Are you struggling to get results even though you are doing all the “RIGHT” things??
Attention Solana Beach & North San Diego!
Are you struggling to lose weight even though you’re doing all the “right” things but not getting the results you want? Now’s your chance to uncover what might be holding you back with a 50% OFF Holiday Special on the PNOE Resting Metabolism Test & Analysis with Coach Debbie Potts at Avena Natural Health!
From November 15 – November 30, 2024, get personalized insights into:
✅ Fat Loss – pinpoint your unique calorie and fat-burning needs
✅ Performance – enhance energy efficiency & endurance
✅ Health & Longevity – boost cellular health & oxygen use for a stronger, healthier you
This special is the perfect way to get a head start on your New Year goals!
To redeem: Schedule with Coach Debbie Potts by emailing coachdebbiepotts@icloud.com today. Don’t miss this opportunity to unlock your metabolic potential!
The PNOE Resting Metabolism Analysis is a tool that can provide detailed insights into a person’s metabolism, which can then be used to optimize fat loss, athletic performance, health, and longevity.
1. Fat Loss
- Metabolic Rate Measurement: The PNOE analysis assesses resting metabolic rate (RMR) to determine how many calories you burn at rest. This data helps create a precise calorie plan that supports fat loss without causing energy deficits that can harm metabolism or recovery.
- Respiratory Quotient (RQ): The RQ score reveals the ratio of fats vs. carbohydrates your body is currently burning for energy. This allows for adjustments in nutrition and training to optimize fat utilization, a key factor in sustainable fat loss.
- Identifying Metabolic Imbalances: The analysis can reveal whether a slow or inefficient metabolism might be a factor in fat loss resistance, allowing for targeted interventions.
2. Performance Enhancement
- Fuel Utilization: By understanding which substrates (fats or carbs) are primarily used at rest, athletes can tailor their nutrition to improve metabolic flexibility, supporting better performance and endurance in both aerobic and anaerobic activities.
- VO2 Efficiency: PNOE’s insights into oxygen utilization help determine how efficiently your body uses oxygen at rest, which translates to understanding your body’s capacity to perform. Increased efficiency at rest can indicate better potential for energy efficiency during workouts and competitions.
- Recovery and Overtraining Prevention: The analysis reveals stress markers like elevated RMR or altered breathing patterns, which can signal overtraining. Adjusting training loads and recovery strategies based on these insights can prevent burnout and enhance performance.
3. Health and Longevity
- Breathing Patterns and Lung Function: The PNOE system provides insights into breathing efficiency and lung function, which are crucial for overall health and can be improved to promote longevity.
- Cellular Health and Oxidative Stress: By examining how effectively your body uses oxygen, the PNOE test can offer clues about mitochondrial health and oxidative stress levels—two important indicators of aging.
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Correlation: While not measured directly by PNOE, understanding metabolic health through PNOE data complements other biomarkers like HRV, which are often used as indicators for stress and recovery, both important for long-term health.
In essence, PNOE’s Resting Metabolism Analysis offers actionable data that helps personalize nutrition and training strategies. For fat loss, it provides insights into calorie needs and fat utilization; for performance, it reveals metabolic efficiency and respiratory function; and for health and longevity, it highlights respiratory health and cellular function. By addressing these factors, PNOE’s analysis can contribute to achieving and sustaining peak health and performance over the long term.
The PNOE Metabolism Test includes a variety of important markers, both for resting and active metabolism, that offer detailed insights into how your body functions at rest and during exercise. Understanding these markers allows for more personalized training, nutrition, and health optimization strategies.
Markers in the PNOE Resting Metabolism Test
- Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): Measures the calories burned at rest, providing insights for personalized calorie intake recommendations.
- Respiratory Quotient (RQ): Indicates the ratio of fats to carbohydrates your body is burning at rest, which helps tailor diet for improved fat utilization.
- Oxygen Consumption (VO2) & Carbon Dioxide Production (VCO2): Measures your body’s oxygen use efficiency and carbon dioxide output, key for assessing metabolic function.
- Breathing Patterns & Efficiency: Evaluates how well you breathe at rest, which can impact energy levels, stress response, and overall respiratory health.
- Fat vs. Carbohydrate Oxidation: Indicates which fuel source (fats or carbs) your body primarily relies on at rest, critical for fat loss and metabolic flexibility.
Markers in the PNOE Active Metabolism Test
- VO2 Max/Peak: Measures maximum oxygen uptake during exercise, a key indicator of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic capacity.
- Non Oxidative Threshold (AT): Identifies the point at which your body shifts from aerobic to anaerobic energy production, essential for endurance training.
- Fat & Carbohydrate Burn Rates During Exercise: Helps optimize Zone two, Metabolic Efficiency Point and fuel used during different exercise intensities, especially for endurance athletes and those improving fat metabolism.
- Ventilatory Thresholds (VT1 & VT2): These markers indicate the levels at which breathing becomes more challenging, providing insight into training zones for improved performance.
- Efficiency of Energy Use: Indicates how efficiently your body uses oxygen at various intensities, which can help prevent fatigue and optimize performance.
Why Testing Your Metabolism Every 2-3 Months Matters
Regular testing (every 2-3 months) can provide valuable information on how your body adapts over time to training, diet, and lifestyle changes.
- Track Progress & Adaptations: Reassessing allows you to see how well your body responds to training and diet adjustments and whether changes are yielding the desired outcomes.
- Identify Plateaus & Adjust Plans: If your metabolism slows down or you’re burning fewer calories than expected, it may signal a need for changes in nutrition or exercise to avoid plateaus.
- Optimize Performance: Athletes can adjust training intensities based on updated VO2 max, anaerobic thresholds, and fuel utilization to optimize performance and recovery.
- Improve Metabolic Flexibility: Metabolism changes in response to age, stress, diet, and exercise. Regular testing helps maintain metabolic flexibility and resilience to these shifts.

- Support Long-Term Health Goals: Tracking metabolism allows for early detection of potential metabolic issues and better supports health and longevity through personalized interventions.
With PNOE Metabolism Testing, you gain a deeper understanding of your unique physiology, enabling smarter decisions for fat loss, performance enhancement, and overall well-being.
The PNOE metabolic active test measures fuel utilization and metabolic flexibility during exercise by analyzing respiratory exchange ratios (RER) and gas exchange parameters, specifically oxygen consumption (VO₂) and carbon dioxide production (VCO₂). Here’s how it relates to the concepts of ATP production, fuel switches, and energy systems:
Fuel Switches and Exercise Intensity
- ATP Production and Energy Systems:
- Your body uses different systems to produce ATP depending on the intensity and duration of exercise:
- Creatine Phosphate (CrP): Provides ATP for very short, high-intensity efforts (10-30 seconds, e.g., Zone 5). This is anaerobic and oxygen-independent.
- Anaerobic Glycolysis: Produces ATP quickly without oxygen, primarily from glucose (30-180 seconds). This generates lactate as a byproduct.
- Oxygen-Dependent Lactate Oxidation: Combines lactate with oxygen to produce ATP efficiently (3-5 minutes, e.g., Zone 4).
- Aerobic Oxidation (Glucose and Free Fatty Acids): Uses oxygen to metabolize glucose and fats for long-duration, steady-state efforts (5+ minutes, e.g., Zone 2/3).
- Fat Oxidation Dominance: During low-intensity recovery (<Zone 1), the body primarily uses fats for fuel.
- Fuel Mix Dynamics:
- The body rarely operates exclusively in one energy system. Instead, it shifts dynamically based on ATP demand.
- Transition between systems isn’t purely tied to oxygen availability but to the ATP production rate required to meet exercise intensity.
PNOE and Measuring Fuel Utilization
- Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER):
- RER is calculated as VCO2/VO2\text{VCO}_2 / \text{VO}_2VCO2/VO2.
- Values:
- ~0.70 indicates predominant fat oxidation.
- ~1.0 indicates predominant carbohydrate oxidation.
-
1.0 indicates anaerobic metabolism, where CO₂ production increases due to buffering lactate with bicarbonate.
- PNOE tracks how RER changes with increasing intensity to identify transitions in fuel utilization.
- Metabolic Flexibility:
- PNOE shows how efficiently your body switches between fat and carbohydrate as fuel sources. For example:
- At low intensities (Zone 2), fat is the dominant fuel.
- As intensity rises (Zone 3-4), carbohydrates take over due to their faster ATP production rate.
- This insight is valuable for tailoring training to improve endurance or speed.
- VO₂ and VCO₂:
- VO₂ reflects oxygen uptake, critical for aerobic metabolism.
- VCO₂ reflects carbon dioxide exhalation, an indicator of metabolic byproducts and anaerobic activity.
- Together, these parameters help map energy system transitions and efficiency.
Key Insights from Your Description:
- Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Misconceptions: The shift from “aerobic” to “anaerobic” isn’t strictly about oxygen availability. Instead, it’s about ATP demand exceeding the rate of aerobic ATP production, necessitating anaerobic contributions.
- Energy Systems Are Overlapping: There’s no hard cutoff; systems blend and transition as intensity rises.
- Lactate and Oxygen: Lactate can be utilized aerobically, underscoring its role as a fuel source in addition to being a metabolic byproduct.
- Metabolism Zones:
- Zone 1: Recovery, fat-dominated.
- Zone 2/3: Endurance, mix of fats and glucose with oxygen.
- Zone 4: Threshold, increased carbohydrate reliance.
- Zone 5: Peak effort, anaerobic ATP from CrP and glycolysis.
Conclusion:
The PNOE metabolism active test provides a detailed breakdown of how energy systems contribute at various intensities. It highlights the interplay between fat and carbohydrate utilization, the efficiency of ATP production, and the body’s metabolic flexibility. This data is essential for optimizing training, recovery, and performance.
What is the Connection Between our Metabolism & Mitochondria Health?
The PNOE Metabolism Test is closely connected to metabolic health and mitochondrial health, as it provides detailed insights into how your body produces and uses energy, both at rest and during physical activity. Here’s how these areas intersect and why understanding them is critical:
1. Metabolic Health Markers
- Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Respiratory Quotient (RQ) provide information on the efficiency and balance of fat versus carbohydrate utilization, which is fundamental for metabolic flexibility. A metabolically flexible body can efficiently switch between burning fats and carbohydrates depending on activity level and nutritional intake, which is associated with better blood sugar control, reduced insulin resistance, and overall improved metabolic health.
- Fat and Carbohydrate Oxidation Rates measure how well your body can utilize stored fats versus relying on immediate carbohydrate sources. Improved fat oxidation at rest and during low to moderate exercise indicates better energy balance and a lower tendency for fat storage, both of which are positive markers for metabolic health.
- Anaerobic and Ventilatory Thresholds are markers for how well your body handles stress and manages energy production, with implications for blood pressure, cardiovascular health, and oxygenation, all of which are critical for metabolic resilience.
2. Mitochondrial Health
- Oxygen Utilization (VO2): The rate at which your body uses oxygen directly reflects mitochondrial health.
- Mitochondria are responsible for producing energy via aerobic respiration, and efficient oxygen use means your mitochondria are functioning well, producing energy efficiently, and minimizing oxidative stress.
- VO2 Max and Efficiency of Energy Use at different intensities of exercise can reveal mitochondrial capacity, as mitochondria play a key role in ATP production during physical exertion.
- Higher efficiency in oxygen use and energy production generally correlates with a greater density and health of mitochondria.
- Anaerobic Threshold: When the body shifts to anaerobic metabolism, it indicates that mitochondrial function is maxed out, and energy production shifts to less efficient pathways.
- Monitoring and improving this threshold through training enhances mitochondrial biogenesis (the creation of new mitochondria), which supports greater energy production and reduces fatigue.

- Oxidative Stress and Inflammation: The efficiency of your metabolism, particularly in fat oxidation, can reduce byproducts that lead to oxidative stress.
- Lower oxidative stress means less mitochondrial damage and slower aging of cells.
- Optimizing energy pathways reduces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can otherwise harm mitochondrial health.
Why It Matters
Tracking these markers provides insight into how well your body’s energy-producing systems (metabolic pathways and mitochondria) are functioning.
When your mitochondria are healthy, they support better metabolic flexibility, energy levels, and overall resilience to stress, all of which are essential for long-term metabolic health. Regularly assessing these markers with PNOE helps you make tailored adjustments to your diet, exercise, and lifestyle, supporting not only your current performance but also your health and vitality in the long term.
The PNOE Metabolism Test provides detailed insights into how well your body uses oxygen, fat, and carbohydrates, helping to optimize programming for mitochondrial health by targeting mitochondrial biogenesis (creation of new mitochondria), capacity, and autophagy (cellular repair and cleanup processes).
1. Targeted Training for Mitochondrial Biogenesis
- Non-Oxidative and Oxidative Thresholds: PNOE identifies the point at which your body shifts from oxidative (oxygen-requiring) energy production to non-oxidative (anaerobic) metabolism.
- Training just below and at this threshold encourages mitochondrial biogenesis, or the creation of new mitochondria, which improves overall endurance and energy production.

- VO2 Max and Ventilatory Thresholds (VT1 and VT2): VO2 max and ventilatory thresholds help define specific training zones for intensity levels.
- Engaging in moderate to high-intensity interval training based on these zones can stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis.
- High-intensity intervals, when performed intermittently, apply stress that promotes mitochondrial growth and function, enhancing your body’s oxidative capacity.
- Oxygen Utilization and Efficiency: PNOE reveals how well your body uses oxygen at different intensity levels.
- By targeting these areas with interval training, you increase the efficiency of oxygen use and create an environment that promotes mitochondrial biogenesis.
- This approach supports the adaptation of mitochondria to handle greater loads and improve endurance over time.
2. Increasing Mitochondrial Capacity
- Fat and Carbohydrate Oxidation Rates: By analyzing these oxidation rates, PNOE helps you create a training program that encourages greater fat utilization, a marker of mitochondrial efficiency.
- Training at specific intensities that promote fat oxidation (e.g., low to moderate intensity) enhances the ability of mitochondria to metabolize fat effectively, supporting increased mitochondrial capacity and efficiency.
- Adaptation Through Aerobic Base Building: PNOE data can inform aerobic base-building sessions, which improve mitochondrial capacity by challenging the mitochondria to process oxygen efficiently over longer durations.
- The result is a higher density of mitochondria with greater energy production capacity, leading to improved endurance and stamina.
- Controlled Exercise Intensity: With data from PNOE, exercise programs can be precisely adjusted to alternate between oxidative and non-oxidative intensities, enhancing mitochondrial density and maximizing ATP production.
- This carefully controlled progression encourages mitochondria to adapt and increases their ability to produce energy under both aerobic and non-aerobic conditions.
3. Supporting Autophagy and Mitochondrial Quality
- Recovery Optimization: PNOE helps tailor the intensity and volume of exercise, which can optimize recovery windows that support autophagy.
- Proper recovery, following intense workouts, triggers cellular cleanup processes where damaged mitochondria are removed and replaced, maintaining mitochondrial quality.
- Metabolic Flexibility: The insights into fat versus carbohydrate utilization and thresholds allow for better cycling of nutrition and fasting strategies that can support autophagy.
- For instance, training in a fasted state or under conditions where the body is primarily oxidizing fat encourages autophagy, aiding in mitochondrial repair and the removal of old, dysfunctional mitochondria.
- Reduction of Oxidative Stress: Training programs guided by PNOE data can reduce unnecessary oxidative stress by staying within optimal intensity levels, which is essential to minimize damage to mitochondria and other cellular structures.
- Less oxidative stress means lower levels of inflammation, which further supports cellular autophagy and long-term mitochondrial health.
Putting It All Together
The PNOE Metabolism Test enables a personalized, data-driven approach to enhancing mitochondrial health. By regularly monitoring metabolic markers and adjusting programming accordingly, you can promote mitochondrial biogenesis, increase the capacity and efficiency of your mitochondria, and support autophagy. This holistic approach not only improves endurance and energy but also contributes to overall health, longevity, and resistance to fatigue. Reach out to Coach Debbie Potts to schedule your metabolism test and assessment in North San Diego – or she can come to you if a group of 10 or more.