Metabolism Matters
What is metabolism? Metabolism is the chemical reactions in the body's cells that change food into energy. Our bodies need this energy to do everything from moving to thinking to growing. Want to lose weight? Want to know how many macros to eat? Want to make your workouts more efficient? Want to increase your endurance? All of these questions can be answered with metabolic testing. Knowing your metabolic numbers takes all the guesswork out of what to eat and helps to guide your exercise program so you can lose weight and keep it off. When it comes to metabolism, everyone is different.
Are You Struggling to Reach Your Weight Loss Goals?
A resting metabolic rate test, also known as a RMR test is a simple 10 - 20 minute test that tells you how many calories your body burns at rest. This caloric number is used to create a healthy deficit to lose weight or increased to gain weight. Your body uses two types of macronutrients, carbohydrates and fats as a fuel source. The RMR test also tells you what your body uses as a fuel source. Knowing this information will help to set a diet specific to what your body needs. Everybody is different and everybody's caloric needs are different. There is no one size fits all. Without knowing your resting metabolic rate, it's impossible to set accurate goals to reach your daily caloric needs and know how your body uses carbs and fats as a fuel source.
How to Keep the Weight Off?
The heavier you are, the more calories you need to fuel your body. As you lose weight, your body needs less calories for fuel. After a 10% body mass reduction, a person’s resting metabolic rate will drop. It takes about 6 months to rise back up again. If your diet is not based off a current RMR test, it can be very easy to overeat and regain the weight you worked so hard to lose. When trying to lose weight, testing your RMR often is key to adjusting your caloric intake as well as knowing how your body uses carbs and fats as a fuel source. A RMR or resting metabolic rate test is the only way to keep up with your changing body and not hit a plateau with your weight loss.
Why Know Your Heartrate Zones When Trying To Lose Weight?
Adding exercise to any weight loss program is beneficial. Exercise burns calories. A VO2 Max test can define the intensity levels of exercise that will yield the most benefits while decreasing fatigue and injury. If you are exercising to lose weight, knowing what zone to keep your heartrate makes your exercise more efficient. After taking a VO2 Max test, you can track your exercise and know exactly where your heartrate is and the number of calories burned during exercise from fats and carbs. When you track your calorie expenditure and your calorie intake, you will know when you’ve lost weight. A pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories.
The VO2 Max test results allow you to exercise smarter not harder. The results of your RMR test tell how your body uses fuel, the VO2 Max test tells at what heartrate your body uses that fuel. Carb burners who want to lose weight, must exercise at the heart rate that burns the most carbs for an extended period of time to reduce glycogen (sugar) that is present in the bloodstream before the body looks to stored fat as its fuel source. Carb burners should be following a low-carb diet to reduce the amount of glycogen in the blood.
A fat burner has to exercise at the heart rate that burns the most fat. Fat burners generally do less cardio than a carb burner. Along with keeping to a low-fat diet to lose weight, fat burners who like cardio, may need to supplement their workouts with liquid IV before and during their workouts so that they don’t pass out or “hit a wall.” If losing weight is your goal, you'll exercise in your fat burning zone. This zone reflects the heartrate to maintain for your body to burn the most fat
If the goal is to improve your endurance, a carb burner who wants to increase their performance/run faster will work out, so their heart rate stays in the orange zone. Since they already have glycogen in their bloodstream there is no need to supplement their diet during workouts.
A fat burner who wants to increase their performance/run faster will have to supplement their diet prior to working out with complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, fiber rich fruits and/or fiber rich vegetables.
If the goal is to gain weight, doesn’t matter if you are a carb burner or fat burner, you must eat the same number of calories that were burned during exercise. For example, if you burned 666 calories and 388 were fat calories and 278 were carb calories then you would supplement your diet by eating the same; 388 fat calories and 278 carb calories plus the caloric diet which you received from your RMR test.
If the goal is to get faster, both fat and carb burners will need to include red zone training in their workouts or max out their heart rates for short periods of time, also known as a HIIT workout.
Stop Guessing!
Having your RMR and VO2 Max test done takes the guesswork out of how to lose weight. The VO2 Max test will maximize your efforts at the gym and the RMR test will provide you key information to set weight loss and nutrition goals.
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