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RMR — resting metabolic rate

Stop guessing at calories.

A calculator estimates how many calories you burn. This measures it. Twenty minutes sitting still in a chair, breathing into a mask, and you leave with your actual number instead of a formula’s guess about someone your height.
Book an RMR test

Free consultation

Start with a free recovery consult.

Tell us where it hurts and we’ll send a personalized cold + infrared protocol plan within one business day.

~20 min
Seated, no exertion
 
~70%
Of your daily burn
5 hr
Fast beforehand
Same visit
Results reviewed
You sit still and breathe normally. That’s the whole test.

Why measure it

Every calorie target you've ever been given was an estimate.

Apps, wearables, and online calculators all run the same kind of population equation: your height, weight, age, and sex, fitted to an average. For a lot of people that average is nowhere near right — published comparisons put predictive equations off by a wide margin for a meaningful share of individuals.

If your true resting burn is a few hundred calories below the estimate you’ve been eating to, you have been in a surplus while believing you were in a deficit. That is the entire explanation for a great many stalled plans, and no amount of discipline fixes a wrong number.

Indirect calorimetry measures it directly — oxygen in, carbon dioxide out — rather than predicting it. You breathe into a mask while sitting still, and the analyser reads what your metabolism is actually doing.

What you get

Four numbers, and what each one is for.

Here they are on a sample report, and what each one is for.

A sample report. Identifying details removed.

What your body burns keeping you alive — breathing, circulating blood, maintaining tissue — before you move at all. It’s the largest single component of your daily expenditure, typically around 70%, which is why getting it wrong throws everything else off.

The ratio of carbon dioxide produced to oxygen consumed, which tells us whether you’re running mainly on fat or mainly on carbohydrate at rest. Useful context when you’re deciding how to structure meals — though it shifts with what you ate yesterday, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a fixed trait.
Captured during the test while you’re genuinely at rest, which is more reliable than a reading taken whenever your watch decides to check. A simple, well-established marker worth tracking over time.
Your measured RMR plus what you burn moving — training, walking, fidgeting, everything. This is the number you actually eat against. Note that the activity portion is still estimated from how you describe your week; the resting portion, the bigger part, is the part we measure. Your report shows the split, and gives you both a maintenance and a weight-loss target in calories per day.

Your test

Twenty minutes, sitting down. The hard part is the prep.

The night before

Fast at least five hours

Most people book a morning slot and simply don’t eat beforehand. Water is fine. No caffeine, nicotine, or stimulants — they raise your metabolic rate and would give you a flattering number that’s no use to you.
Beforehand

No training that morning

Avoid exercise before the test. Arrive without rushing if you can — sitting quietly for a few minutes first makes the reading cleaner.

The test

Sit still and breathe normally

You’re seated comfortably with a mask over your nose and mouth, breathing as you normally would while the analyser measures oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced. No exertion, nothing uncomfortable. Around twenty minutes.
After

Read the results with a consultant

We go through your numbers the same visit — what your RMR is, what it means for your daily target, and what to do differently. You leave with the report.
Worth doing if

You're following a number and it isn't working.

  • Eating in what should be a deficit and not losing
  • Trying to gain lean mass without gaining fat
  • On a GLP-1 medication and needing an accurate intake target
  • Post-diet, wondering whether your metabolism has adapted
  • Perimenopausal or menopausal and finding old numbers no longer fit
  • An athlete needing to fuel properly rather than by feel

Pairs naturally with a DEXA scan — RMR tells you the calories, DEXA tells you whether the weight you lose is fat or muscle.

Before you book

What it can't do.

An RMR test measures energy expenditure. It is not a diagnostic test, and a low or high result is not a diagnosis of a thyroid or metabolic disorder — if something looks unusual we’ll say so and suggest you take it to your physician, which is where that conversation belongs.

  • Tell us about any thyroid condition or medication that affects metabolism
  • Pregnancy changes resting expenditure substantially — tell us and we'll interpret accordingly
  • Acute illness, fever, or infection will skew the reading; reschedule
  • Claustrophobia or difficulty tolerating a mask — tell us in advance
  • Any respiratory condition affecting your breathing at rest

Results reflect the day you were tested. Sleep, stress, recent dieting, and illness all move the number — which is why a retest after a few months is often more informative than the first one alone.

A note on claims

A measured number, not a magic one.

Knowing your RMR does not by itself change your body composition, boost your metabolism, or unlock anything. It replaces a guess with a measurement — which matters a great deal if you’ve been acting on a wrong guess, and rather less if your estimate happened to be close.

It’s also a snapshot of one morning. What makes it genuinely useful is retesting: measure now, change something deliberately, measure again in a few months, and see whether your metabolism moved. One number is information. Two is direction.

Pricing

One test, or the pair that actually answers the question.

Recommended

RMR + DEXA scan

$220

$245 separately
You save $25

RMR tells you how many calories to eat. DEXA tells you whether the weight you then lose is fat or muscle. Separately they’re each half an answer; together they’re a plan you can check.

Single RMR test

$125

About 20 minutes seated, plus your results review. Full report to keep.

Retesting after a few months is where this gets genuinely useful. Ask about retest pricing when you book.
Book a consultation

Testing is included at member rates across the Restore, Reshape, and Radiate tiers.

Common questions

Common questions.

Those use a population equation — height, weight, age, sex — fitted to an average person. This measures your actual gas exchange. If you happen to sit near the average, the estimate will be close. If you don’t, it can be off by enough to explain why a plan isn’t working.

BMR is the absolute floor, measured under strict overnight-fasted laboratory conditions. RMR is measured under slightly more practical conditions and comes out a little higher. RMR is the more usable number for planning what you eat.

Yes — at least five hours, and no caffeine or nicotine. Digestion raises your metabolic rate, so testing after eating gives you a number that isn’t your resting rate. Water is fine.

No. You sit in a chair breathing normally through a mask. There’s no exertion and nothing invasive. If masks bother you, tell us beforehand and we’ll talk you through it first.
Every three to six months if you’re actively changing something — dieting, adding muscle, recovering from a long deficit. Annually is reasonable otherwise. The comparison is where the value is.
It can tell you whether your resting rate is above or below what’s typical for your body composition. It can’t tell you why, and it isn’t a thyroid test. If your result looks unusual, take the report to your physician.