ABSTRACT
We studied the effect of exercise-induced body fluid redistribution on dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) body composition scores. Thirty males completed 30-min of upper-body exercise (UBE), lower-body exercise, and seated non-exercise control (NEC). ANOVA determined interactions between experimental conditions and measurements on body composition variables. For UBE, mean pre to post differences were found on tissue fat (M = 0.35 ± 0.12%; CI95%diff = 0.10 to 0.59%; p = 0.007), region fat (M = 0.32 ± 0.11%; CI95%diff = 0.09 to 0.55%; p = 0.008), lean mass (M = 0.27 ± 0.01 kg; CI95%diff = 0.18 to 0.37 kg; p ≤ 0.0001), and total mass (M = 0.27 ± 0.05 kg; CI95%diff = 0.17 to 0.36 kg; p ≤ 0.0001). Mean tissue pre to post differences were found for the total body in the NEC (M = 0.10 ± 0.04 kg; CI95%diff = 0.03 to 0.18 kg; p = 0.008), UBE (M = 0.19 ± 0.03 kg; CI95%diff = 0.14 to 0.24 kg; p ≤ 0.0001), and LBE (M = 0.31 ± 0.04 kg; CI95%diff = 0.24 to 0.39 kg; p ≤ 0.0001) conditions. High absolute reliability was found within experimental conditions. These findings have practical implications for technicians, since acute exercise elicited small changes in body composition scores using DXA.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, EC-R, upon reasonable request.