FatMax Assessment: Physiolab experts will determine your highly individual exercise intensity to maximize fat burning during exercise
Nutrition Assessment and Counseling: Physiolab registered dieticians will determine your nutrition status and work with you on optimizing you diet to meet wellness goal
24-Hour Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) or Sport-Specific Exercise Assessment in the Metabolic Chamber: Physiolab experts monitor your metabolism across a typical day or during a bout of exercise of your choice
Physiolab Assessments
The Mount Sinai Physiolab offers individual gold-standard tests and tailored packages to assess body composition, metabolic rate, nutrition status and dietary habits, cardiovascular fitness and functional movement. Based on your goals and priorities, we can develop a custom program that includes the assessments and integration that best meet your needs.
If you are not sure how the Mount Sinai Physiolab can help you, reach out to schedule a free 10-minute consultation.
Body Composition Assessment
Anthropometrics and Vitals: General Health Assessment
Anthropometrics are used to assess the size, shape, and composition of the human body. Common methods used to gather these measurements include waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index. Your vitals are your resting blood pressure and resting heart rate. All of these parameters can be compared to population norms to see where your health lies in comparison to the general population.
Includes:
- A 20-minute general health assessment and body shape measures, plus a post-test report
BodPod: Body Composition
Scales provide you with your weight, but that is not the entire picture. Body composition analysis with an air displacement plethysmography device (BodPod) is a precise method to determine how much of your body is fat mass versus lean mass (muscle, bone, and organs). It is nearly as accurate as a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) test without the exposure to radiation and increased cost, and more accurate than bioimpedance devices commonly found in gyms. Your unique body composition offers insight into your overall health, including disease risk, physical function, and athletic performance. This easy, non-invasive test will generate results that tell your body-fat percentage and amount of fat-free mass. We pair this data with additional measures to determine your body-fat distribution and risk of chronic disease.
Establishing a baseline body composition before you embark on a health and wellness journey will allow you to track your changes and progress. We recommend follow up assessments every 6-10 weeks, depending on your goals, as a powerful tool to understand the impact of your lifestyle changes on your proportion of fat mass to fat-free mass.
Includes:
- A 30-minute body composition assessment and body shape measures, plus post-test report
Metabolic Assessments
Resting Metabolic Rate and Resting Energy Expenditure
One of our signature tests, the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) assessment, measures your body’s resting rate of oxygen consumption. This highly accurate procedure allows us to determine the number of calories that your body burns over the course of the day to function normally, without accounting for any additional movement and activity. The data from this RMR allows us to generate three critical data points: your resting metabolic rate, your resting energy expenditure, and your respiratory exchange rate.
These three highly individual data points allow us to determine three powerful personal metrics:
- How your metabolic rate compares to the general population
- The exact number of calories that you are burning at rest in a day
- What type of fuel your body uses while resting (stored fat or stored carbohydrates)
Whether your goal is to lose, gain, or maintain your weight, this information is a critical part of designing and personalizing a weight management program.
Includes:
- One-hour RMR assessment, plus a post-test counseling session
FatMax Protocol: Personalized Exercise to Maximize Fat-Burning
Exercise recommendations are over-generalized. What works well for one person may not for someone else. Our FatMax protocol allows us to create a personalized exercise plan, designed around your own metabolic measurements, to maximize the effectiveness of your exercise.
The FatMax test is a multi-stage bicycle exercise test that measures the ability of your body to burn fat at different exercise intensities. During this test, we capture a wide range of data, including heart rate, oxygen consumption, rate of fat and carbohydrate burning, and total calories burned at each intensity. Using this data, we will pinpoint the exercise intensity at which you are burning fat at the highest rate (your personal FatMax). We then develop a strategic exercise prescription based on your personal data in order to:
- Offer specific insights on your personal exercise goals and determine the ideal exercise prescription for you to achieve your goals
- Help you achieve your fitness and/or weight management goals
Includes:
- One-hour FatMax assessment, plus a post-test counseling session
- Biweekly check-ins with registered dietitian/exercise physiologist throughout the lifestyle program period
24-Hour Metabolic Chamber: Total Energy Expenditure
Our metabolic chamber is a gold-standard research environment disguised as a comfortable windowed living room. The chamber allows us to capture your energy use in a “free-living” environment. Recording minute-by-minute energy expenditure and breathing rate over the course of a 24-hour period creates a comprehensive picture of your individualized caloric burn during rest, sleeping, exercise, eating, and performing any activities of daily life. We can then analyze how your individual data compares to that of the general population.
The 24-hour schedule will be planned in partnership with you to mimic your day-to-day life as closely as possible and help you achieve your goals. We can incorporate workout sessions of different types and intensities, allowing us to determine which exercise routine optimizes your calorie burn and fuel utilization, to design the most effective workout for you. We can also measure how you respond to meals and snacks, which can inform optimized meal timing and planning.
Using this data, we provide insights on the ideal way to achieve your personal goals and equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to make strategic lifestyle changes, or just better understand the mechanisms that fuel your body.
Includes:
- 24-hour assessment and counseling session
- Weekly check-ins with registered dietitian/exercise physiologist throughout the program period
Fitness Assessments
Functional Movement Screen
The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a standardized assessment that evaluates mobility, stability, and fundamental movement patterns essential for safe and effective physical performance. Through a series of seven evidence‑based movement screens, the FMS helps identify asymmetries, weaknesses, and areas of potential injury risk. Results can guide individualized exercise programming, support injury prevention strategies, and optimize overall movement efficiency.
Includes:
- Detailed report of movement screen, including areas of strength and weakness
- Personalized corrective exercises and custom resistance training protocol
- Post-test review and results
Cardiorespiratory Fitness: VO2 max
The gold standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness, VO2 max measures the ability of the heart, lungs, and blood to deliver oxygen to your muscles, and the ability of your muscles to use that oxygen during exercise. This test offers insight into overall health status and chronic disease risk, as well as your degree of cardiorespiratory fitness compared to the general population.
This protocol can be conducted on a stationary bicycle or a treadmill and will generate data that allows us to evaluate your overall cardiovascular fitness level and exercise performance. We then use this personal data to:
- Characterize your cardiovascular health status and chronic disease risk
- Prescribe an individualized exercise program designed for your health goals
We also offer submaximal VO2 max testing for individuals with a lesser or no exercise background. This validated test estimates VO2 max based on submaximal work rates and predicts cardiorespiratory response to exercise. Submaximal testing is appropriate for individuals who cannot perform maximal exercise due to health limitations.
Includes:
- A one-hour assessment and post-test counseling session
Please note: VO2 Maximal Testing requires physician clearance. Our staff will provide physician referral/medical clearance forms prior to your visit. Please print the form, complete it, and bring it with you to your appointment.
Sport-Specific Testing: Exercise Energy Expenditure and Sports Nutrition
This hands-on, customizable protocol is designed to answer your most-pressing questions on fueling your body for your favorite sport. Prior to the session, we will have a discussion on your current routine and your upcoming goals. Based on this information, we will create a completely individualized sport-specific exercise testing protocol, designed to answer your questions on fueling for peak performance. With the data gathered from the protocol, we will provide you with a personalized plan, including:
- An exercise plan tailored to your metabolic results and performance goals
- Nutrition guidelines that are most appropriate for your individual performance goals
Includes:
- Custom exercise protocol and pre- and post-test counseling session
- Weekly check-ins with a registered dietitian/exercise physiologist throughout the program period
Please note: the Sport-Specific Exercise assessment requires you send the Mount Sinai Physiolab your usual exercise regimen at least one week in advance.
Nutrition, Exercise, and Lifestyle Counseling
Nutrition Counseling and Exercise Counseling
Data gathered from your metabolic tests is just one aspect of personalizing an approach to achieve your health goals. Our team of registered dietitians and certified exercise physiologists is available to help you take the next step with strategic, individualized diet and exercise analyses and prescriptions. With a mixture of data-driven recommendations and one-on-one counseling sessions, we will work with you to implement a personalized wellness program that ensures long-lasting changes.
Includes:
- A one-on-one, hour-long session with a registered dietitian to discuss nutrition goals and diet planning to meet individual health and fitness goals
OR
- A one-on-one, hour-long session with an exercise physiologist to discuss exercise goals and planning to meet individual health and fitness goals
Nutrition Adequacy Assessment: Three-day food log analysis
Analysis of a self-reported three-day food log to determine adequacy of your diet in regard to macronutrient and micronutrient distribution. Comparisons will be made to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Reference Intakes. Learn where your diet is adequate and where improvements can be made.
Includes:
- Analysis of three days of your dietary records
- Comprehensive report comparing your diet to established reference intakes (total calories, percent carbohydrates/fat/protein, micronutrients, fibers, vitamins, and more)
