Reporter's notebook: What I learned about my body after being in a metabolic chamber
ABC News' Mara Schiovacampo shares what she learned about how she uses energy.
— -- ABC News' Mara Schiavocampo shared her experiences after spending a day inside a metabolic chamber at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. Schiavocampo's journey, which aired on "Good Morning America," was the first time that TV cameras were allowed to peek into a metabolic chamber, which is used to monitor your total energy expenditure and better understand how your body uses energy in everyday tasks such as resting, eating and exercising.
Three weeks ago I spent an entire day inside a vacuum-sealed metabolic chamber at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in New York; 23-hours trapped inside a room the size of a prison cell. Why? It’s the most cutting edge way to measure how your body burns calories, and just might provide a glimpse into the future of weight management. The room has previously only been available for research purposes, and I’m one of the first people to ever use it commercially.
COMING UP ON @GMA: Would you spend 24 hours in this tiny room to change the way you lose weight? pic.twitter.com/lfahOsWypz
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 28, 2017
After analyzing the data for weeks, I finally got the results. As someone who spends a lot of time reading about health and wellness, I wasn’t expecting to learn much. Instead, I was shocked by the results. Here’s what I learned about the way I burn energy:
1. For me, good old-fashioned cardio beats high-intensity interval training (HIIT)
2. Afterburn? Not so much.
3. Carbs burn fast
The chamber measures oxygen consumption and CO2 production to provide the most accurate measure of calorie burn available today. So we also decided to compare the results from the chamber with the estimates provided by online calculators and fitness trackers. Unfortunately, those weight loss tech tools often missed the mark. Here are some of my findings from the metabolic chamber compared to what was calculated with the other gadgets I have used.
1. BMI
2. Metabolism
3. Fitness Trackers
The bottom line: The chamber reminded me how different we all are, which is why broad weight loss plans often don’t work for many people. But it also reaffirmed my belief in focusing on overall health, as opposed to getting caught up in numbers, and my commitment to honoring my body with the joy of fitness and a diet of mostly whole, unprocessed foods.
COMING UP ON @GMA: Would you spend 24 hours in this tiny room to change the way you lose weight? pic.twitter.com/lfahOsWypz
After analyzing the data for weeks, I finally got the results. As someone who spends a lot of time reading about health and wellness, I wasn’t expecting to learn much. Instead, I was shocked by the results. Here’s what I learned about the way I burn energy:
1. For me, good old-fashioned cardio beats high-intensity interval training (HIIT)
2. Afterburn? Not so much.
3. Carbs burn fast
The chamber measures oxygen consumption and CO2 production to provide the most accurate measure of calorie burn available today. So we also decided to compare the results from the chamber with the estimates provided by online calculators and fitness trackers. Unfortunately, those weight loss tech tools often missed the mark. Here are some of my findings from the metabolic chamber compared to what was calculated with the other gadgets I have used.
1. BMI
2. Metabolism
3. Fitness Trackers
The bottom line: The chamber reminded me how different we all are, which is why broad weight loss plans often don’t work for many people. But it also reaffirmed my belief in focusing on overall health, as opposed to getting caught up in numbers, and my commitment to honoring my body with the joy of fitness and a diet of mostly whole, unprocessed foods.