Make sure your dietary habits are helping, not hurting, your performance!  With a nutrition analysis, a registered dietitian and sport nutritionist measures your calorie intake using a computerized program and evaluates your eating habits over a three-day period.  Our dietitian then discusses the results of the analysis with you.  This includes making recommendations for health and performance, fueling during a competitive event, and eating for recovery.  

Nutrition Consultation: 

This involves a 60-minute one-on-one consultation (without 3-day food record evaluation) to help you eat better and fuel your activities more effectively.  During this time we can also address questions you may have about other aspects of your diet.

Nutrition Follow-up:

Many clients who come in for nutrition appointments benefit from meeting with the dietitian several times after their initial visit.  The follow-up appointments help answer additional questions, and are used to evaluate your progress toward your nutrition and health goals.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) Measurement:
The RMR measures daily caloric expenditure for those wishing to gain or lose weight, or for those who simply want to eat right to fuel their exercise.  This test is performed in the morning, and involves having you breathe into a device which measures the amount of energy that your body consumes at rest.

Exercise Metabolic Rate (EMR) Measurement:

EMR is for the individual who wants to use exercise as a part of their weight loss program, but are not training for a specific sport.  Their emphasis is on exercising to become fit and healthy; they are not interested in learning specific training zones.  (BCSM offers another test, the "F.U.E.L evaluation", that can provide that information.)

The EMR measures the number of calories burned at three different exercise intensities, which you choose.  This will give you a better understanding of how many calories you would need to eat to reach your energy balance.  This service can be part of nutrition packages including RMR, body composition, and nutrition evaluation (3-day diet record analysis).

The EMR can be done on an exercise bike, treadmill (walking or running), rowing machine, or elliptical trainer.  You will meet with an exercise physiologist who will conduct the EMR.  Results will be discussed with a registered dietitian to show you how many total calories you burned per hour at each exercise level, and the corresponding heart rate and rating of perceived effort. (Click to see an example of the results you will receive)

Metabolic Assessment:

The Metabolic Assessment is the combination of a Resting Metabolic Rate Measurement (RMR) and Exercise Metabolic Rate Measurement (EMR) (see above).  This is a 2.5-hour appointment.  We first measure your RMR, and then begin the EMR test.  The combination of these two tests gives us a complete picture of your daily caloric expenditure.  Based on your test results, our registered dietitian can discuss in detail your daily caloric needs in light of your weight loss or weight gain goals.

Body Composition:

We offer three methods to determine percent body fat:

1. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA): A DEXA scan is the current gold standard to determine body composition.  The scan uses two X-ray beams, which differentiate between fat mass (adipose tissue), lean mass (muscle), and bone.

2. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA): BIA is considered one of the most reliable and accessible methods of screening body fat.  BIA measures the impedance or resistance to an electrical signal as it travels through the water that is found in muscle and fat.  The more muscle a person has, the more water their body can hold.  The greater the amount of water in a person's body, the easier it is for the current to pass through it.  The more fat, the more resistance to the current.   BIA is safe and it does not hurt.  In fact, the signal used in body fat monitors can not be felt by either an adult or child.  BCSM uses the Tanita BIA method.

Tanita's Patented BIA Method: Tanita has patented a revolutionary new way of measuring BIA that is faster, easier, and less intrusive.  It includes a precision scale, which makes it a simple one-step process.  Tanita's monitor looks just like a bathroom scale.  A person inputs age, gender, and height, then steps onto the platform.  Electrodes in the foot sensor pads send a low, safe signal through the body.  Weight is calculated automatically along with body fat content in less than one minute. 

www.tanita.com/HowBIAworks.html

3. Skin Fold Technique:  BCSM uses a 7-site skin fold technique.  Skin fold is the least accurate of the three methods described here, but it can be a quick and simple way to determine percent body fat.  When the technique is performed and repeated by an experienced professional, it can offer quite accurate results.