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Metabolic
Testing & Measurement
Measuring
Your Metabolism
Understanding your metabolism, calories-in and calories-out,
is the formula for success.
There are two ways to measure your metabolism, at rest
and during exercise. Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is
your burn rate at rest.Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
Assessment
If losing weight and keeping it off is your primary
concern, the New Leaf Weight Loss Training Program offers
a Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) assessment.
The RMR assessment is performed while resting comfortably
in a chair and takes as few as 15 to 30 minutes. The
measurements obtained establish your resting caloric
needs - the precise number of calories your body needs
to maintain its basic functions. With this information
you'll know how many calories your body needs which
helps you limit the calories you consume to lose the
inches you want.
A Ten Minute Assessment That Will Change Your Life
The fitness VO2 assessment is simple, comfortable and
takes only a matter of minutes.
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The
VO2 assessment is performed during an easy workout
on a treadmill, stationary bike, or other exercise
equipment.
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Afterwards,
your personal trainer provides you with a full report
that accurately identifies your aerobic fitness
and optimal exercise intensity levels.
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The
report is used to create your customized program
that will help you achieve your personal goals.
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Your
individualized program enables you to exercise at
the intensity levels at which you are most efficient
in burning stored fat and improving your cardiovascular
fitness.
Metabolism
Fundamentals
An average adult consumes nearly a million calories
a year. Despite this huge number, some healthy people
are able to maintain a relatively stable body weight
over years and decades without much conscious effort.
When "calories in" equals "calories
out," a state of energy balance is achieved and
body weight remains constant.
Metabolism is the process of converting food to fuel
for the body. Metabolic rate is the number of calories
used to fuel the body. Therefore, your resting metabolism
is the amount of energy your body uses at rest.
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The Energy Balance Equation
The energy balance equation is driven by common laws
of physics and thermodynamics:
— Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Energy
is either used or stored. When "calories in"
are less than "calories out," a state of
negative energy balance occurs and body weight decreases.
In contrast, when "calories in" are greater
than "calories out," a state of positive
energy balance occurs and body weight increases.
Being overweight is a result of being in a positive
energy balance where "calories in" is greater
than "calories out". This can be caused
by:
— eating too much
— not enough exercise or activity
— having a low metabolic rate
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Calories
In
Food provides calories (fuel) for the body in the
form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Any calories
from food that are not used immediately for energy
production are stored. Each source of calories is
unique in the way it is used and stored by the body.
Carbohydrates are usually the main source of
energy for the body. Carbohydrates are broken down
into glucose (sugar) and stored in individual muscle
cells in the form of glycogen. The body can only store
limited amounts of carbohydrates as glycogen. Carbohydrates
contains four calories per gram.
Proteins are used by the body to build and
maintain body tissues and is rarely used by the body
for energy. Like carbohydrates, the body can only
store limited amounts of protein. Protein also contains
four calories per gram.
Fat is the most calorie-dense of the nutrients.
Unlike carbohydrate and protein, the body has an almost
unlimited capacity to store fat and body fat stores
act as the long term fuel reserves to prevent against
starvation. A common misunderstanding is that you
can only increase body fat by eating too much fat
but studies show that an abundance of fuels, especially
carbohydrates, also leads to increased body fat storage.
Fat contains nine calories
per gram.
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Calories
Out
Watching
the number of calories in the food you eat helps manage
your "calories in," but to achieve energy
balance you also need to know your "calories
out." The body uses (burns) calories in three
ways: Physical Activity, Digestion of Food, and your
Resting Metabolism.
Physical Activity
The body uses more calories for physical activity
than it does at rest. Physical activity includes exercise
as well as all other activity that engages muscles
for movement. Because most physical activity is voluntary,
it is the most variable part of "calories out"
in the energy balance equation. The number of calories
burned during physical activity and exercise varies
from individual to individual. Calories for physical
activity may represent less than 20 percent of "calories
out" for a sedentary person or more than 30 percent
of "calories out" for someone who is very
physically active. Calories for physical activity
depend upon the type, intensity (how hard you exert
yourself), and duration (minutes) of the activity.Digestion
of Food
The body also uses calories to digest, absorb, transport,
and store food. The technical name for this process
is called the "thermic effect of food".
Typically, the thermic effect of food represents only
about 10 percent of the "calories out."
Resting
Metabolism
Resting metabolism provides the energy the body needs
for pumping blood through the body, inhaling and exhaling
air, maintaining body temperature, sending and receiving
nerve impulses, thinking, and making important chemicals
in the cells. Resting metabolism occurs in a continual
process. Resting metabolism is the largest component
(typically 60 to 70 percent) of "calories out"
in the energy equation.
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Balancing
the Energy Balance Equation
Most people maintain a steady energy balance over
time. You may eat a little more or a little less on
any given day. You may do a little more or a little
less physical activity. Your weight may go up or down
by a pound or two, but for the most part, you maintain
a balance. When the balance shifts, your weight changes.
The key to gaining or losing weight is balancing the
energy balance equation.
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The
Role of Oxygen, VO2
Just like an automobile engine, your body needs oxygen
to mix with fuel to produce energy. Your lungs (carburetor)
and heart (fuel pump) deliver oxygen to the individual
muscle cells and combine with fuels (fat, carbohydrates)
for the production of energy. One of the by-products
(exhaust) of this energy creation is carbon dioxide.
You breathe in oxygen and you breathe out carbon dioxide.
At lower exercise intensities, your aerobic system
uses fats and some carbohydrates as fuel along with
a moderate amount of oxygen. Of these fuels, only
carbohydrates have the capacity to be used as fuel
without oxygen, or anaerobically. As the intensity
of your exercise increases and you reach the capacity
of your aerobic system, to bring oxygen into your
body and you shift progressively to your anaerobic
system. Your anaerobic system primarily uses carbohydrates
(in the form of blood sugar or stored glycogen) as
a fuel source and produces an increased amount of
carbon dioxide exhaled.
For example, if you are walking up a few flights of
stairs, as you get to perhaps the third flight, you
begin to switch from your aerobic system to your anaerobic
system and will notice an increased demand for oxygen
and you will breathe harder and more rapidly. If you
continue to climb the next flight of stairs, you will
notice a burning sensation (accumulation of lactic
acid) in your leg muscles and as this lactic acid
accumulates in the muscle, your body attempts to rid
itself of this condition by buffering it with bicarbonate
in the blood. This buffering process produces additional
carbon dioxide in the blood which causes you to breathe
even harder. This point is typically referred to as
your anaerobic or ventilatory threshold.
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Metabolic
Assessment
A metabolic assessment analyzes the volume of oxygen
consumed (VO2) and the volume of carbon dioxide produced
(VCO2) in a controlled setting to determine the type
of fuels your body is using, or your "metabolic
profile". A Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) assessment
measures the amount of energy used at rest. The RMR
is then adjusted by an activity factor to produce
the amount of calories you burn in a typical day.
Your RMR can be used to identify your caloric intake
needs for a weight loss program (e.g. 2000 calories
per day).
An exercise metabolic assessment measures the VO2
and VCO2 along with your heart rate during exercise
with a gradual increase in intensity until you reach
a point sufficient to collect the desired exercise
"metabolic profile". Data such as heart
rate, oxygen consumed (VO2 Max), and Anaerobic Threshold
(AT) are determined and these are used to develop
training program for you. Target heart rates are scientifically
determined by your metabolic profile during exercise
and can be incorporated into a fitness or weight loss
training program by your exercise professional.
Metabolic assessments are better than estimates because
the program is based on your unique response to exercise.
Your exercise professional will have more information
from the assessments on how your body is working which
leads to more effective nutritional planning and exercise
programming.
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