Hey all,
A friend of mine has one of those nifty, very expensive, breathing rmr test deals. I did mine and it appears it’s 1250. This seems to be roughly 200 below “average” for women. Not that I didn’t know already that I’ve wrecked my metabolism. Is this number useful to me? Or will it be useful later after I’m fat adapted? Right now I am taking in way more than I should for maintaining but I’m not sure that matters at present.
Thanks for reading.
Would love to have a tester to use whenever! It may indeed be useful - you have a number now, for comparison later on. When you get really fat-adapted, for example, it would be interesting to see what’s going on.
My thoughts exactly. I’m not sure it does me a lot of good right now but I’d love to see if it changes over time.
I am not sure how useful it is because, intuitively - it seems to be a device centered around CICO thinking.
Find your RMR calories - add calories for your planned activity level:
Just seems CICO to me.
Nothing about controlling your insulin by skipping breakfast, cutting carbs to reduce insulin response to meals, having much less fat storage occur with those low insulin levels etc. If you did all of these things but, your RMR did not change at all, you’d still have a total victory on your hands.
I think, if you have broken satiety signals and/or have a lowered metabolism, it gives you a benchmark for energy levels. Many don’t need it but if you are trying to “over eat” to raise metabolism or at least avoid undereating after decades of near starvation or just have a CICO-based fear of fat and need some idea of how much more to eat, it can be useful. I am no CICO believer by any means but we are a metabolic engine fueled by energy and sometimes it’s good to have a rough idea of the capacity of that engine. Lots of people come here, eat too little and are surprised when they stall out quickly. Knowing that your RMR is 1250 (with no addition for activity to get your estimated TDEE) and that is already low tells you that you shouldn’t be eating 1100 cals a day like many calculators might tell you. It might help many to get a more realistic view on their daily intake.
That said, if you are healthy and have good satiety signals it probably has little value.
I’d love it just to see if months of Keto was able to raise my BMR
I know I feel more energized and need less sleep.
Naaaaah. Who cares. KCKO
Robert - agreed. I’d like to see the “calories out” part, and mess around with stuff, just for the heck of it.
Example: yesterday I ate a lot of cheese, more than a pound, a few pork rinds, and almost half a pound of little herring “fish steaks” - they come in a can just like sardines. So, a lot of protein indeed. Must be the “thermic effect” of protein, because I was really hot last night, very sweaty head on a wet pillow, and this is in a room at 66°F or 19°C.
This is not the first time that the cheese/pork rinds/little fish deal has done this to me. Not sure if there is some magic in this combination, or (more likely) if it’s just the body using more energy to digest all the protein. Would be fun to have some feedback from resting metabolic rate measurements.
I think this tickles my curious nature and love of data more than anything. I’m not sure which way I fall on CICO yet, most probably because I haven’t had a ton of measurable success on keto as of yet. It’s a leap of faith, I understand. I suppose I need to see some hard data on my own person first. I’ve always been a touch curious how many calories it requires to keep my body from going into starvation also.
My understanding is that the measurement is also a measure of how much fat oxidation based on oxygen consumption and is evident in your breath. The wife and I both had one done 12 months ago to establish a baseline after 6 months in keto. She was off the charts in fat oxidation while I was only at 80%. Although this was a year ago and I don’t wish to waste appointments for another one as the cost is too high for me ($149) I found that over the 12 months since that when I eat to satiety I roughly hit the RMR CICO model described. My calories at the time of test was 2600. I eat anywhere between 2200 & 3000 to feel full.
To bolster Ted Naiman’s point, If it’s higher protein I feel full with less calories.
It’s kinda like looking at keytone levels, somewhat interesting, but maybe not as useful as it might seem for most.?
Great point, Mark - yes, we have to add more oxygen to fats to metabolize them, versus carbohydrates. I do wonder - 6 months in keto, I’d think you would be essentially just burning fat. RMR literature mentions the “respiratory quotient” which usually neglects protein, which takes about as much oxygen as fats when used for energy - I guess most people are not using much protein for energy.
Sorry for the thread resurrection but I read this with great interest. I’m learning a bit about RMR and strategies to raise it. I’m very curious to know whether or not you got retested on your friends machine after what is now 6 months of keto. If so, has keto helped you to normalize your metabolism?
Hey there. Unfortunately I’ve haven’t tested again since this first test to know if anything has changed.