The calories you burn doing nothing at all.
You sit still for about ten minutes while a hood or mask measures the oxygen you consume and the carbon dioxide you produce. From that we can calculate your resting metabolic rate directly — which is typically where the calorie targets in your app turn out to be a few hundred off.
- 10 min of quiet breathing
- Measured, not predicted
- Calorie targets to work from
What comes out of it
Measured resting metabolic rate
Your actual calories per day at rest, which for most people accounts for somewhere around two-thirds of total daily burn. Everything downstream — deficits, surpluses, maintenance — depends on getting this number right.
How far off the estimate was
We show your measured value next to what the standard prediction equations would have given you. Individual variation is wide, and knowing which side you fall on changes what a "1,800-calorie day" means for you.
Respiratory exchange ratio
The balance of fat and carbohydrate you're burning at rest, which reflects your recent eating as much as your metabolism. Useful context, easy to over-read.
A number to re-measure
Resting rate drifts with weight, muscle, and a long deficit. Retesting after a diet phase tells you whether to hold the line or eat back up before continuing.
The easiest test to sit through, the strictest to prepare for.
The test itself asks nothing of you. You sit in a reclined chair, breathe normally, and stay awake. That's it.
The preparation is where it can go wrong. Food, caffeine, nicotine, and exercise all raise your metabolic rate for hours, and any of them will inflate the reading enough to make it useless. We ask for a five-hour fast, no caffeine from waking, and no exercise beforehand — including a brisk walk from a far parking spot. Water is fine and helps.
If any of that didn't happen, tell us when you arrive. We would much rather move your appointment than hand you a number you'll build a diet on.
Morning slots are easiest. Book one here, and read the full prep list the night before.
When this is the test that helps
The scale has stalled
Before you cut further, find out whether your maintenance number is where you think it is.
Coming off a long diet
Measured rate tells you whether to reverse-diet first or keep pushing.
On a GLP-1
Intake often drops sharply. Knowing your floor helps you hit protein without under-eating everything else.
Gaining on purpose
A real surplus starts from a real baseline. Pair it with a DEXA to check where the weight is going.
Pair with a DEXA scan
Lean mass is the biggest driver of resting metabolic rate, so the two readings explain each other. This is the pairing we'd suggest to almost anyone starting a fat-loss phase.
Book both — $198Or the full panel
Add VO₂ max for the working end of metabolism. Ninety minutes, one debrief, all three readings in context.
Book the full panel — $297