Our human anatomy is designed in a way to produce and store energy out of the foods that we eat on a daily basis. Metabolism is the rate at which our body breaks down the food into energy and then stores them. A metabolic test is prescribed by your physician if you experience any abnormal weight gain or hard to lose weight even after following a strict diet. It’s a valuable tool that can help you make better decisions about lifestyle habits and help you burn more calories.
In this article, we explain what metabolism is, how metabolism affects your body weight, ways to boost metabolism, and much more.
- What is metabolism?
- Why is Metabolism Important for Weight Loss?
- What Causes Abnormal Metabolism Levels
- How to Boost the Metabolism Levels?
- How is a Metabolism Test Done?
- Is there an at-Home Metabolism Test?
- Metabolism Test Cost
- Providers Locations
What is Metabolism?
Metabolism is an anatomical value that regulates how your body digests food. Metabolic testing gives you information about approximately how many calories you burn each day. Based on this information, you may decide to alter your physical activity or eating habits and help your metabolism rate move higher to burn more calories.
The following factors can play a major role in defining your metabolism rate and how your body functions –
- Age: This is a highly common factor. If you are in your 20’s you would generally have higher metabolic activity than an elderly adult.
- Gender: Men generally have more metabolism rate, due to their nature of masculinity which needs more energy break down than women.
- Activity level: Acvitivy rate has more toll on the metabolic levels of your anatomy.
- Weight history and current weight: People who are higher than the BMI value, tend to have lower calorie-burning rates.
Unlike general blood test checkups where the results can be assessed even after a couple of days, metabolism testing results will provide accurate information of your current levels only, i.e. on that day you are tested. If your physical activity changes significantly for the past few days and then if you get tested then your metabolism will be boosted than what you had before starting to workout. However, they may not change overnight but gradually starts to change as you change your day-to-day activities.
Why is Metabolism Important for Weight Loss?
The rate at which a machine churns out a given task can be assessed by its processing capacity. The faster it completes the task, the better it is. If you blame a slow metabolism for abrupt weight gain, you’re probably right. Fortunately, metabolic rate can be sped up or slowed down without any medications but just by altering your lifestyle habits.
However, blaming the metabolism rate completely may not be right, because they can be altered with your daily activities. Research says that the body type that you inherited from your parents, that is the gene can also play a role in how fast or slow your body gains weight. There are three different types of metabolic body types that help determine your physical structure –
- Endomorphs. Endomorphs have a comparatively medium-to-large bone structure, lean muscle, and more body fat, giving them a round shape in appearance. Endomorphs have a slow metabolism and may struggle with gaining calories.
- Ectomorphs. Ectomorphs are the ones who “never gain weight whatsoever”, they are narrower in size and have smaller joints. These types of people have the highest metabolic rate of the other two metabolic types.
- Mesomorphs. Mesomorphs have larger skeletons than ectomorphs and less body fat compared to endomorphs. They have the upper hand compared to the other two types as they can lose weight and gain muscle mass easily.
What Causes Abnormal Metabolism Levels
Metabolism can be a factor of how your body type is but they are not the only factor that controls your weight. Several lifestyle activities can slow down and cause abnormal metabolism levels which can ultimately lead to weight gain. Not only humans, but every other living organisms also have a chemical process that helps in keeping them alive is called metabolism.
According to Better Health, the normal levels of metabolism ranges from around 7,100 kJ per day in an average man, while an average woman has a BMR of around 5,900 kJ per day, however, they are not standard ranges as everybody’s anatomy is different and they differ according to the age of the individual.
How to Boost the Metabolism Levels?
If your tests results show less than 7,100 kJ per day if you are a man or less than 5,900 kJ per day if you are a woman then you need to do some lifestyle changes to boost your metabolism levels. Most people think metabolism needs supplements to get it back on track, but that is not the case. Simple lifestyle changes like the following can help your metabolism rate to go parabolic.
- Exercise: First things first, we know that our body burns more calories when we are active than while we’re resting. The more vigorous the activity, the higher your metabolic rate, and caloric burn will be, and if you continue that on a daily basis you can easily scale down your weight as your metabolism will start kicking in. If you’re very physically inactive and have a BMI of more than 30 for your category, then sweating and exercising like even brisk walks can help you.
- Eating a well-balanced diet: Eating a balanced diet including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins is essential to your overall health. Consider including protein at each meal can boost your metabolic rate.
- Eating enough: Eating more calories than you burn off will typically result in adding weight over the long run. However, they can go either way, eating too few calories can also have a negative effect that causes your metabolism to slow down.
- Drinking water: Drinking water, especially cold water, can increase metabolic rate as per the latest study research.
How is a Metabolism Test Done?
As the name suggests, the Metabolism blood test is a simple blood test. During this test, a lab technician or a phlebotomist will cleanse the skin with an antiseptic and place an elastic band around the upper arm so that the vein becomes visible and swells with blood. He/she then injects a needle and draws a sample of blood in a test tube. After the blood is drawn, he covers the injected area with a band-aid to stop bleeding. The typical blood specimen is then sent to the lab for analysis.
It takes less than 10 minutes to perform this test.
Metabolic testing can be a valuable tool in assessing your calorie-burning rate, but the results should only be looked at as part of an overall fitness or wellness program.
Is there an at-Home Metabolism Test?
There are metabolism home test kits available to get tested at home. You can order a metabolism test kit online from one of our testing providers. All you need to do is follow the instructions mentioned on the testing kit, take your samples accordingly and post them back to the mentioned address. Metabolism home test kit requires a simple oral swab collection and an easy finger-prick blood spot collection and the results will be mailed to you within 2 to 5 business days.
It is mostly preferred by the people who do not have time to schedule or book appointments in a lab and visit the lab for testing. If you feel an at-home test kit will be the best fit for you, then we got you covered in the next section.
Metabolism Test Cost
There are many options available for Metabolism testing, but we have identified the best and the affordable testing and home test kit providers and have listed them out for our readers. One of our testing providers who is a CLIA – Certified also offers an at-home test kit at an affordable price across the U.S.
The following table shows the metabolic comprehensive panel home test kit and metabolic panel testing cost at 2 of our partner laboratories (CLIA – Certified) networks located across the U.S.
Name of our Partner Labs | Book Online |
myLAB Box(Home Test Kit)
| Starting from$99 |
HealthLabs
| Starting from$39 |
Difference between Basic Metabolic Panel (BMP) and Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP)
The Basic Metabolic Panel (BMP), as the name suggests it performs 9 different tests while the Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) performs 14 different tests.
The BMP is mainly prescribed towards kidney health testing, glucose testing, and fluid/electrolyte balance testing while the CMP also adds focus on liver health testing.
Our lab partners, HealthLabs and Health Testing Centres provide a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel that comprises 14 different important modalities including:
- Albumin
- Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
- Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP)
- Aspartate aminotransferase (AST)
- Blood urea nitrogen (BUN)
- Calcium
- Carbon dioxide (Bicarbonate)
- Chloride
- Creatinine with estimated GFR
- Glucose
- Potassium
- Sodium
- Total bilirubin
- Total protein
Providers location
Metabolism testing can be done in any of the following states either at the provider’s location or home. To know the metabolism test cost in these locations, check the above table.
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Frequently Asked Questions
Will insurance cover my testing cost?
No. Generally providers do not accept insurance in order to ensure your privacy. However, they will provide you a receipt for insurance reimbursement purposes.
How should I book my appointment for testing?
You can choose the most suitable provider from above and make an appointment by following the instructions mentioned by them.
Can I cancel my lab test order?
Yes, you can cancel your lab test order anytime before your testing. A refund will be initiated after deducting the cancellation fee. However, cancellation is at the discretion of the provider.
Do the providers offer result interpretations?
Yes, few providers may provide doctor consultation who will take you through the results and provide clarification if needed.
How do I receive my report?
In order to ensure your privacy, the test report will be mailed to you by the provider.
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