Lost 19 lbs but DEXA fat barely changed?

DEXA can swing a few pounds of lean just from hydration and glycogen. 19 lb scale drop in 14 weeks is still solid.

Agree. My DEXA after a salty weekend showed +3 lb lean and I changed nothing. It's noisy.

Mine had me fast 8 hrs, no workout 24 hrs, same clothes. Without that I wouldn't compare scans.

If you lost 19 lb but DEXA fat only dropped 2.3 lb, something's off in the math or the scans. DEXA has ±2-3% body fat error, and lean loss can be glycogen/water. Were both scans on the same machine and software? If not, I'd trust waist and strength trend more than one follow-up. At 1600-1800 and 120g protein, you're probably not losing much muscle unless the deficit is huge. The 18-day stall also screams water retention from lifting or salt. I'd compare waist, pics, and lift numbers before changing anything.

The 18-day stall and DEXA oddity might just be water masking fat loss. Are your lifts holding?

My lifts tanked when I cut too hard.

That's the clue. If strength is stable, lean loss is probably measurement noise.

Did you use same hydration? I chugged water before my first scan and it skewed lean up.

Not OP, but I had a similar 20 lb drop where DEXA fat was only -5 lb. Turned out my first scan was after a carb-heavy weekend. Second was fasted. Waist was down 3 inches though, so I stopped stressing over DEXA. Track trend every 3-4 months, not monthly.

What do you rprogress pics and waist tape say? Those beat one DEXA for me.

I'd also look at the actual fat mass numbers: 74.1 to 71.8 is only 2.3 lb, but if lean went 108.2 to 106.9 that's 1.3 lb. That's 3.6 lb of the 19 lb loss. The rest was likely water/glycogen/food weight. Still a real loss, just not all fat. Give it another 6 weeks and rescan under same conditions.

I paid for two DEXAs six weeks apart and the fat number moved 4.1 lb while my scale moved 0.8, because the first one was after a Friday pizza-and-beer night and the second was fasted and dehydrated. For your 14-week gap, scan conditions alone can swing 2-4 lb of fat/lean. Were both scans same time of day, fasted, no hard lifting for 24-48h, and similar hydration? That’s the first thing I’d check before assuming the scale lied.

Tape measure and how my jeans fit told me more than my one DEXA ever did.

I’d audit weekends before blaming the DEXA. My 19-day stall broke when I actually logged Friday nght through Sunday instead of calling it 'maintenance': it was 800–1200 extra per day, which erased about 4–5 lb of monthly fat loss on paper. Weighing food for two weeks showed my '1600' was closer to 2050 on Sat/Sun. Do you track the same way on weekends as weekdays?

The scale says 19 down. Your knees, sleep, and blood pressure probably noticed even if DEXA didn’t.

DEXA can swing a couple pounds just from hydration and sodium the day before. Did you scan fasted or after a salty meal?

My first scan said 31.8% fat, repeat 11 days later said 29.9% at basically the same scale weight. Same machine, different tech, I'd had a heavy leg day before the first one. Now I book mornings, fasted, no workout 24h prior, normal water. I'd trust the trend across two scans more than one.

I had the opposite pattern: first 10 weeks scale dropped 16 lb, DEXA fat only down 3.8, then next 9 weeks scale sat within 2 lb while fat dropped another 6.1. The early drop was a ton of inflammation/water from a bad flare and way more carbs than I thought. The later recomp showed up in my squat going from 95x5 to 135x5 and resting heart rate falling 9 bpm. So one scan 14 weeks in can be a mid-roll snapshot. Did your main lifts hold or go up? If yes, I wouldn't panic about the lean number yet.

A 19 lb drop with only 2 lb fat usually means a lot of water, glycogen, and gut contents were in that starting number.

I was parked at 172 for 22 days and it wasn’t the scan or my lifting — it was my “1600-1800” turning into 2400 on Fri/Sat from restaurant oil, margaritas, and a few handfuls while cooking. I didn’t cut weekdays at all; I pre-logged Friday dinner and weighed the oil/butter for three weeks, and the scale finally dropped 4 lb. Not saying that explains the DEXA lean drop, but if you’re stalled 18 days, I’d audit two weekends before trusting the fat-mass number, because 2.3 lb fat out of a 19 lb scale loss is a huge gap. Are your Fridays/Saturdays actually in that range, or is that more of a Mon-Thu average?

I got two DEXAs six weeks apart early on and the fat number moved 1.1 lb while my waist tape dropped almost 2 inches — turned out I was holding a ton of water from a new creatine dose and lifting 4x a week, and the lean number can swing 2-3 lb just from hydration and glycogen timing. What I'd actually check is whether you did both scans under the same conditions, because if the first was fasted morning and this one was afternoon after a workout, 2-3 lb of the lean loss is just fluid shift, not tissue. My bigger surprise was that my visceral fat number dropped way more than total fat, which the scale would never have shown me, and by week 20 the subq finally caught up. If the tape and progress pics are moving I'd trust those over one 14-week window.

I'd audit weekends before writing it off to water — I ran 1,700 Mon-Fri for months and genuinely thought I was in a solid deficit, but Friday night through Sunday was 2,600-2,800 a day, so my honest weekly average was ~2,000 and I was basically eating at maintenance for a 5'6" frame. The surprising part: the scale still dropped 16 lb over four months on that pattern once I added a ton of walking, but my DEXA fat number barely moved either time and the tape was the only thing telling me the truth (waist 36.5 down to 33.75). So what's your real 7-day average if you include the sloppy days, and has your waist moved at all in those 14 weeks?

I’m 5'5" and had a 21-day stall at 162.4 while my waist dropped 1.75 inches and my size 12 jeans went from tight to actually comfortable, so I’d add sleep/stress and waist measurements to the picture before writing it off as just water. The weird flip in my case was that extra cardio did nothing, but getting my sleep from 5.5–6 hrs back to 7.5 for two weeks moved the scale 2.5 lb without changing calories. During that same stretch my weight-training lifts went up, which made me think I was holding more fluid/inflammation than the scale or a scan can sort out. What’s your waist done since January, and how’s your sleep been the last few weeks?

Six weeks of logging my sleep taught me more than any scan did: my 3-week plateau at 174 last fall lined up day-for-day wih a run of 5–5.5 hour nights and a work deadline, and the scale finally dropped 2.8 lb in 11 days once I started getting 7.5. The twist was a DEXA in the middle of that stall showing fat down 3.1 lb and lean down only 0.4, so the number on the floor was basically

Honestly, Hi, I’m brand new here so I’m mostly lurking, but one thing I’d be curious about: were both DEXAs on the same machine, same time of day, fasted, and with similar hydration/no hard workout the day before? I had a body comp scan once that shifted a lot just from water and food in my system. Your scale loss is huge, but DEXA lean mass includes water, so a hydration difference could make the fat number look flatter than it really is. Did the report give you a body fat % or just pounds? Wishing you luck—sounds like you’re doing a lot right.

I teach preschool, which means I'm a human disposal unit for half-eaten crackers and birthday cupcakes. So yeah, the nibble tax is real. That DEXA number though — conditions matter more than people think. Lift hard the day before, eat something salty, show up a little dehydrated, and your scan reads differently. Same machine, same time of day, fasted, 24h off lifting, or you're comparing apples to oranges. 19 lb down on the scale with 2.3 lb of fat is a big unexplained gap. New lifting = inflammation and water, that's my guess. Retest in 8–12 weeks. In the meantime, what happened to your strength?

Before interpreting the fat delta, check the DEXA’s total mass. 71.8 + 106.9 = 178.7 lb before bone, which doesn’t square with 169 on the scale. If the scan total is off by 10+ lb, you’re comparing two noisy estimates, not a trend. Same machine, same software, same hydration/food/exercise timing? Otherwise the 2

First, 19 lb down is a huge win — don’t lose sight of that! I’m curious: were both DEXAs on the same machine, similar time of day, hydration, and food/sodium the day before? I ask because my scan swung ~4 lb lean just from being dehydrated and carb-depleted after a long run. The numbers that helped me most were waist/hip measurements, how my jeans fit, and gym logs. Are your lifts holding or going up? If strength is stable and waist is shrinking, that’s a very different story than “mostly water.” Also, an 18-day stall with high protein and lifting is often a recomposition/water-retention phase.

Missing variable: what did the scale say on each DEXA morning? DEXA only measures the change between those two scan windows, not your full January-to-now drop. If scan 1 was at 188 and scan 2 was much lower, the outside-window pounds are water/glycogen/gut noise by definition. Within the window, 2.3 lb fat vs 1.3 lb lean also says your lift/protein setup isn’t fully protecting lean. Were both scans same machine, fasted, no lifting 24h, post-bathroom?

Did you use the same DEXA machine/software both times, and were your hydration, sodium, and pre-scan workout similar? I ask because my scan numbers shifted a couple pounds of fat/lean after a hard lift and a salty meal, even with no real change. Also look at regional fat—android/gynoid—and waist/hip tape, not just total fat mass. A 14-week scale stall at 169 can still be recomp. What do your measurements and photos say? That’s the tiebreaker I’d trust over one snapshot.

Wait, the math is bugging me. If your second scan says 71.8 lb fat + 106.9 lb lean = 178.7 lb before bone, that can’t be a 169-lb body. Even with a 5-lb skeleton, that’s ~184. Were the two DEXAs actually done at 188 and 169, or was one from an earlier/later point? I run a cafe and live in portion-control chaos, so I track everything, and this kind of date/unit mix-up has happened to me. Check the total mass line on each report—that’ll tell you whether you’re comparing the right two scans.

What did the regional breakdown show—visceral, android/gynoid, and lean mass in arms/legs? That’s the piece I wish I’d tracked earlier. In the old “DEXA plateau” threads, a bunch of us had total fat barely move while visceral and waist measurements dropped, because the scale was playing with water/glycogen/inflammation from new lifting. Also, was your first scan actually done at 188, or after the initial January drop? If it was later, the 19 lb vs 2.3 lb comparison isn’t apples to apples.

One thing nobody’s asked yet: lifting timing. If either scan was within 24–48h of a hard session, muscle glycogen/water/inflammation can inflate lean mass and make fat loss look tiny. I did two scans 10 weeks apart: scale -11 lb, DEXA fat only -3.4 lb, but scan #2 was 2 days after heavy legs and my lean was +1.8 lb. Re-scanned after 4 rest days and fat was -5.1 lb from baseline. Now I only book DEXA after 48h no lifting. Were both scans on similar rest-day timing, or were you sore for one of them?

Hi, I’m brand new here (week one), so apologies if this is obvious. Did you get the first DEXA before you actually started in January, or a few weeks in? If it was after the scale had already dropped some, it wouldn’t capture that early loss. Also, DEXA has a precision margin — a 2–3 lb fat change can be partly noise. The thing I’d trust more: did your waist or how clothes fit change between scans? My scale stalls already make me nervous, so I’m trying to track measurements too. 19 lbs is amazing, though.

The DEXA mind games are real — hang in there, you’re clearly putting in the work.

Travel-heavy member here. One thing I’d check: the DEXA’s total mass line (fat + lean + bone mineral content). Your fat/lean numbers total 182.3 lb then 178.7 lb — only ~3.6 lb total difference. If the scale was really 188 and 169 those mornings, the scans and scale are describing different bodies. What did the DEXA report as total mass and BMC each time? That’ll tell you whether it’s a scan/timing issue or whether a chunk of the 19 lb came off before/after the scans.

that plateau is maddening. DEXA can be noisy—don’t let one pair mess with your head.

Systems check: were both scans same machine/software, same time of day, and same hydration/carb state? DEXA precision is roughly ±1–2% for fat/lean, so hydration shifts can make the lean compartment lie. Also: when was scan 1 relative to the 188 lb start? If it was already after some loss, you’re comparing a partial window to a 19 lb total. I’d log scan conditions and compare trends, not one pair.

Cafe owner here—tasting all day is brutal. 19 lbs down is still a huge win; don’t let that scan steal it, friend.

Been there—scale and DEXA don't always tell the same story. Long game, friend.

As an empty nester, I’ve learned scales and scans bth fib a little. You’re still winning.

For what it's worth, dEXA can be so humbling—mine barely moved after a big drop. Do clothes fit differently?

water/glycogen is a troll lol, mine stalled for weeks after a soda swap too

Hotel breakfast sodium alone would confuse my DEXA, so congrats on 19 lbs from a carry-on!

Cafe owner here, so I’m all too familiar with the scale playing tricks. But your DEXA math has me stuck: 71.8 fat + 106.9 lean = 178.7 lb, plus bone. If the scale says 169, that’s a ~15 lb gap. Did the scan report a total mass? Same machine both times? Were both scans actually at those weights? I’d check that before chalking it up to water/glycogen, because that gap is bigger than normal scan noise.

Ugh, the DEXA mind games are real. Were both scans at similar hydration/time of day?

Been there. Night shift water weight made my scans look dumb. Trust the tape.

What were your pre-scan weights—single-day scale or 7-day average? DEXA is a snapshot; the trend is the signal. A 15-lb gap between 19 lb scale loss and 3.6 lb DEXA tissue change is too big to hand-wave as water alone. I’d pull the raw reports: same machine, same software, fasting/hydration status, ROI placement. If those don’t match, the fat/lean numbers are mostly noise. Repeat under standardized conditions before believing you only lost 2.3 lb fat.