To lose weight, the amount of calories you consume in a day must be less than the calories you burn. Simple? Not as simple as it looks.
Yes, the treadmill has that nice gage that can tell you after half an hour you’re still running off that sneaky chocolate bar you had at lunch, but the gym can’t help you when it comes to accounting for the calories you’re burning all day every day.
Metabolic testing is a process designed to help you understand how many calories you can consume on a given day and still lose weight. Your Resting Meatbolic Rate (RMR) is a measurement of the calories you use to maintain your basic life functions, i.e. circulatory, respiratory and brain functions. By measuring your RMR the test can discover the number of calories an individual can burn while ‘resting’ each day. As up to 75% of calorie intake is burned at resting level each day in an average healthy person, this test can help you get the most out of your diet and fitness regime.
Metabolic testing can measure how many calories you burn while ‘resting’ each day
Sean Kinane from Health Matters, who offer the test, explained the process:
“When we know your exact calorie expenditure in one day we will now know how many calories you would need to eat in order to achieve your goal of weight loss, weight gain or maintenance. We will give you the correct information to help you achieve these goals a lot easier.
“You will be hooked up to our machinery via a mouthpiece. We will measure the amount of oxygen you consume per ml/kg/min – which will determine how many calories you are expelling in one day, as oxygen consumption is directly related to calorie burn.
“The actually exam last fourteen minutes, but depending on what option you go for the consultations can last up to an hour. The machinery we use is 98% accurate and is tested every year in the university of California to prove its accuracy.”
If you are interested in Metabolic Testing, it can be carried out at Health Matters. Metabolic Testing is covered in full for GloHealth members with the Sports Cover personalised package.
