Total Health Systems | March 8, 2013 (updated June 12, 2019)

Metabolic Testing at Total Health Systems

We have two metabolic tests that we do here at Total Health Systems. The first one is called a resting metabolic rate test, also referred to as RMR. And what that test does is measures your resting metabolic rate. And the reason the number is important is that is the number of calories that your body burns if you were comatose in a hospital bed but nice thing to think about. But it’s a good way to explain to you what RMR is. So if you were lying comatose in a hospital bed, your body is still burning calories just trying to keep you alive. And if we can measure that number, then we are on our way to figuring out how many calories you burn living your life. And we really need to know that number to figure out how many calories you should be eating. Whether your goal is to gain weight or lose weight. This RMR number makes up 60 to 70% of all the calories you burn all day long. So if we can get a very accurate number for that, then we’re doing a pretty good job of figuring out how many calories you’re burning in a 24 hour period. So the way that we measure that is real simple. You come in. You have no breakfast. No coffee. That’s usually the hard part for people, but you just kind of roll out of bed. You can brush your teeth. And then you’re going to sit in a chair and breathe into a tube. Pretty easy.

Usually the test takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. As soon as the computer recognizes that we have enough good information, the test is done. We analyze it, and explain it to you. And from that point we figure out, all right, here’s your RMR. Now let’s figure out how many calories we should add in there, because you’re not comatose. Let’s add in how many calories you burn with exercise. And that gives us a number. And let’s say that number, just for an example, is 2000. Okay, great. You’re burning 2,000 calories a day. If your goal is to lose weight, We know that we don’t want you to eat 2,000 calories a day. So we’re going to make a recommendation as to how many calories you should be eating. The trick comes in that we want you to eat less than that number, but more than your resting metabolic rate. So, some of you may have heard that, oh, sometimes, in order to lose weight, you need to actually eat more. So, once we know that resting metabolic rate number, that RMR, we know we can’t have you eating less than that, and what happens if you are eating less than that is your metabolism can actually slow down. And, needless to say, if you are eating less than that, you are probably not giving it enough nutrition anyway.

So, we want to find out what this number is. It’s a very simple test. Just come in, breathe into a tube for 10 to 20 minutes, and we go from there. The other metabolic test that we also do here is called an exercise metabolic test, and during that test, you are exercising, whether it’s on a bike, a treadmill, or an elliptical. It doesn’t matter it is whichever you prefer. And we are measuring your heart rate, and also measuring how much oxygen you are bringing in, and how much carbon dioxide you are exhaling. And the computer and the fancy machine does some analysis on that, and then once the test is done, We do some more analysis on that, and then we determine at what heart rate you are burning a good percentage of fat, and at what heart rate you are no longer using fat as a fuel and your body is burning 100% carbohydrate. Once we know both of these numbers we can make some recommendations for your cardio workout. So we will give you based off your test results a 12 week training program that tells you hey, between this minute and this minute we want your heart rate to be here and here. Between this minute and this minute we want your heart rate to be here and here. And there’s a progression in that 12 weeks usually the workouts start out pretty easy and those lower heart rate zone, where you’re burning a high percentage of fat. And as you go through the 12 weeks of working out, we will start having you work out more and more intense working up higher and higher calorie burn rates, burning more and more carbohydrates. At the end of those 12 weeks, we redo the test and see if those numbers have changed and if we need to change your cardio workout. A lot of our clients will go ahead and have this assessment done. And what they really enjoy about it is that they don’t have to think. They know, okay. Go to my folder. Here’s my workout for today.

Will just follow along. No thinking. Just do it. You don’t have to walk up to the treadmill and go, oh, what should I do today? Should I do incline? Should I do speed? Should I jump, go hard, go easy, go the same? You don’t have to think about it. We’ve already done all of that for you and planned your 12 weeks of cardio.