Metabolic testing in the office.

The three most commonly used metabolic tests are the Resting Metabolic Rate, Anaerobic Threshold Testing, and V.O2max. For several decades, these metabolic tests have been confined to the setting of university-based physiology laboratories and cardiopulmonary environments, i.e., metabolic carts in the intensive care units. The information gathered is used as a research and clinical tool in evaluating metabolic activity in a variety of physiological states from a body at rest, to exercise (aerobic and anaerobic), in certain medical states like illness, fed/starvation, and medicinal or supplementation affective states. Over the last decade, as technology has improved, so have the metabolic testing carts. They have become widely available for mainstream use by a variety of health care professionals. The purpose of this article is to review these three tests and how they may be useful in a medical practice.