Service Spotlight - Resting Metabolic Rate Analysis
- Neil Livemore
- Jun 6, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: May 27
Resting Metabolic Rate Analysis: The Foundation for Precision Nutrition & Performance
For optimising wellbeing, effective weight management, and achieving peak athletic performance, understanding your unique metabolic rate plays an important role.
Generalised online calculators often differ from individual metabolic rates, leaving many facing challenges or confusion with weight-management or fuelling optimally. At Neil Livemore Consulting, our expert sports and performance nutrition consultants provide solutions through Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) analysis. This foundational tool offers critical insights, directly measuring your metabolism through gas analysis, thereby informing tailored nutrition and performance nutrition strategies.
"Individual metabolic rate can often differ
from the general estimations of online calculators"
Your metabolism – the intricate biochemical processes sustaining life – is inherently dynamic and highly individual. Its rate, representing energy expended at rest, is not a fixed value and often deviates significantly from generalised online calculator estimations. This variability stems from a multitude of factors influencing metabolic activity across the lifespan.
Individual metabolic rate changes across different phases of life, and while often relatively stable throughout mid-life, it remains fundamentally dynamic. This rate is influenced by a complex interplay of factors, including developmental stages, hormonal balance, energy intake, shifts in body composition and lean muscle tissue proportion, genetic predispositions, sleep patterns, and environmental conditions.
Importantly, chronic energy deficit, often stemming from restrictive weight-management diets or insufficient fuelling in highly active individuals, can profoundly impact metabolism. This condition, known as Low Energy Availability (LEA), arises when energy intake consistently fails to meet the demands of physiological function and activity. Such chronic imbalance, whether due to dietary restriction for weight management or inadequate fuelling for performance, can induce adverse metabolic adaptations. These can manifest as reduced muscle and bone mineral density, mood and sleep disturbances, decreased immunity and recovery, and in some cases, growth and development issues, alongside irregular menstrual function.
"The body's ability to adapt and conserve energy can directly counteract efforts to reduce body fat."
In the context of body mass and body fat management, this adaptive capacity can present a significant challenge. The body initiates a range of physiological responses to chronic energy deficit. These include alterations in body composition, such as losses of lean tissue; reductions in non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT); a diminished thermic effect of food (TEF); and a suppressed basal metabolic rate (BMR). Collectively, these physiological shifts decrease overall metabolic rate, thereby impeding the achievement of long-term, sustainable results and turning fat loss into an uphill battle.
The modern-day
While these adaptive responses were evolutionarily beneficial for survival during periods of food shortage (such as famine), modern lifestyles, driven by technological advances, have altered our relationship with food. The human body, having previously adapted to such conditions, will not differentiate between a calorie deficit from genuine scarcity and a deliberate weight-loss strategy. Consequently, any perceived reduction in calories from energy intake will elicit an adaptive response. This evolutionary mismatch carries significant implications for our health and wellbeing in the modern day.
This highlights the important need for a thorough, individualised approach. At Neil Livemore Consulting, we advocate for a triangulated assessment from different angles to provide a more complete picture:
Investigating stubborn weight loss or undefuelling
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) Assessment: Gain clarity on your individual metabolic rate. We utilise gas analysis for accurate RMR measurement, moving beyond the assumptions of generalised online calculators.
Key Benefits of Metabolic Rate Testing
Screen for a slowed (or fast) metabolism.
Flag the reason for possible failed attempts to lose weight in the past.
Provide the precise number of calories you need to manipulate body composition or fuel performance.
Reveal changes in metabolism during a calorie restriction or training phase.
Comprehensive Dietary Analysis: Does your current dietary intake align with your goals? Most individuals significantly underestimate or overestimate their day-to-day nutrition, impacting progress.
Does nutritional intake match metabolic rate and daily demands? Analysis of daily demands (different activity levels = different needs).
A fourth option may be a recommended which is a blood test.
These three assessments provide an invaluable window into our metabolism and needs to remove assumptions and guesswork, they show the main factor/s for not reaching goals and how to achieve them. For people chronically under fuelled a restorative period of maintenance to achieve a healthier position.
"Remember, “assess, don’t guess”
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Optimise your performance nutrition, achieve your weight-management goals, or gain precise insights for your resting metabolic rate. Our London based Neil Livemore Consulting clinic offers tailored assessments to help you succeed.
Contact us today to discuss your personalised plan and unlock your full potential.
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As a "corporate athlete" this test was a bit of an eye opener! I assumed I had a slow metabolism, and it was slightly slow but the result removed the guess work as you say and helped me zone in on the area I should actually focus on!