what is metabolic testing?

Metabolic rate, or metabolism, is the rate at which the body expends energy. Knowing metabolic rate is vital for weight management. Every calorie the body burns requires a fixed amount of oxygen. The metabolic testing device measures the amount of oxygen the patient’s body is consuming which is called Indirect Calorimetry. Based on the measures oxygen consumption rate, the device then calculates the Resting Energy Expenditure (REE). In other words, it reads the amount of calories that a person burns at rest. The device measures resting caloric burn rate, but total calories burned each day can be divided into three groups of calories and the sum of all these groups of calories is the total daily metabolic rate:

1. Resting Calories (measured by the device): Calories burned while the body is at rest.
2. Lifestyle Activity Calories: Calories burned because of normal daily activities, such as walking, eating (digesting food), typing, etc.
3. Exercise Calories: These are burned from exercise done outside of normal daily activity.

Metabolic Testing takes about 10 minutes. Patients are invited to recline in a comfortable position. They will be given their own mouthpiece and to breathe into. The patient will breathe in air from the room, but the gas that you breathe out will go into the metabolic analyzer to measure your metabolic rate.

Upon completion of the test, a staff member will enter some basic profile info such as, height, weight, age, and gender, and the report will be printed. A thorough explanation will be given to the patient of the results.