West Broadway
Noble Naturopathic
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Get directionsMetabolic testing (PNOE) · Vancouver
A personalized plan for your metabolic health, built on your own numbers
Stop guessing. A one-hour breath test measures how your body burns energy at rest and during exercise, and your eating and exercise plan starts from there.
$275 for the assessment, $120 for
the follow-up where we turn the results into a plan.
Direct billing available for most extended health insurance plans.
- About 1 hour
- The testing visit
- ~10 minutes
- Resting breath test, sitting quietly
- ~15 minutes
- Exercise test on a bike or treadmill
- 30 minutes
- Follow-up: your results and your plan
What you find out
Five numbers, in plain words
- Resting metabolic rate
- How many calories your body uses in a day just to keep you running, before you move at all. It's the largest share of what you burn, and the part most people only ever estimate.
- Fuel use
- Whether you're mostly burning fat or carbohydrate — at rest, and at each level of effort. It's read from the ratio of carbon dioxide you breathe out to oxygen you take in.
- VO₂ max
- The most oxygen your body can use during hard effort. It measures aerobic fitness, which is consistently linked with long-term health — and, unlike most markers, it responds to training.
- Your own heart-rate zones
- The heart rates at which your body changes fuel, so exercise can be planned around your numbers rather than the chart on the gym wall.
- Body composition
- An InBody scan: muscle, fat, and the fat around the organs. The scale can't tell those apart, and the difference matters when the goal is fat rather than weight.
Why measure it
The equation doesn't know about your thyroid
Losing fat comes down to eating somewhat less than you burn. That part isn't controversial. The hard part is knowing what you burn.
An equation knows your age, height and weight. It doesn't know how much of that weight is muscle, how you've slept this year, what your thyroid is doing, or that you spent the last six months on twelve hundred calories a day.
For most people the estimate lands within about ten percent. For the rest it can be off by a few hundred calories a day — and that's often the person who is doing everything right and still not seeing it on the scale.
What tends to move the number
- Muscle. More of it means a higher resting burn. Muscle uses energy even while you sit.
- Aerobic fitness. Fitter people tend to burn more at rest, too.
- Long stretches of eating very little. The body tends to adapt by spending less.
- Sleep. Short or broken sleep tends to pull the number down.
- Thyroid. An underactive thyroid lowers it, sometimes noticeably.
- Hormonal change. Lower estrogen around menopause, and lower testosterone, both tend to bring it down.
- Nutrients and digestion. What you eat matters, and so does how much of it you actually absorb.
- Medications. Some raise it, some lower it. Worth knowing either way.
Several of those — sleep, digestion, hormones, stress — are what I work on every day. When a number comes back lower than expected, the next question is why, and that's usually a medical question rather than a willpower one.
If you've been guessing for a while, a measurement is a reasonable place to start.
Book the assessmentHow it works
One hour of testing, then a plan
- 01
Prepare
Nothing to eat and no caffeine for five hours before. No smoking for four, and no hard training longer than an hour the day before. Wear clothes you can exercise in.
- 02
The testing visit
An InBody scan, then about ten minutes breathing quietly through a mask while you sit. Then a short test on a bike or treadmill: a three-minute warm-up, and a little harder every minute until you've had enough. You decide when. It's the only part of my practice where I'll ask you to work hard.
- 03
Your results
The data is reviewed with PNOE's exercise physiology team, and a few days later we go through it together, in person or by phone: what's typical for you, what isn't, and what's worth doing about it.
- 04
Your plan
Eating built on your measured number and the food you actually like, and exercise in your own heart-rate zones. Re-testing around twelve weeks later shows whether the numbers moved — if you want it.
- No packages, and no supplements you have to buy from me.
- The test doesn't make anyone lose weight. It tells us where you're starting from, so the plan isn't built on a guess.
Is it for you
Who it tends to suit
- You've been eating carefully and moving, and the scale hasn't changed in months.
- You've dieted on and off for years and suspect your body has adapted to it.
- Something changed — perimenopause, a thyroid diagnosis, a new medication — and your body stopped responding the way it used to.
- You train, and you want your zones and fuel use measured rather than estimated.
- You'd simply rather work from a number than from a guess.
If food or weight has been a hard subject for you, tell me when we talk. The results are information, not a verdict, and we can choose together what's useful to look at. And if you have a heart or lung condition, mention it when you book: the exercise part can be adapted or left out.
Book
Metabolic testing is done at West Broadway
The testing equipment is at Noble Naturopathic, so this one has a single location.
Rather talk first? The free 15-minute call is on the same booking page — no cost, no obligation to continue.
What it costs, before you ask
Metabolic assessment $275: about an hour, with the InBody scan, the resting test and the exercise test. Results and plan follow-up $120 · 30 min. Together, $395.
Direct billing available for most extended health insurance plans. If you're not sure yours qualifies, ask when you book and we'll check before your visit. Lab work, if we need any, is separate and you'll know the cost first. No packages.
24 hours notice required. $50 fee for missed or late-cancelled visits.
Who you'll see
A number, read alongside the rest of you
I'm a naturopathic doctor in Vancouver, originally trained and licensed as a family physician in Argentina. I was trained in this testing at Noble Naturopathic by Dr. David Duizer, ND, who has run PNOE testing there since 2018.
Each result gets read alongside your bloodwork, your sleep, your digestion and your medications — the things that usually explain why a number came back the way it did. In English or Spanish.
If you'd like to know more about me first, there's a longer version.
Before you book
What people ask first
Do I need to fast before the test?
Yes: nothing to eat and no caffeine for five hours before. Water is fine. No smoking for four hours, and no hard training longer than an hour the day before. Each of those changes what your breath shows, and the point is to measure your usual resting state.
What does the test feel like?
The resting part is ten quiet minutes in a chair, breathing through a mask. Most people find it uneventful. The exercise part gets hard towards the end, by design, but it's short, and you stop whenever you want to.
How accurate is it?
It measures the oxygen you take in and the carbon dioxide you breathe out, and calculates energy use from those — the same principle research labs use, called indirect calorimetry. In a published comparison against a laboratory system, the PNOE analyser tracked it closely during exercise. Like any test, it's only as good as the preparation.
Do I have to be fit to do it?
No. The exercise test starts easy and you stop when you've had enough. Fitness is one of the things it measures, not a requirement for taking it.
Is this a weight-loss program with medication?
No. It's a test and a plan built on the results: food, exercise, sleep, and whatever the rest of your health points to. If you already take a weight-loss medication, tell me — it's useful context for reading the results.
Is it covered by insurance?
Direct billing is available for most extended health plans, but coverage depends on your plan. Ask when you book and we'll check yours before the visit.
How often should I re-test?
It's optional. If you do, about twelve weeks after starting the plan is usually long enough to see whether the numbers moved.
¿Puedo hacerlo en español?
Sí. La prueba, la revisión de los resultados y el plan se pueden hacer en español. Me formé y ejercí como médico de familia en Argentina, así que es mi primera lengua.
Measure first, then decide
About an hour of testing at West Broadway, and a follow-up to turn it into a plan. In English or Spanish.
$275 + $120 follow-up — or start with a free 15-minute call.