My Bone Density Test Results: What Changed After Three DEXA Scans

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In August 2024, my bone density test results from a DEXA scan came back with  a number that got my attention. The T-score measured at my left femoral neck— the narrow section of bone just below the ball of the hip joint – was -2.4. The threshold for an osteoporosis diagnosis is -2.5. 

I had just stopped taking anastrozole after a five-year treatment plan to help lower the chance of early-stage breast cancer returning after surgery. Anastrozole can cause bone loss, so I was relieved to be finished with it.  But that -2.4 score also made me determined to be more consistent about two things I could control: taking calcium and weight training. 

Why Consistency Was Harder Than I Expected 

I knew what I needed to do. Doing it consistently turned out to be harder. 

I tried taking calcium, but the large, chalky pills did not want to go down. I dreaded taking them every day, and eventually I stopped. 

I’ve always been a fitness buff and I was working out at home using an app focused on weight training for women over 50.  My “heavy” weights were 10-pound dumbbells, and I struggled to do a proper lunge. But I powered through the workouts until I pulled a muscle and needed to take some time off. Then I’d jump back in with fresh determination— and pull another muscle. I just could not do a lunge without wobbling. Consistency was proving to be just out of reach. 

Eventually, I realized I didn’t need more motivation. I needed better systems. 

Finding a Calcium Supplement I Could Actually Take 

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by NBI. I first purchased Osteo-K Minis with my own money in February 2025 and was using the supplement before I approached NBI about a collaboration in October 2025. As always, the experience and opinions shared here are my own. 

In February 2025, I ordered a calcium supplement from Nutritional Biochemistry, Inc. (NBI) after seeing the company on Instagram. Their Osteo-K Minis caught my attention for a couple of reasons. The formula combines calcium with vitamin D3 and MK4, a form of vitamin K2, and the capsules were much smaller than the calcium pills I had struggled to swallow.  You can find them here and code AMY gives you 10% off.

I have to admit, I started and stopped with this supplement too. But it was much easier for me to get down. I ordered it again in June, and by that summer I felt like I had finally incorporated it into my routine.

I’ve written more about the trial and error involved in making the supplement part of my daily routine, including the surprisingly simple things that finally helped me become consistent.

Why I Switched to Coached Strength Training 

It took a little longer to finally admit that my home workout system wasn’t working particularly well for me either. I loved the trainers on the app and their evidence-based approach. But sometimes a virtual experience just can’t replace in-person coaching. After all the time I spent with the app, I still could not lunge properly. I didn’t need another workout. I needed someone standing next to me saying, “Here’s what’s going wrong.” 

But I had been a gym member before, and I knew I didn’t want to go back to a traditional large gym, even with a few personal training sessions to get me on the right track. I wanted a different experience entirely.

I started looking for options nearby, and that’s when I found that an Alloy Personal Training gym was about to open close to home. Alloy offers small-group personal training for no more than six people at a time, giving me the hands-on coaching and structured workout plan I was looking for. 

I joined in January 2026, and by the end of April I was lunging properly. Instead of simply having me keep trying to lunge, my coaches worked with me on the supporting muscles and movement patterns I needed. We’ve also gradually increased the weights I train with. Just last night I was doing overhead presses with two 15-pound dumbbells.

What My 2026 Bone Density Test Results Showed 

By the time I went back for my next DEXA scan in August 2026, I had finally achieved the consistency I’d been chasing.

And the results were encouraging.

The biggest change was at the same spot that had worried me two years earlier. My left femoral-neck T-score improved from -2.4 to -1.9. The actual bone mineral density measured at that site increased from 0.58 to 0.63 g/cm²—about an 8.6% increase.

My spine and right femoral-neck scores also improved, while both total-hip measurements remained essentially unchanged. The radiologist summed up the comparison with a phrase I was very happy to read: “Interval increase in bone mineral density.”

My estimated 10-year fracture risks were also lower on the new report: hip-fracture risk went from 1.6% to 0.9%, and major osteoporotic-fracture risk went from 9.7% to 8.8%.

So what caused the improvement? I asked my doctor that question. I reminded him I had stopped taking anastrozole after my previous scan and had become much more consistent with calcium and vitamin D supplementation and weight training. He said all of those factors had played a role in my improved bone density. His advice: keep doing what I’m doing.

There are parts of bone health I can’t control. I can’t change the years I spent taking anastrozole, my age, or my medical history. But there are things I can influence.

For me, that meant finding a calcium supplement I could actually take consistently and a strength-training setup that gave me the coaching and structure I needed.

Neither change was especially easy. I started and stopped. I got frustrated. I had to rethink what wasn’t working instead of simply trying harder at the same thing.

But I kept at it. And two years later, my bone density numbers were moving in the direction I wanted.

I’m still osteopenic, so I’m not treating this as a finish line. I’m treating it as evidence that the changes I’ve been able to sustain are worth continuing. 

NBI Health discount: Use code AMY for 10% off.