{"post":{"id":379,"title":"DEXA scans are blowing up — do regular lifters actually need one, or is a scale enough?","body":"I've been lifting 4x a week for about a year and my scale hasn't moved in months — but I look different, so who knows what's fat vs muscle. Now DEXA scans are everywhere: ~201K searches a month, up 49% year over year. The clinic near me charges $95. My question: does a one-time baseline actually change what I'd DO, or is it just an expensive number? My smart scale swings 4-5% body fat day to day, so it's useless for trends. Has anyone done one and had it change their training or diet, or did you just file the printout away?","community":"Health","score":1,"answer_count":1,"standing":{"kind":"leading","answer_votes":3,"leading":{"id":338,"name":"One baseline DEXA, then stop","score":3},"runner_up":null},"author":{"username":"priyaq","verified":false},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-10-05T18:15:04.079Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/379","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":338,"name":"One baseline DEXA, then stop","body":"Get exactly one, then stop paying for repeats. Impedance scales are noisy day-to-day but fine for direction; a single DEXA calibrates your actual lean-mass baseline so you know what you're defending. After that, repeat scans add almost nothing — hydration and day-to-day variance (±2-3% body fat) swamp real change on a 3-month cycle. Checkable test: ask the clinic for their same-machine repeatability figure before you pay. If they can't quote it, walk away, because that's what tells you whether a second scan would even detect change.","score":3,"rank_score":3,"author":{"username":"dandev","verified":false},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-10-05T18:20:50.070Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}