What Is Metabolic Testing?

Human metabolism is very dynamic that is impacted by your lifestyle, eating habits, environment, exercise, and stress along with other factors. Metabolic testing provides an insight into the current status of metabolism and ways to improve it.

Metabolic testing helps the chiropractors to analyze and help any major change in your lifestyle and weight loss program. Before you invest in metabolic testing, it’s important to understand how a metabolism test works and how the data is used to lose weight or improve your level of fitness.

Your metabolism is responsible for breaking down the calories you consume and turning them into the energy your body needs to function. The higher your metabolism is, the easier it is for you to lose weight and maintain that level of weight loss. One way to determine the speed of your body’s metabolism is by testing your metabolism.

WHAT DO METABOLIC TESTS INVOLVE?

Metabolic tests help measure the rate at which your body burns calories and uses oxygen during rest or different activities. This involves three tests that you may be offered when you look for metabolic testing. Metabolic testing involves several different tests. Each test provides information about a key element of your metabolism. These elements include:

Resting metabolic rate (RMR): Testing this aspect of your metabolism provides information about the estimated number of calories you burn when your body is at rest — you’re not exercising or moving. This test provides an estimate of the number of calories you burn when your body is at complete rest.
Maximum volume of oxygen (V02 Max): This involves testing your metabolic rate during different stages of exercise. This is known as the aerobic capacity test or VO2 max, which determines the maximum volume of oxygen. This helps with the information about your body’s ability to use oxygen effectively during exercise.
Lactate threshold test: When you exercise your lactate acid builds up in the blood more quickly than it can be removed during exercise, causing muscle fatigue. This test detects the lactate threshold in the blood. This usually helps an athlete who is interested in improving performance.

Mostly, the metabolic test results are assembled into a personalized exercise or weight loss program. These programs are tailored by the chiropractors to improve your specific metabolic profile and lead to losing weight or improving athletic performance.

Complete metabolic panel concept icon. Group of tests that measures several different substances in your blood idea thin line illustration. Vector isolated outline RGB color drawing. Editable stroke

METABOLISM TEST FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Chiropractors use the metabolic test results for various treatments and weight loss is one of them. Metabolic testing details usually provide essential data for people trying to lose weight. On the basis of your resting metabolic rate and your estimated daily activity, the chiropractor will estimate the total number of calories you burn every day without exercise.

The test results will help you learn how your body burns fuel during exercise and manage your food intake during the day. These also help you to make smart choices about different types of exercise. Sometimes, it is important to take three hours of sedentary activity to burn off the calories from your favorite treat. Once, you learn that it takes an hour on the treadmill to burn off your favorite sweetened beverage, you might become inspired to drink water instead.

This will also help you study the heart rate range that is most effective for your body to burn fat. Your heart rate may limit when your body stops burning fat as fuel. The result will also help improve your body’s ability to burn fat more effectively.

Optimum RMR and V02 MAX numbers may vary from person to person, and they may be based on many factors including:

Age
Gender
Activity level
Weight history
Current weight

The change in activity level, or your physical fitness improves or declines, your metabolic rate, and numbers will change.

CAN YOU CHANGE YOUR METABOLISM?

A slow metabolism makes it hard to control weight gain. Fortunately, metabolic rate can help speed up safe weight loss by altering your lifestyle habits.

Some things that can boost metabolism include:

Exercise: The change in metabolic rate during an average day will help reduce weight. A high metabolic rate will help you burn more calories when you’re active than while you’re resting. The metabolic rate will be high with more vigorous activity and caloric burn will be higher as well. Additionally, exercising gives your metabolism a boost for several hours after you stop. Different types of exercise may also have different effects, such as anaerobic and aerobic exercise can positively affect metabolic rate. If you’re very sedentary with a BMI>30 or are elderly, talk to your chiropractor about an exercise program that’ll be a safe fit for you.
Activity: It is not necessary to go to the gym daily to boost your metabolism. Small spurts of activity, like brisk walks, can help as well as standing instead of sitting.
Well-balanced diet: A balanced diet including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins is essential to your overall health. Incorporating protein in each meal as well can boost your metabolic rate. The act of eating also requires calories for chewing and digestion. This is referred to as the thermic effect of food (TEF). Protein consumption, including vegetarian forms of protein, causes the highest levels of TEF to occur. Indeed, you won’t burn as many calories eating a balanced meal as you are well while you’re running a marathon. But a balanced diet will help give your metabolism a push in the right direction. It is also important to practice portion management at each meal to complement eating a balanced diet.
The right amount of Food: Consuming more calories than you burn will result in weight gain. But, eating too few calories also can have a negative effect that results in slowing down your metabolism.
Drinking water: Drinking water, especially cold water, has also been shown to increase metabolic rate. Increasing your water intake also helps in flushing off the toxins from your body to give you a boost in metabolic rate.

OUTLOOK

A metabolic test provides information about how effectively your body burns calories and uses oxygen during workouts. This is a valuable tool that can help your chiropractor make decisions about changing your lifestyle habits resulting in effective weight gain or weight loss.

METABOLIC TESTING