Metabolic Testing

Your resting metabolic rate is the largest part of what you burn each day. What a measurement tells you that an equation cannot.

Basal and resting metabolic rate are measured under different conditions and the equations are labelled inconsistently. Here is what each one means.

Three acronyms describing three different quantities, each built on the one below it, each step adding a new source of error.

Predictive equations are built on population averages and most carry systematic bias, not just imprecision. Here is what that costs a fat loss phase.

The claim that dieting wrecks your metabolism is half true. The half that is true is more useful than the myth.

Low energy availability is more common than it looks and the signs are easy to dismiss. What a measured resting rate adds.

The test is easy. Getting a result that means something depends almost entirely on what you did in the hours before you arrived.