What You Can Learn from Metabolic Testing

You’re probably curious about the ins and outs of how your body functions, but it’s difficult to tell just exactly how smoothly everything is running until you undergo certain types of medical testing. 

Metabolic testing offers a comprehensive overview of the factors pertaining to your body’s energy output. Plus, with the knowledge that metabolic testing offers, you’ll gain a better idea of the exact changes you’ll need to make to your habits and diet. 

Board-certified endocrinologist Dr. Anastasios Manessis and dietician Brandon Caraballosa of neXendo Wellness in Long Island City and Murray Hill, New York, invite you to visit the closest office for a wellness plan consultation complete with detailed metabolic testing. 

You’ll learn essential information about how your body processes calories and converts them into energy through several key tests, with expert interpretation of the results as soon as they’re available. You can expect to gain insight into your:

1. Resting metabolic rate

Your resting metabolic rate is a calculation of the number of calories your body burns while it’s at rest. When you’re not engaging in activity, your body’s ongoing processes continue to rely on burning calories as energy. That is why you continuously burn calories throughout the day, even when you’re not moving around.

There are many factors influencing your resting metabolic rate, all of which we consider while evaluating you at neXendo Wellness. Your resting metabolic rate might be slower or faster than the average person’s due to your:

• Genetics
• Muscle-to-fat ratio
• Hormones
• Size

Our experts measure your resting metabolic rate with a calorimetry test, which involves breathing into a tube for around 10 minutes in the office before receiving the results shortly afterward. 

2. Maximum volume of oxygen (VO2 Max)

Your maximum volume of oxygen is a calculation that helps our experts estimate how many calories you burn while engaging in intense exercise. It shows the greatest amount of oxygen you can take in and absorb. A high VO2 Max indicates high athleticism, but you can also use the numbers to track your progress in a wellness program to improve or maintain your exercise program. 

You exercise for the duration of the test, either on a treadmill or stationary bike. Throughout the assessment, we record measurements of the oxygen you breathe in versus the carbon dioxide you exhale as the intensity of your exercise gradually increases. 

3. Lactate threshold

Lactate is a substance in your blood that plays a crucial role in your metabolism. Despite its importance for the process, experts aren’t entirely sure what it does in your metabolism. They do know, however, that your muscles produce a lot of it as a byproduct of using glucose (blood sugar) as energy when you exercise. 

After an intense workout, your lactate levels are far higher than they are when you’re at rest. That’s why you exercise during this portion of metabolic testing at neXendo Wellness. As you walk on a treadmill or use a stationary bike, we collect several samples of your blood. They measure lactate in the blood samples to find out when the lactate starts to build up faster than it’s removed from your blood. That is your lactate threshold. 

With that information, our experts can help you develop a workout routine that’s appropriate for your level of fitness. 

Each of these parameters gives us the information we need to offer you a personalized program that helps you reach your fitness and weight management goals. Schedule your metabolic testing appointment today, either with a phone call or online.