Are you interested in an effective weight-loss strategy with increased overall health and wellness? Or maybe you’re an elite-minded athlete interested in improved performance? In either case, how can you truly evaluate your program? Is it a question of proper training and/or nutrition? Certainly you don’t still abide by the “no pain-no gain” approach?! And by now you’ve learned that a calorie restrictive “diet” won’t work. For the general exercise enthusiast as well as the elite minded athlete, is it possible your approach is actually counter productive to your specific goal? The answer is an alarming YES!
What we need to do is get back to basics. Understand that exercise is a way to introduce “stress” to your body. If the level of stress you introduce is at an intensity level beyond your physiological capability, your body will interpret the need to adapt. Additionally, your body needs the proper amount of rest and nutrition to allow change to occur. In order to tip the equation of stress, rest, and nutrition in your favor, you need to learn just what level of each will result in the desired adaptation(s). This process in quantified through a process of “metabolic profiling.”
Metabolic Profiling
The common denominator is energy.All plants and animals (including humans!) depend on energy to sustain life. The main source of all energy is the sun. Sunlight radiates energy and plants absorb, convert and store energy such that when we eat the plants (and the animals that eat the plants) we derive the energy necessary to move, work, and exercise. The key concept as it pertains to health, fitness, and performance is learning how to balance the amount of energy coming “in” with the amount of energy going “out.”
Energy in biological systems is commonly referred to and measured in calories, and obtained from the basic macronutrients in food--specifically carbohydrate, fat, and protein. So, in order to know specifically how to determine the amount of energy (calories) one should “take in” (consume), they would need to first determine the amount of energy (calories) they “put out” (expenditure). And at varying levels of exercise intensity, your body uses “fuel” from varying energy systems within your body. This is a quantifiable process and is unique to each and every individual--your personal metabolic profile.
Metabolic Profile Assessment
A Metabolic Profile Assessment is as easy to perform as breathing! VO2 is the rate of oxygen uptake, or consumption, by our bodies measured at rest (RMR) and/or during exercise (Graded Exercise Test), and answers the question of how many calories we burn. Measurement of VO2 will provide a true assessment of fitness level. A VO2 test will also show the anaerobic threshold. Knowing the unique anaerobic threshold can be used to design a workout plan that will improve fitness, train your specific energy systems, and maximize calories burned.
A Metabolic Profile Assessment will provide data that is vital to proper fitness training. In addition, a Metabolic Profile Assessment will measure how many calories are burned during a workout at every exercise heart rate level. This information, along with a heart rate monitor, or a heart rate equipped bike or treadmill, can be used to calculate the precise amount of calories, and the type of calories, burned during a workout.
