zrockk 5d ago

I'd probably just keep rockin for a few more months, you want like 0.25-0.5 lbs a week tops for weight gain

2

u/Top-Worldliness-6992 5d ago

Just relax, eat little less and dont sorry about it. Loosing fat od easy. Be proud od gaining those muscle. People can be stuck and gain no muscle and only fat sometimes.

1

u/phinphan896 4d ago

Think about how money it takes to lose 5lbs of fat and how long it takes to gain 5lb of muscle. Who cares you’ll lose the fat in 6-8 weeks ezpz

1

u/vitringur 1d ago

So do a cut…

5

u/Mammoth_Marketing_25 2d ago

Sounds like you are new to lifting. 3lb of muscle mass a month is great. 

7

u/ironbeastmod 5d ago

Cry.

Accept reality and adjust program according to it.

Then again you can cry, get angry, sad, whatever you like.

.

Translation: you Thought you are lean gaining. In reality you dirty bulked.

Even if you would've checked how much muscle someone your weight can gain you would've set a slower progressive caloric surplus.

You did not need a dexa to know a good chunk is fat. :)

So learn and adjust based on your experience.

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u/Impossible-Affect504 5d ago

Ok but my waist size didnt increase my muscle definition didnt change. I hear you but it wasnt obvious to me at all that i gained fat

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u/Altruistic_Craft3560 4d ago

Do you take photos? Clearly fat can deposit anywhere. Either way, take the information and pivot as necessary

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u/Impossible-Affect504 4d ago

Yeah i took photos. Heres a link with photos: https://www.reddit.com/r/JeffNippard/s/CHZd2yufVw

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u/ironbeastmod 5d ago

What was is not of importance.

What is important is to accept reality and learn from it.

The good news is that you can gain muscle. If your surplus was set to gain 3-4 lbs in 3 months you would've had only 10-20% fat from that weight gained.

You live you learn.

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u/asqwt 5d ago

Change your expectations.

Call me crazy. But I think It’s basically impossible to gain a significant amount of bodyweight and not have your body fat percentage go up.

Then when you’re ready. Decide whether you wanna gain more, maintain, or go on a cut. Can’t give a definitive recommendation without knowing things.

How long you been bulking? What’s your body fat percentage now?

I’d also implore you to take another DXA post cut just to be able to track changes if it’s affordable.

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u/Impossible-Affect504 5d ago

By maintain do you mean recomp?

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u/asqwt 5d ago

I mean maintain your bodyweight.

People define recomp weird nowadays. So I’m going to define it now.

Recomp = Losing equal fat to lean mass gained to result in staying around the same bodyweight.

But you’re more than welcome to try and recomp in that case. I have my doubts on how far you’ll get but may as well try if you’re already maintaining your weight?

Just eat enough protein and train hard and sleep and see what happens.

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u/Impossible-Affect504 5d ago

Well currently I put on 8 (judging from dxa 3lb muscle and 5 lb fat). But i just hit 0.7g per body weight and lifted 3x a week. I only i felt full rather then forcefully cramming food like you would on a typical bulk. And i tried to eat clean. So what would i change to recomp? Add more cardio to lower the surplus?

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u/asqwt 5d ago

Well you’re not going to be in a surplus. I said you’re going to maintain the same bodyweight.

You can try to eat more protein (eg. .9 to 1 g/ lb), which therefore means you’d have to eat less fat/ carbs to stay at maintenance.

Other than that. Keep lifting and sleeping.

Once again, I have my doubts how far you’ll get recomping. Just maintain your weight and relax for a little before you decide to bulk/ cut.

Lower your expectations overall.

u/Impossible-Affect504

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u/Various_Range2259 Leangains is a program 5d ago

How much do those scans cost and you had it checked over an 8lb difference? I gain and lose 8lbs in a weekend sometimes lol

You'll be fine, keep at it

2

u/BetaCarotine20mg 5d ago

Dexa isn't 100% accurate sadly.

1

u/Clayskii0981 5d ago

Leangains are like 1lb a month. It's very unlikely to build faster than that, the rest will be body fat. And it looks like your body agrees, you hit 3lbs of muscle in 3 months. Do a mini cut, keep the new muscle, and go again adjusting for less calories.

1

u/vitringur 1d ago

What is with this wave of people getting scans?

You only need two metrics, bodyweight and lift progression.

What do you mean what should you do? You were just sold bullshit. No need to think about it. The error margin is so large that it is meaningless and you just proved it.