Tips to Improve the Aging Process!

Debbie Potts is a seasoned figure in the health and fitness industry with over 25 years of experience. As a former endurance athlete and coach, she’s been recognized as one of the top trainers in the U.S. Her journey from athlete to holistic health advocate led her to create “The WHOLESTIC Method,” focusing on personalized wellness through testing and not guessing.

Debbie is also a host, author, and speaker, sharing her expertise through “The Fit & Healthy Athlete Podcast.” With a mission to transform lives, she helps individuals uncover hidden stressors and optimize their health and performance.

Visit www.debbiepotts.net to learn more about her Holistic approach to improve body composition, performance and longevity.

What is the Resting Metabolism Test & Breathe Analysis?

PNOE Metabolic Health

Your metabolism isn’t just the calories you burn. It’s all the vital functions your body runs to use oxygen and keep you alive. PNOĒ scans them with clinical precision and finds the ones that pose a risk for your health and performance.

Science-based metabolic analysis

Biological age
- Analyze your biological age as well as how long and well you are estimated to live. According to the American Heart Association this test provides the most reliable and accurate measure of longevity and mortality risk.
Metabolism & cells
- Analyze how fast or slow your metabolism is, determine optimal calorie intake for your goal, and measure how effectively your cells burn fats and carbohydrates at rest and during exercise.This information also reveals the risk for metabolic disorders such as Type II Diabetes.
Fat burn & recovery
- Analyze how effectively your cells utilize oxygen, burn fat as a fuel source, and clear fatigue metabolites during exercise. This information is also used to determine the optimal macro intake during exercise.
Heart & lungs
- Analyze your cardiovascular and lung fitness with gold standard accuracy and understand how these vital organs impact your health and wellbeing. Your lung fitness is evaluated through four distinct metrics that paint the most complete picture of how fit your lungs are and how well you utilize them.
Brain & posture
- Analyze how your breath affects cognitive performance, lower back pain and myoskeletal health. Breathing is the most vital function for maintaining high levels of brain activity and avoiding injuries such as lower back pain.

Personalized Nutrition: Nutrition insights

Calorie intake
- Analyze how fast or slow your metabolism is and determine the optimal calorie intake based on your biology and fitness goal.
Macro intake
- Analyze how effectively your cells burn fats and carbohydrates and determine the optimal macronutrient intake for your biology and fitness goal.
Workout nutrition
- Analyze the rate with which you burn fats and carbohydrates during training and determine the optimal nutrition before, during, and after exercise.
Food types
- Determine the part of your body that’s hindering your health and performance and find the food groups that are most helpful to fix it.
Nutrition timing
- Determine the meal timing that regulates hunger levels, minimizes sugar spikes and maximizes training benefits.

Fat Loss

Metabolic slowdown is the reason why 9 out 10 diets fail.
Breath analysis provides the gold standard for measuring your metabolism and determining the nutrition and exercise that aligns with one’s biology.

Rehabilitation

The way we breathe is the most potent predictor of skeletal muscular injuries.
Breath analysis provides the gold standard in assessing breathing mechanics and readiness to exercise post-injury.

Longevity

Breath analysis provides the gold standard for assessing biological age and determining and determining the risk of developing chronic conditions such as heart and lung disease.

PNOE Metabolic Testing:

Exercise Metabolism determines your optimal heart rate training zones, peak fat burning zone, and your anaerobic threshold on a treadmill, bike, or both.

Both tests require about a 1 hour, and they can be performed back to back.
When performing the RMR, it is best to schedule an early morning appointment, as the test requires a 12 hour fast beforehand.
Test results provide a snapshot of a person’s current metabolic state.
Results will vary depending on training, sickness, and injury.
It is important to recognize that test results are best used when making lifestyle changes to training, diet, or both.
With the results a personalized training plan can be prescribed.
Follow up tests should be scheduled every 3-4 weeks to monitor progress.

Resting Metabolic Testing

Provides clues to personalizing your nutrition plan:

Suggested Nutrition Plan
Metabolism at rest
Fat vs. Carbs Burned at Rest

Exercise Metabolic Testing

Provides clues to personalizing your exercise program:

VO2max Fitness Test
Metabolic Crossover Point (fat to carbs)
Heart Rate Training Zones
Heart & Cellular Fitness

Pre-test PNOE prerequisites

Fast except from plain water for at least 3 hours prior to testing (RMR test only)
No caffeine, tobacco or stimulating drinks for at least 3 hours prior to testing
Avoid intense exercise or any exercise of more than 1 hour 24h prior to testing
The resting test can be conducted any time of the day, however the retest should be
conducted the same time of the day as the initial assessment
Continue medications as usual
Arrive at least 10 min prior to the test so you can be relaxed before the test

Metabolic slowdown and why you should care about it.

You have undoubtedly heard of the term metabolism.
Although most people don’t know what it means, it is often the culprit for failed weight loss attempts or general inability to achieve a fitness goal.
This blog explains what metabolism is, why it’s important to maintain it at high levels, and what can cause it to decline.

What is metabolism?

Metabolism includes all biological processes that convert fuel from nutrients like fats and carbohydrates into the energy our body needs to survive.
This energy is what we refer to as calories.
In simple terms, it’s the process through which we burn calories.
It is the most vital biological process since it provides a constant supply of the energy needed to power your body movements and all functions keeping you alive such as breathing, blood circulation, cell growth, muscle reparation, etc.
Metabolism differs significantly from one person to another because of age, genetics, exercise habits, nutrition preferences, medication, etc.

Why it’s important to have a high metabolism.

A high metabolism means your body burns more calories than the average person with the same age, weight, height, and gender.
Conversely, having a slow metabolism means you are burning fewer calories than the norm.
Since weight loss requires a caloric deficit, the state when you eat fewer calories than you burn, having a high metabolism is the most powerful protection against obesity.
However, besides protecting you from weight gain, having a high metabolism is associated with faster cellular and muscle tissue reparation and other healing processes vital to recovery after training.
Therefore, a high metabolism is also essential for avoiding injuries.

What can cause my metabolism to slowdown?

Aging, nutrition, and training are the most potent drivers of your metabolism and can all lead to a metabolic decline. Here’s how each one can affect it.

Aging:

Aging will cause your metabolism to decline since the older we get, the harder it is to maintain muscles mass and the less metabolism-boosting hormones (e.g., growth hormone) we secrete.
The metabolic decline caused by aging is much less acute than the one nutrition or training can cause, and in most cases, it’s responsible for only a small portion of a person’s weight gain.
Moreover, despite the decline it causes, training and exercise can help reverse it and maintain your metabolism at healthy levels.

Don’t blame the aging process & use “getting older” as an excuse… take ownership about your change of hormones and make adjustments

Nutrition:

Nutrition is one of the most powerful drivers of your metabolism.
When you reduce the calories you consume and enter into a calorie deficit, the state in which you burn more calories than you eat, your body will reduce its metabolic activities in two ways.
First, it sheds muscle mass.
This process occurs since muscles are one of your primary energy reserves that will be tapped upon to cover the calorie deficit caused by food restriction.
Second, it makes your remaining muscle mass more economical, causing it to burn fewer calories when moving (e.g., walking).
This is done by changing the balance of specific hormones that regulate the energy your cells burn during movement.
Both processes are part of your body’s survival mechanism and kick in to conserve calories and help you close the energy deficit caused by restricting food intake.
However, both can be averted with the correct dose and type of exercise.

Training:

Training can affect your metabolism in the fastest and most acute way.
Although it can be a powerful tool for increasing your metabolism, over-training can have the opposite effect.
The most effective workout type for increasing your metabolism is resistance training.
First, it increases your muscle mass, leading to more calorie burn as more active tissue requires more energy.
Second, it increases the energy your muscles burn on a per unit basis, meaning that every pound of muscle mass starts to burn more due to a positive shift in the hormone balance regulating your cells’ energy consumption.
Too much training, however, has been shown to cause an adverse change in hormone balance (e.g., reduction of growth hormone secretion) that reduces metabolic processes.
In this case, metabolic decline and the associated decrease in recovery capacity pose a critical danger for injuries.

Conclusion

A metabolic slowdown can pose a severe obstacle in achieving your dream physique and staying healthy long-term.
As a result, one of the most important things to monitor is whether your metabolism has slowed down or whether your current fitness and nutrition are causing it to decline.
The PNOE metabolic analyzer provides a clinical-grade analysis of your metabolism, helping you act early and avoid the pitfalls of a metabolic slowdown.
Contact Coach Debbie Potts to get your PNOE metabolism test and Nutritional Therapy Assessment today at debbiepotts.net

How should you prepare for the test?

PNOĒ Resting Metabolic Analysis

We measure your metabolic rate, heart, and lung fitness in a short period of time
PNOE will turn data into your report then Coach Debbie will take this data and correlate to your Nutritional Therapy Assessment and intake forms to create a personalized nutrition plan. Note: Functional lab testing assessment is additional but will provide more specific data (ask Debbie for options).
This Resting Metabolism analysis allows us to measure your caloric expenditure and fat burning at rest.

Why get a resting metabolic test?

Your RMR is your body’s baseline caloric requirement. Knowing your RMR enables you to:

Craft individualized calorie intake targets for your goals to help you lose, gain or maintain your weight.
Verify if a training or nutrition program has increased or decreased your metabolism
Compare the speed of your metabolism to others of your gender, age, height, and weight

Resting Metabolic Assessment Procedure:

Make an RMR appointment online here
An appointment is required for this test. You can cancel or reschedule up to 24 hours beforehand.
Refrain from strenuous exercising for at least 12 hours before the test.
Additionally, refrain from eating for at least 5 hours, and using caffeine or nicotine for at least 6 hours before the test.
Lie down on our recliner for about 10 minutes.
You’ll be breathing into a mask, which will collect your exhaled air and analyze it.
Coach Debbie Potts will follow up with a detailed report and an action plan with specific recommendations.

PNOĒ Active Metabolic Analysis

During endurance training, it’s important to understand how the body produces energy in order to ensure that the proper energy pathways are being activated and trained for your desired gains. If you’re going to take the time to put in the hours, you should be sure that you are getting the most out of every minute.
With the use of PNOĒ metabolic analyzer, gain unparalleled insight into the systems of your body that generate power.
Identify gaps in your fitness profile that can be used to push through plateaus in your training like never before.

The PNOĒ Active Metabolic Analysis Session Includes:

Find your ventilatory threshold powers, VO2 Max Fat, and Carb max intensities and utilization rates.
A look into your Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Cellular, and Neuromuscular function with regards to exercise performance.
An expert breakdown analysis to form a detailed in-depth view of your physiological profile and current fitness levels (and progress with continued appointments).
Training prescription outline based around your goals and the results of your test sent to you and/or your primary coach.
An in-depth report included, with a full breakdown of recommendations prepare and how to implement them.

PNOE Testing Preparations:

https://youtu.be/B3TvnJNsqOk

Who is Coach Debbie Potts?

Coach Debbie has been in the health and fitness industry for over twenty-five years and was a competitive endurance athlete for twenty years. Along her journey, she has accomplished many goals including being nominated as one of the top one hundred best trainers in the U.S. by Men’s Journal in 2004 and 2005 as well as participating in fifteen Ironman Triathlons – five of them were the Hawaii World Ironman Championship. Debbie owned and operated her own fitness studio in Bellevue Washington for twelve years to offer an “all in one” health and fitness studio – including The WHOLESTIC Method coaching programs and individualized Nutritional Therapy services to transform the WHOLE person from the inside out.

Debbie moved from her busy stressful life in Bellevue, WA to North San Diego in the summer of 2020 to improve her quality of life after she struggled with “Adrenal Exhaustion” chronic fatigue and “metabolic chaos” started in 2013. Debbie wrote a book, “Life is Not a Race- It is a journey”, to share her journey and struggles to help other ambitious, high performers avoid going through what happened to her, even though she was doing all the “right” things when she experienced the onset of burnout and breakdown. Debbie coaches’ high performers how to get their body and vibrant self-back again by investigating what is actually going on from the inside out to put the missing pieces of their unique health puzzle back together again so they can thrive again.

Continuing Education over the years included:

BA focused on Exercise Science & Corporate Fitness
ACSM Health Fitness
Natural Running Coach with Newton
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
Metabolic Efficiency Specialist with Bob Seebohar
USA Triathlon Certified Coach Level One
Superhuman Coach & Kion Coach for Ben Greenfield
CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach (HLC)
Certified Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP)
Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDNP)
Ben Greenfield Life Coach
Metabolic Expert Certification (PNOE) with Daniel Crumback
Stacy Sims Menopause 2.0 Course 2023
Designs for Health Supplement certification (currently)
Wild Health Certification – Precision Medicine Fellowship 2024
Board Certification in summer 2024
Certified CPR & AED

Debbie Potts was the owner of Fitness Forward Studio in Bellevue, Washington, the creator of The WHOLESTIC Method, as well as the host of The Low Carb Athlete health and fitness podcast. Debbie has been in the fitness industry for over twenty-five years as a trainer, coach, and athlete including being nominated as one of the Top One Hundred Personal Trainers in 2004 and 2005 by Men’s Journal. She has competed in over fifteen Ironman Triathlons and over twenty marathons including Hawaii Ironman World Championship five times and the Boston Marathon numerous times with a PR of 3:12. Debbie brings her experience as a trainer, coach, and athlete into her book “Life is NOT a Race” where she shares the principles of her The WHOLESTIC Method program to help you improve the whole you from the inside out with her new approach to improve fat loss, health, and performance for life and sports.

Debbie Potts has been in the fitness industry for over twenty-five years and a competitive endurance athlete for twenty years. Along her journey, she has accomplished many goals including being nominated as one of the top one hundred best trainers in the U.S. by Men’s Journal in 2004 and 2005 as well as participating in fifteen Ironman Triathlons – five of them were the Hawaii World Ironman Championship. Debbie has owned and operated her own fitness studio in Bellevue Washington for 12 years to offer an “all in one” fitness studio, including The WHOLESTIC Method Services including The Low Carb Athlete coaching program, Infrared Therapy Treatment and Nutritional Therapy program to transform the WHOLE person from the inside out. Debbie is a speaker, podcast host (The Low Carb Athlete) and an author of “LIFE IS NOT A RACE” as well as “The WHOLESTIC Method Manual & Workbook”. She coaches clients how to become fat burners, optimize health and improve their performance in life and sports with The WHOLESTIC Method. Her passion is to help transform the WHOLE Athlete from the inside out with the eight elements of ‘The WHOLESTIC Method’ coaching program. Clients will get results in less time with her individualized approach with exercise, nutrition and lifestyle habits to improve metabolism, energy and positivity.

Debbie does her best to walk the talk as she was a competitive top age group triathlete, marathoner, and cyclist but since 2013, she has been recovering and rebuilding from Adrenal Exhaustion and burnout. In November 2016, she shared her personal story called in a book called “LIFE IS NOT A RACE” to help others avoid going through what she has from “living life as a daily race”. In the past, I have been on the Mark Allen Elite Triathlon team 2004-2013 and placed top ten overall in numerous Ironman triathlons. Debbie’s passion and purpose now is to help transform the WHOLE Athlete, of all levels, to learn how to become fat burner, get off the blood sugar roller coaster – and of course reduce stressors from the inside and out! She offers ‘The WHOLESTIC Method’ 5-day and 30-day total transformation detox, repair and rebuild programs to help clients improve their health at a cellular level. Debbie Potts is the host of ‘The WHOLE Athlete’ weekly podcast to help athletes of all levels perform their best in sports and life with elements of ‘The WHOLESTIC Method’.