A Burning Desire

New help for those who want to fire off those calories

Meg Harry of Bellevue undergoes testing at the Sports Reaction Center to determine how her metabolism reacts to exercise. Once the profile is established, it will be the basis of her workout regimen.

"I MUST HAVE a slow metabolism."

You hear it all the time from people struggling to lose or maintain weight. It's not that simple, but your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is an important part of the overall picture.

The RMR is the number of calories your body consumes while at rest. It represents, on average, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the calories you typically use in a day. So if your RMR is 1,800, and you lie in bed all day, you'll gain weight if you take in more than 1,800 calories. The trick is to assess how many calories you burn through activity. The RMR, sometimes referred to as basal metabolic rate, is determined to a large extent by your age, genetics and gender, but you can influence it through better fitness and body composition. Lean muscle mass, for instance, helps burn calories faster.

Several online sites can give you a general estimate of your RMR. Here's one: http://www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com/cooltools/What_is_Your_Resting_Metabolic_Rate.htm

			To get with a program The Bellevue Club 11200 S.E. Sixth St., Bellevue 425-455-1616 Sports Reaction Center 13434 N.E. 16th St., Suite 210, Bellevue 425-643-9778 Washington Athletic Club 1325 Sixth Ave., Seattle 206-464-3068

Fitness experts disagree on the importance of knowing your RMR, but it is used more than ever in determining nutritional and exercise programs, helping athletes train and aiding weight loss.

The Washington Athletic Club, the Bellevue Club and Sports Reaction Center all use a comprehensive system that measures the RMR and incorporates it into specific fat-burning training. All three employ equipment from New Leaf, a health-and-fitness company.

I took the test at the Bellevue-based Sports Reaction Center, which calls its application of the technology Smart Metabolism. I had to fast and refrain from drinking coffee before the morning RMR test, which involved lying down in a darkened room and breathing at an even pace through a neoprene mask that covered my nose and mouth and was tethered to a laptop.

The machine sampled my airflow during inhalation and exhalation, then calculated the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. From that, the software determined my daily caloric need based on the measured resting burn rate.

I burn 1,974 calories doing nothing. Sixty-four percent of those calories comes from fat, which is lower than optimal but not of much concern because only 10 percent of my weight consists of fat. Physical therapist Neil Chasan, who co-owns the Sports Reaction Center, says many of the deconditioned patients he sees burn fat at an alarmingly low rate.

"Their fat-metabolism-burning machine is broken," he says. "We are trying to fix that machine."

Chasan's and the two other clubs that use the New Leaf system take additional baseline readings — from cholesterol to blood pressure. These numbers give a more complete picture of the client's health, and are used to measure changes and perhaps reassess exercise programs.

After the RMR test, I spent about 15 minutes jogging uphill on a treadmill, performing a VO2 test (which gauges use of oxygen under exertion) with the computer again recording my oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange. After finishing, I was handed a series of data revealing my calorie-burning picture.

From all this data, clients in these programs are prescribed workout programs tailored to their specific metabolism. Knowing how you burn calories also helps counselors determine nutrition programs.

According to my test, I burn the highest percent of fat — 62 percent — at a heart rate of 135. When I get to my "aerobic threshold" of 164 beats per minute, only 9 percent of the calories I burn consist of fat. The picture is often far different for overweight people, Chasan says. Their aerobic threshold is much closer to their peak fat-burning heart rate, and their peak heart rate has them burning much less fat.

"To lose weight, people need to exercise at or near their peak fat-burning heart rate to improve their fat metabolism mechanics," Chasan says. "And they need to exercise above their aerobic threshold to build a more efficient machine — but only after they have established improved fat metabolism enzyme production."

All three local programs report cases of dramatic success, and Chasan hopes to franchise his program nationally. But with any fitness program, the execution depends on the client's commitment. Programs are administered and priced differently, and while you can do the testing alone, all programs encourage intensive and long-term commitment. Call each provider to see what fits best for you.

Richard Seven is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. He can be reached at rseven@seattletimes.com. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.