DEXA Body Composition Scan Double Bay

The scales tell you what you weigh. They can’t tell you what you’re made of, and that’s the part that predicts your health.

Two people the same height and weight can have completely different amounts of visceral fat — the metabolically active fat packed around the internal organs that drives insulin resistance, fatty liver and cardiovascular risk. You can’t see it, feel it, or find it with a tape measure. It’s also one of the first things to shift when you change how you train and eat, which makes it worth knowing early.

The same applies to muscle. Muscle isn’t only about strength — it’s where your body disposes of glucose, and it’s among the better predictors of how well you’ll function in your sixties and seventies. Losing it happens quietly, and usually without the scales moving.

Please don’t book if you are pregnant, or think you might be. A DEXA scan uses a very small amount of ionising radiation — broadly comparable to a day of ordinary background radiation, and far less than a chest X-ray — but we don’t scan in pregnancy. We’ll ask you to confirm this when you book and again on the day.

Please also let us know when booking if you’ve had a barium study, CT contrast or a nuclear medicine scan in the past week, as these interfere with the measurement and we’ll simply rebook you.

The scanning table has a weight limit of 150 kg. If that’s a concern, give us a call before booking and we’ll talk it through.

If you have any doubt about whether this scan is right for you, ring the clinic and ask. We’d rather tell you not to book.

We think you should know what this scan can and can’t do before you pay for it.

The trend matters more than any single number. One scan tells you where you are today; two or three tell you whether you’re getting better. Results are also specific to this machine and its reference population — they aren’t directly comparable to a scan on a different device or to a gym body-composition machine.

Visceral fat is a useful trend marker rather than a precise diagnostic figure, and it’s least reliable in very lean people, which is why we read it alongside your other measurements rather than chasing one number.

A body composition scan doesn’t diagnose osteoporosis — that needs a dedicated bone density scan of the spine and hip. And low muscle mass on a scan isn’t by itself a diagnosis of sarcopenia, which also requires grip strength and walking speed testing.