Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Metabolic testing

Last week I went to a health clinic for some metabolic testing and nutrition advice. 
It was very interesting and something I hope to follow up.
Unfortunately I found myself on Thursday night mindlessly binging on cereal and cereal bars (sugar central!) So I don't think I gave myself a chance at a fair reading. Nevertheless it really helped me understand my body more. 
I also want to lose an extra seven pounds so this can only help with that. Worth a try.
So I rocked up and got started. Using a special machine that Clinical Edge Health Care have the rights to, I breathed into the apparatus to get my reading.
Breathing into this mouth piece sent readings into a machine to measure my fat.
It measured my carbon dioxide output and from that worked out what type of fuel my body burns the most.

Now, I could have guessed that sugar would be high, my low blood sugar and constant sweet tooth made that blindingly obvious but what I didn't expect was the shocking numbers.
My body burns 88% sugar (as I said before this was probably a little inaccurate due to my binge, but I doubt it is far off) and only 12% of fat. Ideally it should burn between 48-83% fat and 17-52% sugar. 
I was given lots of advice and I learnt quite a bit too. At this clinic they recommend a higher fat and protein diet and lower carbohydrates. They completely made me re-evaluate the type of food I eat and at what times of the day. So starting on Monday (when I have finished my current detox (will blog about that at the end of the week)) I will be changing my lifestyle and seeing if it works. Instead of carby oats for breakfast I will eat more protein like eggs and yoghurt. I already eat a huge amount of fruit and vegetables but I will be trying to cut back on sugary fruits and eating more berries and plowing even more veg onto my plate.
I am not sure how I will react to this because I love cereals and oats for breakfast but I will keep updating the blog on my progress.


No comments:

Post a Comment