I am getting my RMR tested, help me get prepared

redheadmommy

I am going to have a DEXA scan tomorrow for body fat measure and an RMR test on Friday with a registered dietitian.
I got some instructions from their office such as no exercise for 24 hrs prior the RMR test and no food only water 12 hrs prior the test.
The dexa will be done by a different company tomorrow and they probably won't give me my results, but send it to the RD , who is going to discuss it with me on Friday.

I do not have budget to go an visit this lady again, so I want to get the most out of this appointment. Tell me what kind of questions should I ask ? I want to get the most out of this appointment.

heybales

Great pre-instructions, that's always a good sign.

Same thought on DEXA, don't do anything that will cause false water gain, because that's LBM, but not really. But DEXA should point out difference mostly.

Confirm you don't sleep during the RMR test, breath normal. Practice now with face mask on trying to relax and breath normal.

Questions? While you are listening, try to notice if recommendations regarding calorie levels are being given before even knowing what you do for activity and exercise.
Most the RMR machines will spit out some standard stuff, confirm your figures are RMR, which can be backtracked to a matching BMR.
Some translate the measured RMR to BMR for you, but still use wrong term.
Just confirm what the results are.

The interesting one will be what the Katch BMR or Cunningham RMR could be based on LBM from the DEXA, and then what the RMR is from the test.

Should be within 5% if metabolism running full steam. If RMR is well below the other, not great.

Since studies have shown eating at maintenance can cause recovery, just ask how they would increase that RMR if lower than potential and listen. That will tell you if they are keeping up with current research.

No need to call them out on stuff that sounds foolish, like eat 500 below your tested RMR, just realize all they say should not be taken as blanket statement.

Just as we've all had those good and bad car mechanics, people in a job they are doing have varying levels of skills.

redheadmommy

Thank you for the detailed answer. I am definitely going to watch when and how she makes judgement regarding the numbers. I am really curious what the test is going to reveal. I have never eaten extreme low calories( not below 1600) , but i am here logging for 2.5 years and I am disappointed in the lack of success. Based on MFP estimates I should be losing 1-1.5 lb a week, and I not losing that much even in a month. Everybody keep saying to be patient, it is a slow process etc, but this is getting ridiculus. During my pregnancy i keep gaining and gaining, while i only ate maintanance for the first 5-6 months . I ended up gaining 65 lb, and based on MPF i only should have gained like 15-20 lb. Every day when I hit complete MFP tells me I am going to weight like 6-8 lb less in 5 weeks, and 5 weeks later , I am still at the exact same weight
Last year I wore a bodymedia , and I almost never went under 10,000 steps a day, and it kept saying I used like 2500-3200 calories a day. I ate 2100 calorie a day at the most. Based on that I should have lost like 50+lb in the past year, and I lost 15-20 lb, and that was mainly the first half of the year and I have been staying on the same weight for like 5-6 month with some 2-3 lb fluctuation.

heybales

Do you think your logging is really accurate, like weighing almost everything, measuring liquids, not eating out much, confirm pre-packaged stuff?

Actually, at this point, you can take real results and figure out what your TDEE much be, sloppy logging or not.

Then you find some calories to cut out daily while workout stays the same, sloppy logging or not.

So that way, you do create a deficit to whatever the true eating number is, even if you are basing it on sloppy logging.

Can you find a 4 week period of time, where you did the same workout you are going to continue to do, where you may have dropped a tad bit of weight. And no starting a new routine prior to either weigh-in, and hopefully valid weigh in for both start and end to the period of time.

And then for that same period of time, note how much you ate daily, not net, but gross. If any empty meals, estimate it, empty days, estimate it. Rough is better than none. If too many rough tough, bad block of time to get stats.

And then for that period, what was your BMR based on age, weight, height.

redheadmommy

It is hard to find periods with consistent activity / eating level in my logging, except the first part. Initially when i joined MFP i set it to lose 1 lb a week, and i lost a good 35 lb in about 9 months , which is kind of right on. . (i also lost 15-20 on my own prior to join. ) Then I got pregnant as a result of some serious hormone therapy, and I my weight is out of control ever since, despite the tracking. I do not think that all the sudden pregnancy/ hormone therapy made me inaccurate logger.

My pregnany had quite a few ups and downs both in eating and exercizing. I had serios morning sickness and food aversion at the beginning: like not eating meat for weeks. Or eating only cheese and fruits for weeks because everything else come back. IThen my balance got out of wack and i fall of my bike, and i had to stop exercizing . Then I had some compilations and i was put on bedrest. Then I got better and I was back doing stuff again and so on. There was nothing consistent in this pregnancy.

After the birth I got the bodymedia, but it can not deal with the bastfeeding calories, and incorporate nursing calories is biggest guesstimate game ever. There are some formulas, but unless you pump and know exactly how much milk you produced, it can be very off. Like it can be between 100 cal to all the way to 1000 calories. Babies appetite varies a lot, plus it varies how effective your body to producing milk. As infants go through tremendous amount of changes in their first year, their milk intake changes a lot every single month .First it goes up steadily as they grow. It starts as little as a few floz per day , and they may eat like 30-40 floz per day by the time they 6 months old. Then it goes down steadily as they start to eat solids after 6 months. In any case, it is extremely hard to know how much to eat , and your calorie expenditure is constantly changing. I had a couple of months when I was losing weight , then I started to gain with the same calorie intake.
9'months pregnancy plus 14 months of brestfeeding is just a constantly changing body without any consistency, so there is no way to calculate TDEE from it.

Anyway, I weaned my baby almost a month ago , and I am really eager to get the calorie levels right now. We are done having kids, so things should start to be consistent from now on.

heybales

Totally understood, that is about impossible to base on results then, too many variables.

So just go in to it from the high side, see results for a month (because your BMR literally will change through the month decent amount), and adjust from there.

So it may be a first minor month of loss, but it helps nail the TDEE, then reasonable deficit can be taken, and adjust monthly from there.