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Just when you thought you had all the various ways of testing your fitness and performance levels, there one more you can try, Metabolic Efficiency Testing.

The most common test is the VO2 Max test that measures the oxygen used.

The bodies 3 energy systems (ATP-CP, used for explosive 30 second bursts at 95%, Lactic Acid energy system used for high intensity bursts of between 45-60 seconds and finally the aerobic system that users energy that is based on lower levels of exertion) utilises different combinations of Carbohydrates, Fats and even proteins to create energy that drives the muscles.

The Metabolic Efficiency Test is a way of determining the actual combinations of fats and carbohydrates at at given intensity level and is conducted in the same way as a VO2 Max test.

A brilliant sunrise this morning at our Melbourne Boot camp, a glowing red background amongst the trees.

For most people, 6.00am is the one part of the day that is often missed. For those fortunate few who can make the journey from lying in their bed to placing their feet on the floor, (the hardest distance to travel in the morning), traveling to the park is quite easy.

While the mercury may be dipping below 10º, it doesn’t take long to warm up.

Is the Biggest loser sending positive messages about weight loss? Stories are circulating about the weekly weight loss being based on the weight measurements being taken closer to every 10-12 days rather than the televised 7 day period. Not to mention the alleged dehydration techniques being adopted to reduce their weight leading up to the weigh in, is this sending a positive message about weight loss?

This tends to lend it self to the other end of the fashion world that promotes the walking skeleton look as the most desirable image women should strive to achieve. Rather the biggest loser promotes the audience and contestants to become obsessive about weight loss, whereby the end result is more about winning $$$ than being healthier. I would be very surprised if contestants who don’t win the $$$ saying they don’t care about the $$$, it’s all about being a healthier person.

Put simple weight gain happens over a long period of time so shows like the biggest loser promote the instant gratification, instant results, must have it now attitude. Weight loss starts in the mind and all the emotional triggers, belief systems and drivers must be addressed before attempting the first walk or modifying their diet.

Only then can you begin to start changing your diet and adopting an exercise program over a 12 month period, not 12 weeks as losing kilograms of weight per week can place your health at risk.

Unfortunately reality TV is more about the entertainment value and keeping the shareholders happy, documenting some ones weight loss without the tears and vomiting over a year may lead to less eye balls on the TV screen.

You have to love technology, well at our Melbourne Boot camp today we had a max heart rate of 201 from Rebecca.

Generally the maximum heart rate is calculate by subtracting your age from 220 however this was based on data collected decades ago and placing a line through the middle of a plotted graph with the heart rate on the vertical axis and the age on the bottom axis. So as you can imaging, there were people that had recorded heart rates below and above this arbitrary line.

So based on Rebecca’s age, mmm I better not say exactly but it’s somewhere between 20 and 40, this would mean the calculation is inaccurate.

So if Rebecca reached 201, I’d say that this wasn’t her max, maybe 90-95% of HR max, so it’s more around 210.
With our Boot camp sessions, we use interval based training which involves short sustained bursts of intensity cardiovascular based exercise followed by a quick break.

A great way of calculating heart rate max is the beep test as this can push you reasonably close to exhaustion or to put it another way, when there is nothing left in the tank.

Best of all Rebecca burnt 554 calories as well

Today at Boot camp we had some great results when I gave my Garmin cycling computer to Chris this morning. Although I didn’t record the total session, I managed to document 45 minutes in total, 5 minutes of the warm up and 40 minutes of the actual workout.

Given that we predominately trained in an area roughly 30m x 30m, Chris managed to clock up a maximum speed of 18.2km/h, average speed of 11.3km/h and the total distance covered 6.4kms and an energy burn of over 600 calories over the 45 minutes of recording.

Not a bad effort considering that the from point to point, Chris only had 10-13 meters to get to terminal speed before stopping and accelerating to terminal speed again before stopping. So for an average of 11.3km/h, a good part of this would have been at over 15km/h.

Ultimately this style of training is interval based with short burst of high intensity which is great for fat burning and improving your fitness level.