Has anyone had their metabolic rate tested?

cupcakecarnivore
cupcakecarnivore Posts: 267
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I was looking into getting this done....basically its a breathing test while wearing a mask, 15 to 20 minutes in length, which determines your resting metabolic rate. It measures the amount of oxygen that your body uses up to determine the exact amount of calories you are burning at rest.

If anyone has had this done, how far off was your resting metabolic rate from the online calculators? Im really debating getting this done but sort of wanted to hear from other people who have actually done it before I spend 130 dollars!

Or should I just get the body bug? Doesn't that measure how many calories you burn in a day anyways, and for about the same price lol?

Replies

  • kateopotato
    kateopotato Posts: 215 Member
    how funny. I have an appointment on friday to get mine done. I will let you know what I find out. It's $75 with my insurance... or maybe it was $50... I forget. Either way I decided it was worth it to find out for sure.
  • anna_lisa
    anna_lisa Posts: 486 Member
    uhm there is an equation you can do by measuring your heart rate in the morning before you get out of bed. Basically you count your Resting heart rate. and then you plug it into an equation that will tell you. I can't remeber the equation offhand but if your interested send me a message and I will find it. It is in a book for a class I took last semester that is around here somewhere
  • thatgeekinit
    thatgeekinit Posts: 36 Member
    I had it done around 1999 because I had some PT from a guy who mostly did physical therapy so he had all the high-tech equipment. I think we did a resting period and then used it for a low-moderate speed treadmill jog for a few minutes. I don't remember the result but 12 years later, I doubt its still accurate.

    $130 is not much in the grand scheme of things. People spend a lot more than that on supplements without any evidence they work.

    I'd be curious to find out my true output for resting and some of my more common cardio.
  • Pangui
    Pangui Posts: 373 Member
    I think your metabolic rate can change periodically during the day, depending upon what you are eating. When I was eating fatty foods, I was burning calories at a slower rate that when I was consuming healthier food. Same calories, different burn rate. What are the chances that the rate you measure in the doctor's office is your "average" rate? I would ask the doctor that question.
  • cupcakecarnivore
    cupcakecarnivore Posts: 267
    bump;)
  • bella8282
    bella8282 Posts: 188 Member
    Had mine done 2 years ago. Mine is way off. Mine is much higher than the calculators say.
  • Nana_Anne
    Nana_Anne Posts: 179 Member
    I have had mine done. BUT I can not plug in the medications or disabilities here so I expect their equation to be off.
  • kateopotato
    kateopotato Posts: 215 Member
    ok, so I got mine done today. It wasn't anything too ground breaking for me. Then again, I have been doing this whole "get serious about weight loss" thing for over a year now and have been logging my food/work outs/etc with MFP for almost that long. It confirmed what I had already kind of figured out.

    MFP says my maintenance calories are 2190. I found that if I have my goal set to lose .5 lbs per week I actually maintain. That number that MFP gives me is 1940. According to my metabolic testing my RMR (resting metabolic rate) is 1930. The Dr's office told me that if I consume 1544 calories per day I should lose about a pound per week. MFP tells me I need 1690 per day to lose a lb per week, but I have found that eating around 1450-1600 gives me a loss of between 1 and 1.5/week on average.


    So overall it's good for me to know. Good to know that what I have figured out over the last year is true and they dont really want me going under 1544, so I think I will change my calorie goal to that. Im not in this for a quick fix (obviously) so I think a pound a week for the next few months or so will be just fine.

    (also helpful is when I calculate it out it comes out to about 1.34 calories per minute that I am burning by doing nothing which is about what I was subtracting from my HRM read out to get an accurate calorie burn number when working out.)

    No wonder this site has been working so well for me! Also, based on that information I am told that my metabolism is in the fast end of the normal range, so I can see how if someone's was actually in the slower end of normal or slow than the calorie estimates on here could be way off.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories