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A Real Gem
What's Your Resting
Metabolic Rate?
Metabolic Rate?
By Laura Paul
Not knowing the precise number of calories she burns at rest, a woman could easily overfeed or underfeed her body, which could be particularly dangerous for a pregnant woman. "The problem with that one-size-fits-all approach is that everyone is different," Barnes says. "We inherently know that. You notice you don't look like them; your body type is not the same. Your genetics are different."
Michelle Schott, the director of corporate development for Bally Total Fitness in Chicago, Ill., says that some clients are surprised to find they need to eat more to lose body fat. Schott says for most people, the RMR accounts for 60 to 75 percent of the total number of calories their bodies burn in a 24-hour period. The other 25 percent is burned through exercise, digestion and lifestyle activities.
BodyGem is now being used as part of a national Bally weight management program. "We started to test BodyGem in a handful of clubs and made sure it was a good fit and worked for our clients," Schott says. "We launched it nationwide October of last year."
When individuals do not match their caloric intake to their RMR, over time, they could be hurting their weight management goals. Starving to lose weight usually results in a decrease in lean muscle mass, which translates into a slower metabolism. "Their metabolism starts to slow down because their bodies don't know when they are going to be fed again," Schott says. "When they go back to where they were eating before, their metabolism is even slower and they go to a higher weight." Schott advocates 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss a week or one-half to three-fourths lean muscle gain a week.
