How Metabolic Testing and Body Composition Analysis Improve Sports Performance

If you are an active individual or athlete aiming to train smarter, recover better and improve performance, metabolic testing and body composition analysis can provide powerful insights. These assessments help you understand how your body uses energy, how efficiently you fuel your training and how your physique is adapting over time. Below, we explore how metabolic health, nutrition and body composition all work together to influence athletic performance.

Fuelling Your Training: Why Energy Availability Matters

A key component of metabolic testing is the measurement of your resting metabolic rate (RMR), which is the number of calories your body needs at rest. Knowing your RMR allows for a personalised nutrition plan that ensures you are eating enough to support both your training load and your general health.

This is especially important because Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is common among athletes (1, 2). RED-S occurs when energy intake does not match the energy required for both daily functioning and training.

Low energy availability can affect:

• metabolic rate

  
  

• menstrual function

  
  

• bone health

  
  

• immunity

  
  

• injury risk

  
  

• endurance and cardiovascular fitness

Measuring RMR can help identify whether an athlete is under-fuelling and allows for targeted nutrition strategies to restore adequate energy availability and support long term health.

Optimising Diet Quality for Better Training Adaptations

Beyond energy intake, the quality and timing of your nutrition are essential for performance and recovery. Metabolic testing can highlight whether you are consuming adequate nutrients to support training adaptations.

Mitochondrial efficiency

Testing can assess how effectively your cells use oxygen, providing insight into whether your intake of key nutrients such as iron, omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins and CoQ10 is sufficient. Low mitochondrial efficiency may indicate gaps in your nutrient intake that could be affecting performance.

Fat burning capacity

Your ability to use fat as a fuel source reflects both the quality and quantity of carbohydrates in your diet. Improving fat burning capacity can help stabilise energy levels and support changes in body composition.

These insights help you adjust both the composition and timing of meals and snacks around your training schedule.

Tracking Changes in Body Composition

Another important element of metabolic testing is monitoring changes in body composition, including muscle mass and fat mass. While the ideal body composition varies across sports, most active individuals benefit from increasing lean muscle and reducing excess fat.

Body composition assessments help you:

• evaluate whether your training program is producing the desired adaptations

  
  

• understand how nutrition choices are influencing your physique

  
  

• make informed decisions about training intensity and dietary strategies

  
  

Regular assessments ensure that changes are safe, sustainable and aligned with your performance goals

Turning Insights into Action

Whether you are an athlete looking to improve performance, an active individual curious about your metabolism or someone wanting accurate information about your body composition, metabolic and body composition testing can provide clarity and direction. These assessments help you train smarter, fuel more effectively and reduce the risk of under-fuelling while supporting long term health.

To book a metabolic and body composition testing appointment, click here to arrange a call back.

References

Burke, L.M., Close, G.L., Lundy, B., Mooses, M., Morton, J.P. and Tenforde, A.S., 2018. Relative energy deficiency in sport in male athletes. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 28(4), pp.364 to 374.

 Dave, S.C. and Fisher, M., 2022. Relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care, p.101242.

 Severi, S., Malavolti, M., Battistini, N. and Bedogni, G., 2001. Some applications of indirect calorimetry to sports medicine. Acta Diabetologica, 38, pp.23 to 26.