Should You Get a DEXA Scan?

Should You Get a DEXA Scan?

From Food for Thought with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

March 6, 2026 · 41 min

About this episode

This episode explores DEXA scans, their significance in measuring body composition, and how to interpret the results for health insights.

This podcast is listener-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In today’s episode, we take a closer look at DEXA scans — what they measure, what the numbers actually mean, and whether getting one is worth it. These scans are becoming more common in fitness and wellness settings, providing insight into body fat, muscle mass, visceral fat, bone density, and even something called “biological age.” But how should we interpret those numbers? What can they tell us about our health — and what can’t they tell us? Using my own recent scan as a starting point, we explore how body composition data can serve as a baseline for understanding our bodies, tracking changes over time, and making more informed decisions about strength training, fat loss, and bone health. In this episode, we talk about: * The difference between total-body composition scans and clinical DEXA scans used to diagnose osteopenia or osteoporosis * What body fat percentage actually measures — and why it’s different from BMI * The concept of body recomposition: reducing body fat while maintaining or gaining muscle * Why visceral fat matters for metabolic and…

People in this episode

Host: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Topics covered

  • DEXA scans
  • body composition
  • health metrics
  • fitness
  • bone density
  • biological age

Keywords

  • DEXA scan
  • body fat
  • muscle mass
  • visceral fat
  • bone density
  • biological age
  • T-scores
  • body recomposition

More episodes of Food for Thought with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Food for Thought with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau podcast page.