Many of my patients are startled at their first DXA body composition reports. “How can this be? I was 8% body fat at the gym!” That’s because their personal trainer likely used a handheld bioimpedance device to measure their body composition. Those devices are notoriously inaccurate.
If you’re a man, add 10-15% to the handheld bioimpedance values. If you’re a woman, add 20-25% instead. Doing so will give you a better approximation of your true percent body fat by DXA.
The images below are from a fitness influencer, Mario Tomic. He reports his percent body fat below along with pictures to illustrate each level of fatness.
Here is what 15% body fat looks by DXA (which correlates with CT). BTW, he was 4% body fat at the gym…
