Transforming Health: Damaris Maria Grossman's Journey from Inflammation to Wellness through Body Composition Analysis

When Damaris Maria Grossman embarked on her weight loss journey, she faced more than just a battle with the scale—she waged a war against inflammation and a host of health challenges. At her heaviest, tipping the scales at 190 pounds, Damaris struggled with her health until a transformative approach involving nutrition, GLP-1 medications, and functional medicine led to a remarkable body composition transformation. Now at a healthy 124 pounds, Damaris joins us to share her compelling story and the pivotal role of DEXA fit scans in her wellness revolution.

Throughout this episode, Damaris opens up about her detailed DEXA scan results, revealing the intricacies of body composition that often elude the naked eye. We get an intimate look at how a balance of fat and lean muscle contributes to overall health, with Damaris highlighting her impressive T score, lean mass achievements, and the significant reduction in her visceral fat. This isn’t just a success story; it's a masterclass in understanding the significance of what lies beneath our skin. Damaris’s journey provides not only inspiration but also a scientific blueprint for anyone looking to improve their health and prevent injury through a comprehensive understanding of their own body composition.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Hi, how are you? This is Damaris Maria Grossman and I'm talking today about the use of a DEXA scan and I am in part two of the DEXA fit scan. So I went to get my body checked with the DEXA energy x-ray, to admit, for body composition and my results therein. So first let's talk that when I first was doing any sort of body composition, I was in the 190 range and had significant amounts of inflammation, illness and issues, and through nutrition, glp1 medications and functional medicine, I was able to come down to a nice healthy weight and I'm very happy with my results. I'm not skinny fat, but you know the body composition information will get you so much availability and it will really kind of let you know what's out there and what's going on. So for me, I'm going to share my screen and you're going to be able to see what that was for me. And it's quite interesting because I know I'm not skinny fat and I've done very well now. But what it did mean was I had to make a lot of changes, which I'm very grateful for, you know, but it did take some time and now let's share you the results.

Speaker 1: 1:55

So my results are from the scan. I actually got an A and I was lucky. You know, I really thought it was more on the lower end, but I had lost a significant amount of weight. It went from 190 to now to 124, 124 pounds. But the real kicker is not the number of that and the main thing that I want you to know is that I am, in total mass, in a safe zone 124. My body has quality amounts of fat versus lean muscle, so I'm in that safe zone. Body fat I'm in the low end to the best, meaning that I don't have. I've only about 25% of my body and body fat. I actually used to be on like the 45% range, so this has gone down significantly. My lean mass is around 87 pounds. I like to bring that up just slightly more. My visceral fat is significantly lower. I think I was more in that one range that 0.5. And my visual fat is kind of the fat that's surrounding the belly. And then my T score is significantly high here, 2.7. I was an athlete and I am Spanish and African American and there has been shown signs of that that descent has a higher T score. So even though I'm in my 40s, the T scores are higher. For this I think that the research or there should be more studies on this. But I believe that our T scores are a little bit higher in our bone density. But I was kind of grateful, though, through everything that I've been through, that my T score had been quite significant and that means this T score is kind of a gives you an idea of what your bone density is, and the higher it is, the better you are.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Now, when I look at the distribution of my body fat, I only have about 32 pounds, 25% of body fat. Total Lean mass is around 70%, which is great. I want to have more lean mass over fat and I have to tell you this wasn't the opposite before. I had more fat versus lean mass, and through time, and so, like I said, between medication, if needed, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle management, you can get these to be managed to a better place. And then you can see here that I have body fat changes on the left and right arm, left and right arm and the right and left side and how that is differentiated, and it really kind of also lets you know behavioral wise, like I have more body fat on one side versus the other. Am I more dominant on one side versus the other. And why is that? You know, have I been lifting something more than the other things of that nature? So if I have more muscle on the left side, have I been lifting more than on the right? And then when you look at my scales here, the only thing here that I would say could be better is that my epidicular lean mass could be a little higher. So that means that I really could get in a little bit more muscle, because what this means is when you're healthy, it provides the central insight of the muscular health, injury prevention and overall quality of life. So what this is saying is that it could be a little bit higher so they don't have any bone injuries or long term risk.

Speaker 1: 5:17

And this fat-free mass index is about average for me. It takes into account the total lean mass and it's dividing it by the fat mass and it's saying that it's useful to assessing your overall body composition. So I could be a little bit more. I could be more in the green range. So this means that I could have a little less fat and more muscle, and this means I need a little bit more muscle, which I'm kind of aware of. The best part of this is I knew I was more of a parachute, meaning I'm more on the bottom, heavy on the bottom, than the top. So that's where I'm more in the gynoemersis and the visceral fat is in my best. So I'm done so significantly better. When I was, I would say, a year and a half ago, I was in the two closer to the 2.5 range and then my mineral count T scores at a 2.7. So that right there is really really significant and very helpful for my long term bone growth and for my density of as an elder the patient. That's super important. And then when you look at kind of like my bone age, I'm around 39. So a few years younger than my normal baseline base age, and for me I'm pretty happy with those results. So that's just kind of where I come from.

Speaker 1: 6:39

The reason I talk about this or I'm having this conversation in the podcast is because and on this YouTube channel, is that I want my clients that I come to see need to get a DEXA scan and then if maybe they can get the 3D body scan or the VO2 and the basal mental bollock rate, if that's possible, but at least at a minimum the scan so that we have an idea of where they lie and then kind of getting a repeat in about six months to a year for that individual and it really gives us a whole body picture and then getting a scan probably every two years, and it's quite affordable because this was only around 150.

Speaker 1: 7:21

So I think that it's definitely doable and it's a nice diagnostic tool. But it's not just diagnostic tool. It really gives you awareness. So what it is is it's more, since it's the gold standard, it will give you a better idea of where you lie and what you really need to work on, and then you can go from there. So that for me is pretty paramount and for those clients that I work with they will get a discounted code and it's mindful. So I'll put that in the show notes in the link to DEXA FIT for those in the North Jersey area and then DEXA FIT. So if you have a good rest of your day and I hope to make sure that you guys have a mindful way each and every day. Thanks so much and have a wonderful rest of your morning or afternoon.