FF Metabolic Testing

Metabolic Fitness Assessments with Carrie Partna
Fitness Forward Studio
By appointment only.
The best information we all need to know to improve your fitness level, set up heart zones for  training program, nutrition guidance, gain or lose weight and much more!


Carrie has  joined Debbie’s Fitness Forward team in Bellevue, WA to be the Metabolic Analysis Technician/Specialist. Carrie has been in the fitness industry for ten years as a Personal Trainer.  Over the years, she has found metabolism assessments are the  most effective and efficient way of achieving your goals…. whether it be fat loss, muscle gain or increasing sports performance.

There are several ways to have your metabolism measured, gas exchange is the most accurate way to have it measured.  Gas exchange is what the professional athletes and hospitals use to determine what an individuals caloric needs are as well as learning what their aerobic base, anaerobic threshold and training zones are to maximize their training potential.

Exercise Assessment:  measures your metabolic rate during exercise.  This is where you will learn how many calories your body burns while exercising whether those calories come mainly from fat, carbs or even combination of both…and at what intensity level you burn calories most efficiently.

With an assessment, you get a training program that is based specifically on the data that is YOU.

  • Your resting metabolic rate.
  • Your required calories.
  • Your calories burned.
  • Your fuel composition.
  • Your base heart rate.
  • Your threshold rate.
  • Your fat burning efficiency rate.

Full New Leaf Metabolic Assessment:  $299.00

New Leaf Resting Metabolic Resting Assessment:  $150.00

New Leaf Exercise Assessment: $180.00 (comes with 12 week cardiovascular program)

InBody Composition Analysis:  $50.00 (30 minute consult included)

InBody Composition Analysis plus personalized charts and graphs charting your progress:  $35.00

InBody composition Analysis 5 pack:  $125.00 (includes personalized charts and graphs charting your progress)

Schedule your metabolic assessment with Carrie via email at fitbydesignpts@mac.com.

Having your metabolism assessed is ESSENTIAL to YOUR SUCCESS – whether your goal is fat loss or increasing your aerobic base and anaerobic threshold.
• With a resting assessment you will learn the amount of calories your body needs to keep from going into starvation mode. You will also learn what type of fuel or calories your body is burning at rest – is it fat or carbs? If you have plateaued, or if you have even gained weight, it IS possible that it is because your body is in starvation mode. Starvation can look and act like we are overeating. This is especially easy to do if we are exercising a lot.
• With an exercise assessment, we learn exactly how many total calories and how many fat calories your body personally burns per minute during exercise. You will learn your personal heart rate zones, where your body is most efficient at burning fat as a fuel source as well as your body’s maximum sustainable rate at burning total calories. With this information, we can design a personalized program based off your results that will increase the amount of fat and total calories you burn per minute. You will be  working smarter, not harder!
• After you have been assessed, track your progress on the InBody 230 and watch your results on personalized charts and graphs. You will be able to see if the weight you are losing is fat, muscle or water! With this information we are able to make course corrections when necessary to avoid plateaus.
Metabolic Testing/Profiling
This is a two part process involving an initial assessment to measure your unique metabolism in it’s resting state. The second part of the profiling is completed during cardio exercise. This is measuring your unique metabolic response to exercise.  Having your Metabolism assessed is ESSENTIAL to your success. Your metabolism is unique to you. If there is one thing I’ve learned from all the assessments I’ve done, it’s that you can’t judge a book by its cover. No doubt you have told yourself that you have a slow metabolism because you’re carrying a few extra, unwanted pounds that seems impossible to take off. Or maybe you were successful in losing the 10 lbs but two months later it found you again. Maybe you have a friend or family member that is skinny and you think to yourself, “She must just have a fast metabolism.” This simply is not always the case. You can take five people of the same age, gender, weight and height and they will all have different metabolisms.  Everyone has what is called an RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate). Your RMR is unique to you and it is what your body needs for basic life functions. When I say basic life functions; we’re talking brain activity, cell regeneration, internal organs working. If you know what your RMR is, then you will know EXACTLY where to keep your calories to reach whatever goal you desire. You will be successful in achieving your goals.
If you do not give your body what it needs for the basic life functions, it will go into starvation mode. You will store fat and burn muscle. By going into starvation mode, and losing lean muscle, you will do more damage to your metabolism – your RMR and will slow it down.
The Vicious Cycle:  Working with my clients, the bariatric support groups and assessing people’s metabolisms has given me a very clear understanding as to why we struggle with losing fat.  It is a vicious cycle that starts with a belief that we need to eat less and exercise more.  Yes, sometimes that is the case – however, many times it is not.  Below is one of my client’s experiences that is actually quite common…
Elly’s story (Client name has been changed for their protection)
Elly had struggled with losing fat for quite some time. She would decrease her calories and workout harder only to be even more frustrated with no results. She came to me for a metabolic assessment. I had her watch her calories for a few days before the assessment because I was curious to see what was happening. She realized that she was eating around 1200 calories a day. Now if you’ve tried any of the diets out there you would know that 1200 – 1300 is quite normal. How frustrating to follow a new diet, exercise your heart out with minimal to no results! So what do we do when we decrease our calories and exercise harder and we don’t get results? We get frustrated, angry and we emotionally eat and allow ourselves all the food we were depriving ourselves
from. Why not? After all – working so hard didn’t do anything anyway; I may as well eat whatever I want and ENJOY IT! At this point, without realizing it -you are now overeating and gaining fat. Yes, gaining fat because guess what -you’re not working out anymore either! And THAT is the vicious cycle! So, she came in and we assessed her metabolism. It turned out that Elly’s RMR was 1438!  That meant that Elly needed to have 1438 calories in her body by the end of the day in order for her body to not go into starvation mode. So I instructed her on what she needed to do – EAT MORE! I told her to eat 1438 calories a day and if she exercised on any given day, she needed to eat as many calories as she burned exercising. So if she exercised for 45 minutes and burned 350 calories, she had to make sure she ate 1438 + 350 totaling 1788 calories for the day. Yes, she was skeptical. But she left promising that she would do it. She was scheduled to see me in five days for her first workout and we would do a second body composition then to see what changed with her body. When she came in for her training appointment, she told me she was a little concerned. She really struggled eating so much and couldn’t see how she could lose weight eating so many calories. She found herself hungry at odd times but just went with it, tracking carefully to be sure she ended each day with 1438 in her “body bank.” We weighed her, measured her and pinched her with the calipers – sure enough – everything went down! She lost 3 lbs of fat, gained 1 lb of muscle, lost an inch in her waist as well as other body parts. She was shocked and very pleased to say the least. Two weeks into her program, she lost 5.5 fat lbs gained 2 lbs of muscle and has lost over 7 inches. The reason she has been so successful is because she finally knows what her body’s needs are and is simply eating exactly that. It is about calories in and calories out, but you must know what your unique RMR needs are so you are not working blind, over training or under training and simply giving your body what it needs. Very simple – once you have the information!
Why Test Your Metabolism?
Would you like to Lose Weight?
Would you like to know  the percentage of Fat and Carbs you personally burn?
Would you like to know how many calories you burn a day?
Would you like to know the right zones to workout in?
How can it help me?
Fitness testing through the use of metabolic testing can literally help anyone looking to improve their health.  Since each person’s test results vary and each person has different goals we can use the data to glean valuable information to customize exercise programs for any goal.  We see clients that are elite triathletes to those just looking to lose a few pounds.  We also help people with diabetes understand their metabolism and those with cardiovascular deconditioning to recondition with appropriate safe intensities.
Nutrition:
A key component of nutritional assessment is determination of daily caloric requirements. Current clinical practice is to use a predictive normal equation for most patients. Use of these equations in many patients amounts to nothing more than a best guess. Guessing caloric needs could be justified when metabolic carts were expensive and difficult to use. Now that indirect calorimetry is available, there is no reason not to measure the resting energy expenditure of every client receiving nutritional care.
Fitness Training:
VO2 is the rate of oxygen uptake, or consumption, measured during exercise. The maximum rate of oxygen uptake is called the VO2max or maximum VO2. VO2max is the ultimate measure of fitness.  To achieve a high VO2max, a person must have a fit heart and lungs and significant lean muscle mass that is well conditioned.
A VO2 test will also show the anaerobic threshold. The anaerobic threshold is the level of exercise intensity beyond which the body can no longer provide adequate oxygen to the muscles. Exercise below the anaerobic threshold should be comfortable even though the exercise extends for long periods. Exercise above the anaerobic threshold will improve cardiovascular fitness, but will also cause discomfort, fatigue, and muscle soreness.
Knowing the unique anaerobic threshold can be used to design a workout plan that will improve fitness and maximize calories burned. Measurement of VO2max or PeakVO2 will provide a true assessment of fitness level. The VO2 test will provide all of this data that is vital to proper fitness training. In addition, a VO2 test will also 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 theprecise amount of calories burned during a workout.
Why Assess Your Metabolism
  • Have you ever had a test conducted to detmine how many calories and what type of calories you burn at rest?
  • Have you ever had a test conducted to detmine how many calories you need to eat to lose or gain weight?
  • Have you ever had a  fitness test conducted to to determine what type of calories you burn during exercise and how to maximize your workouts?
Metabolic testing provides:
  • Individualized, real data on the number of calories needed to survive each day
  • The number of calories (and what type of fuel) burned during exercise
  • Indicates the exact exercise heart rate to maximally burn fat
  • How to improve your anaerobic threshold
Information Revealed from the Assessment:
Resting Metabolic Rate
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) measures your calorie utilization while at rest needed to maintain the body’s vital functions.  If you want a weight loss plan that really works, you have to target your individual metabolism and forget about charts and averages.  There is no such thing as one size fits all.  Each person’s resting metabolic rate is based on genetics, eating habits, and fitness level.  Knowing your RMR is the first step towards balancing your caloric intake with the amount of calories you burn each day.
This test can be used to maximize your weight loss, overcome plateaus or just maintain or even gain weight.  Athletes find this an extremely useful tool to calculate how much they need to consume for optimal athletic performance and recovery.  A resting metabolic rate test is a simple test that can help you to achieve your training or weight management goals.
Active VO2 Metabolism
Oxygen usage and carbon dioxide production are very specific to each person and provide a very detailed analysis of how the body uses fat and glycogen as exercise intensity increases.  This is one of the most comprehensive physiologic test Fitness Forward has to offer.  It provides insight into the performance of the aerobic system by evaluating cardiorespiratory and metabolic function.
During a test, exercise intensity measured in watts or speed is increased while data is provided every 15 seconds.  Aerobic and anaerobic thresholds are determined as well as peak VO2.  The ability to sustain a high percentage of one VO2max rather than VO2max itself is an important characteristic of a strong endurance athlete.   An individual fitness program will then be designed using heart rates corresponding to the thresholds to help anyone train and/or workout smarter and achieve the results they want.
What is Metabolism?
Metabolism is all the processes that occur in the body that turn the food you eat into energy your body can use.  Essentially, the body transformation of food into energy (calories) needed for important life processes.
Aerobic Metabolism is a process of converting fat and glycogen or glucose (carbohydrates and/or sugars) to make energy to be used as fuel by the muscles; also known as aerobic respiration as this process uses oxygen.
Find out how fit you are:  ask for fitness testing rates
  • Exercise metabolism
  • Follow up test
  • Resting metabolic Rate (RMR)
  • Follow up test
  • Body composition, circumference measurements
  • RMR, Exercise metabolism, body composition & circumference
  • Follow up
Test Protocols for Metabolic Testing
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
  1. No alcohol 24 hours prior to the test.  No coffee or tea 4 hours before the test.
  2. Fast for 8 hours prior to your test.  Water is fine.
  3. No strenuous physical activity 24 hours prior to the test.
  4. Be as well rested as possible.
Exercise Metabolism
  1. Avoid food for 4 hours prior to the test.  No juice.  Only water.
  2. Be well hydrated.
  3. Avoid exercise for 12 hours prior to the test.
  4. No coffee or caffeinated tea 4 hours prior to the test.
Frequently asked questions about metabolic testing:
Are you measuring Vo2 Max? Vo2 Max is the volume of oxygen consumed per minute.  A simple analogy is that it represents the size of your engine.  Vo2 Max is often a predictor of performance.  Larger Vo2 Max often equals more speed.  But this is not always, as in the case of Steve Prefontaine.
Metabolic testing can show Vo2 Max, but that’s not what we are measuring.
Are you measuring what my maximum heart rate is? We will see you come close to your max heart rate but we are not trying to measure that.  Max heart rate is not related to efficiency, speed, or performance in your case.  While higher max heart rates are found in elite athletes, it is your aerobic threshold that is more a predictor of performance.
What does the test prove? It proves absolutely nothing if you don’t follow the guidelines.  The test shows how well you breathe oxygen in, move it through your blood, and use it in your muscles with sugar and fat.  We want to measure how well your body utilizes fat as fuel.  The more efficient you are at burning fat, the easier it is to lose fat, increase endurance and increase speed.
The test seems expensive.  Isn’t there a cheaper way to do this? No.  There is only one way to measure your body’s ability to burn fat.  The equipment is expensive and typically only physical therapy clinics, clubs, and some private studios have made the investment into the equipment.

Body Fat Testing:

Calculate Body Fat by Measuring Skinfolds

By , About.com Guide,  Updated: May 08, 2009
About.com Health’s Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
The skinfold measurement test is one common method of determining a person’s body composition and body fat percentage.

7 Site Skinfold Measurements

3 Site Skinfold Measurements
  • Male & Female
    • Triceps
    • Chest/Pectoral
    • Midaxillary
    • Subscapular
    • Suprailiac
    • Abdominal
    • Thigh
  • Male
    • Chest
    • Abdomen
    • Thigh
  • Women
    • Triceps
    • Suprailium
    • Thigh
Does measuring skinfold thickness determine body fat percentage?