When I Wouldn't Recommend Metabolic Testing
I had a question yesterday asking why I should I get tested when I can just use an app online?
Absolutely, start with using the app.
My advice is always start by recording what you eat if you're struggling with weight loss. This is why I offer tracking workbook as when it comes to weight loss, we know that tracking is one of the best tools to help see change.
How to calculate your kcals?
It doesn't really matter which method you use to get your starting figures.
You can use apps or formulas like the Harris Benedict, Mifflin St Jeor, you can multiply your weight by 13 or you just record exactly what you eat for 2 weeks and use the average daily kcals as your starting point.
This works for some people, however there are still a lot of people who struggle to see results for a few reasons:
The kcals/macros are wrong - it's pretty much guaranteed that your calculation is wrong as they calculations are only estimates and do not account for individual differences or your actual RMR.
Calculating energy expenditure is VERY difficult. Unfortunately, even fitness wearables are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to measuring energy expenditure during exercise. This is why it's an educated guess at best.
Tracking for some people is difficult
Having a starting set of numbers is great, but you also need to know how to track.
Tracking your food can seem overwhelming and a bit annoying, but the goal here is to simply learn about food values, understand how to fuel body correctly and ultimately get to a point where you can be totally intuitive with your eating.
The goal of tracking is to get you to a point where you don't have to track!
This is the reason why I then do the macro challenge as this just walks you through the steps of what to track first, how to use myfitnesspal and how to adjust your macros based on your results.
But then you still might not get results!!
This will usually be because of three reasons:
You're burning less than you think at rest
You're burning less than you think when you're exercising
You're not being as consistent as you think with your eating
This is when I would recommend metabolic testing. If you've tried counting or if you've hit a weight loss plateau, the testing can help understand what's going on under the hood.
The great thing about testing, is that I'm not calculating your numbers, the metabolic cart does it for me so I can't bullshit you, your data is in front of you. We know exactly how many kcals you're burning at rest so we know how much to eat to lose weight.
If you wanted to go all in, we can see what your kcal is burn is during exercise. Are you actually burning as many kcals during exercise as your FitBit is telling you? I see this all the time, that you're burning far less kcals than you think during exercise.
To Sum Up
Yes, you can use any app to estimate your kcals and macronutrients but these are estimations.
If you come in for metabolic testing, I let the metabolic cart calculate them for you.
How can I help?
If you just want to know how to track and calculate your kcals get the Macro Tracking Guide Here: https://www.boxnutrition.co.uk/macro-guide
Or, if you to skip the guesswork, get me to help you implement the right macros, adjust things for you as well as help with your exercise then sign up to Ignite, the ultimate fat loss programme >> https://www.boxnutrition.co.uk/ignite
