Body composition test: fat, muscle and DEXA cost

A body composition test splits your weight into fat mass and lean mass, the muscle, bone, organs and water. Most reports print a body fat percentage, a muscle or lean mass figure and a visceral fat reading. Two people of the same weight can carry very different amounts of each, which a scale cannot show.

DEXA, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, passes two low-energy X-ray beams over you while you lie on a table for a few minutes. It measures fat, lean tissue and bone mineral, region by region, and is the clinical reference method. A whole-body composition DEXA is a different request from a bone density DEXA of the hip and spine, so ask for it by name.

Each radiology centre and hospital sets its own price, and it changes with the city and with whether you book a whole-body composition scan or a bone density scan, which are priced differently. Ask for the whole-body composition DEXA by name, and for the written price and what the report includes, before you book.

A bioimpedance reading on an analyser such as an InBody or a Tanita is often included with a gym membership, a dietitian's consultation or a clinic visit, and some charge for it on its own. The analyser price itself ranges from a bathroom scale with electrodes to a professional standing unit; the professional units read more of the body.

For a DEXA scan, search radiology centres and hospitals in your city for a whole-body composition DEXA and ask whether they offer it, since many only run bone density scans. For bioimpedance, gyms, dietitians and many clinics have an analyser. Going back to the same place, and the same machine, keeps your readings comparable.

Bioimpedance analysers estimate body composition from how a small current passes through you, so they are sensitive to hydration, a recent meal, exercise and the time of day. They are less exact than a DEXA scan for one reading, and most useful for following change when you measure under the same conditions each time.

Yes, as an estimate. A soft tape measure and the US Navy equations give a body fat percentage from your neck, waist and, for women, hips; our free body fat calculator does the arithmetic in your browser. A body fat estimate from BMI alone cannot tell muscle from fat, so the tape is the better of the two.

Test at the same time of day each time, ideally in the morning before eating, with an empty bladder, no hard exercise beforehand and your usual water. Wear light clothes with no metal. For a DEXA scan, tell the centre if you may be pregnant or have had a contrast scan recently.

The Metaboliq health assessment is a blood panel, not a scan: a home blood draw read with you by an NMC-registered doctor, for ₹999. After it, Metaboliq Core, Metaboliq Premium and Elite programme include body-composition checks every two weeks, set out with everything else each plan holds on our programmes page.