Body Composition

Benchmark your body composition.

A DEXA scan gives you a precise read on visceral fat, lean mass and bone density — the three things body weight hides. Ten minutes, no preparation, no referral.

~$45–$60
Self-pay cost
<10 min
Scan duration
~10 µSv
Radiation
None
Rx required
What Portico reads

Five things a scale will never tell you.

Energy Storage & Fat Distribution

Not how much fat, but where it sits. Visceral fat around the organs carries the metabolic risk that a bathroom scale cannot see.

Lean Reserve

The muscle you are carrying, by region, against your age and sex. The tissue you spend a decade losing without noticing.

Overall Phenotype

Where you land across two axes at once — adiposity and lean reserve — rather than a single number pretending to summarise both.

Bone Health

Bone mineral density and T-score, the baseline that decides whether a fall at seventy is an inconvenience or a life change.

Health-Span Trajectory

What this scan implies for the next twenty years, and which of the four domains has the most to gain.

01

Find a scanning site

BodySpec operates DEXA sites across major US cities at consumer prices — typically $45 to $60 for a single scan, less if you buy a bundle — and no physician referral is required. Hospital radiology departments also offer body-composition DEXA, usually well above that.

Find a DEXA scan near you
02

Book and prepare

Book online. Show up fasted for four hours, hydrated normally, and wear comfortable clothing with no metal — no underwire, zips, or buckles. No other preparation is needed.

03

Get the scan

You lie still on an open table for under ten minutes. There is no tunnel, no contrast, and no injection. Radiation exposure is roughly 10 microsieverts — about an eighth of a transcontinental flight.

04

Upload your report to Portico

Your report arrives as a PDF with fat mass index, lean mass index, visceral fat, and bone density T-score. Upload it and Portico extracts every measurement, explains what it means, and tracks it against future scans.

Upload my DEXA report
How often

Every six to twelve months.

Body composition moves slowly. One scan is a benchmark; two scans a year apart are a direction. Anything more frequent measures noise.

No referral needed
Want the science first?

Why the fat you cannot see is the fat that matters.

Read the visceral fat science
Partner note

We point you to BodySpec because they offer direct-to-consumer DEXA scanning across major US cities, with no physician referral and no insurance required.

Portico does not receive any financial benefit from BodySpec — no affiliate fee, no referral revenue, nothing.