Using an RMR Test For Your Weight Loss Goals
A Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) test is a short assessment that measures your metabolism or, how many kcals you burn at rest. This helps understand how much food you need to eat for your goals.
Although used interchangeably with Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the two are slightly different. Both RMR and BMR are measured in the same way and calculate how much energy (kcals) you require at complete rest to keep your body functioning (your heart, lungs, temperature control etc). However, BMR is measured under very strict conditions where you often have to spend the night in a lab to avoid any sort of activity or food/drink. This ensures you are in a completely rested state. An RMR test is a more useful test, which is done after 4-6hrs of fasting (no food, drink or stimulants) which only takes 10-20mins. This is slightly more realistic in measuring your day-to-day kcal burn.
The metabolism test at Box is a simple test, which involves you sitting down and relaxing for 20mins. You breath into a mouth piece and using a metabolic cart, we measure the oxygen that you’re breathing in and the carbon dioxide that you’re breathing out. This ratio helps us determine how many kcals you burn at rest. This is called indirect calorimetry.
After taking into account your activity levels, we can then accurately provide you with the number of kcals you need for your goal to help with your nutrition plan. If your goal is weight loss then we can help you understand how much you need to eat to lose weight, but most importantly how much you can eat without starving yourself! Who wouldn’t want to eat more food if they didn’t have to.
Combining a metabolism test with a metabolic efficiency (fat max) test, we can also measure how many kcals you burn during activity, as well as your fat burning capability. This is another simple test where you walk/run on a treadmill for 15-40mins (depending on your fitness). You wear a mask and a heart rate monitor which is connected to a metabolic cart that gathers all of the data that we need to better understand your body.
This combination of an RMR metabolism test and a metabolic efficiency test gives you the most accurate plan built around you.
If you are interested in our testing programme specifically designed to help with weight loss and body composition, check out IGNITE, or read more on what is fitness testing.
