1st DEXA Body Composition scan results

The average weight of human skeleton in pounds is 30.

BMC is usually translated into grams for T and Z score variables. DXA can quantify (in grams) the bone mineral content (BMC) at various body sites. By selecting regions of interest, a bone area (BA) is selected with units of centimeters squared. (The abbreviation BA for bone area should not be mistaken for bone age.) BMD is measured directly for each pixel in the region of interest (ROI) by comparing the X-ray attenuation of that pixel to a reference standard. It has units of grams per centimeter squared. This value is multiplied by the pixel's area to derive the BMC of that pixel with units of grams. The areas of all the pixels in the ROI are summed to give BA. Thus, BMD = BMC/BA.

It has nothing to do with his total body weight.

I have no real knowledge of this topic. It's just odd that Eastern Michigan University Office of Nutrition Services is giving out information that would be so blatantly inaccurate. I'm going in for a scan in a few weeks - I will definitely be following up with them about it. As you can see above, there is no way to mis-interpret what the documentation says. If they are wrong, that is bad info.

I don't see what you posted, but they DO use the entire weight of the skeleton to measure your BMC. That is not the same as saying you BMC is your skeleton's total weight.

For example, I use my total weight to calculate my BMI. My BMI is not the same as my total weight.

im not saying your wrong, what i am saying is that i dont know where (in my DXA results) my skeletal weight is.

I am not a DXA scan expert -- only sharing what I know.

In their paperwork they define all the terms. In that area it says "BMC measures the weight of the entire skeleton". That seems pretty unambiguous. Perhaps unambiguously wrong. And there is no other information in that area, so I'm not taking out of context, or extracting a partial definition in any way.

Here is every definition in that section (entitled "Lean"):

Tissue includes all parts of the body, excluding the bones.

Lean includes all parts of the body [organs, muscle, and fluids] but excludes body fat and mass from the bones

BMC measures the weight of the entire skeleton

Fat Free includes all parts of the body, excluding the fat.

No idea -- but I certainly see that's how they listed it.

Who knows then.

There's no way his skeleton weighs 7 lbs, however.

I am going EMU tomorrow morning for my Scan, it's 10 minutes from my house. I will ask specifically about this measurement. I need to go dig up the one I had through them almost a year ago, as well, so I can compare.

Perfect timing!! Please let us know what they say, I'm very curious.

Everything seems reasonable based on my experience with DEXA scans.

I've done 2 - my bones have weighed 7.33lbs and 8.25lbs on the two different scans (not sure what causes the difference other than just normal variation between scans?)

I am a 5'8" male, and at my first one I weighed 182lbs (27.7 BMI), looks like you're 5'9" and 191 (28.2 BMI) so we were very similar in overall size. My BF% on that first scan was 26.5%, so again, very much in line with what the 27.2% you are seeing.

Hope that helps!