In this episode of the Find Your Edge podcast, host Christina Fiumara Newport first promotes the upcoming Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp, describing its small‑group format, coaching, nutrition, and psychology components. She then shifts to a deep dive on energy balance, critiquing the reliability of resting metabolic rate (RMR) and activity prediction equations—citing a military study and noting that many individuals fall far above or below predicted values. Christina explains the advantages of direct RMR testing with a metabolic cart, outlines what RMR (or BMR) measures, and emphasizes that genetics, especially the FTO gene, can markedly affect appetite, energy intake, and satiety. She describes how the A allele of FTO is linked to higher caloric consumption and reduced satiety signals, yet also notes that lifestyle interventions can mitigate its impact. The episode explores why holiday seasons trigger overeating: stress, sensory cues, social pressure, and diminished prefrontal‑cortex control as the amygdala dominates. Christina ties these insights to her upcoming 21‑Day Nutrition Reset Challenge, which aims to teach participants to recognize stress‑driven eating, improve mindfulness, and apply personalized nutrition based on genetics and accurate energy needs. She also mentions a follow‑up Longevity Nutrition Coaching program that integrates genetic testing, precise energy calculations, and behavioral strategies. The episode concludes with calls to action for the training camp, the nutrition challenge, and the broader endurance coaching services offered by The Endurance Edge.
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Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 Deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. Hey y'all, welcome back to the Find Your Edge Podcast. I am your host, Christina Fiumara Newport, and we are knee-deep in the holiday season by this point. And one of the things that came up for me as we were preparing for our 21-Day Nutrition Reset Challenge coming up in January and during the holidays, are prediction equations. Because what people tend to do is the holidays get done, they tend to overeat or increase their energetic consumption, and then they sort of panic and want to get control and then reduce their caloric energetic intake once the New Year starts. So that got me thinking, how reliable or how validated are some of our resting metabolic rate prediction equations and physical activity prediction equations. So I'll, let me just give you an example. One of the articles I ran across was in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, and it's titled Prediction Equation for Estimating Total Daily Energy Requirements of Special Operations Personnel. So yes, this is for the military, and these ladies and gentlemen are burning very large amounts of energy in the jobs that they do. So the purpose of this study was to generate a predictive equation estimating their energy requirements so that they could appropriately feed these folks for their work. So how does that relate to you if you're not a special operations personnel? Well, that just goes to say that some of our equations are either outdated or just hard. It's just generally hard to predict your energy needs. Let me just put it that way. And as somebody who's been doing resting metabolic rate testing with an actual metabolic cart, not just a formula necessarily, for, let's see, um, for almost 20 years, I see people, generally speaking, whose resting metabolic rates are typically right around predicted. But then we have the occasional person who is far below predicted or far above predicted. So in those instances, they would never know unless they actually get it tested. Now, am I requesting or requiring you to go get your resting metabolic rate test done? You can. I'm certainly not requiring it. It's really not very difficult at all, especially to put a mask on your face and lie down on a mat and close your eyes for 20 to 30 minutes and not have any access to anything else. I don't know why you wouldn't wanna do that. But that being said, if you don't have access to an RMR like we have in our facility in North Carolina, or if you just don't want to, how much energy should you be taking in? So that's one of those tricky things that also ties into, okay, so now I have my RMR, then how many additional calories do I need if I'm doing all these, this exercise, or if I have a really active job? Or if my goal is, say, to lose weight. So then we get into a lot of different pieces. What y'all are probably used to is something like, say for example, MyFitnessPal, where you go in and you say, here's my age, height, weight, gender, and this is my goal. And then it automatically decreases or increases a certain predetermined amount of calories for you just as it, as it stands. Now, is that a good way of doing things? It's a start. Is it an accurate or validated method? No, not really. So then it's kind of like, well, what the heck do I do? So keep in mind, when we're consuming energy, there's a lot of things going on. So first and foremost, we have genetics. That's a massive piece. And that's one of the things that we do in our Longevity Nutrition Program, which is sort of the, the program that follows our nutrition challenge that's coming up here January 1st. So just to give you an idea, in the 3x4 Genetics report that we use, under energy expenditure, which is basically your rest, resting metabolic rate that's needed. So let me back up a little bit. Your RMR, or your resting metabolic rate, another term you may have heard is BMR, that is basal metabolic rate. That is the amount of energy you need to sleep RMR is just to rest. And this is doing important things that your body has to do, like breathing, digesting food, circulating blood, regulating temperature, et cetera. Uh, you know, your heart's gotta beat, your lungs still gotta do their thing, your liver still has to work, your brain is incredibly active in terms of using energy. So what of that? This is in essence, how do we quote unquote burn calories? Just to be. And some people say, "Oh, I have a fast metabolism or a slow metabolism." Usually when people tell me that, I call BS until I actually see it in person and see what's going on, or I actually see what's going on in terms of their genetics. So remember, a lot of these things are also turned on or turned off. So for example, one of those genetic SNPs that's under that energy expenditure category is a gene called FTO, or fat mass and obesity-associated protein. So this FTO gene was the first obesity susceptibility gene identified by genome-wide association studies. It's pretty amazing. Now, that being said, I've probably seen, uh, I don't know, let's call it maybe 20 people or so who have— and the options for your alleles are an A or a T. A T allele. So the impact allele is the A allele, which leads to increased expression of FTO and is associated with higher body mass related to dietary and lifestyle behaviors. So it's also associated with greater energy intake. In other words, you consume more calories and a decreased responsiveness to satiety. In other words, you, your brain does not get those signals as well to your stomach being full than people without this A allele. Now, I have seen a large majority of people with this A allele, in fact homozygous, two A alleles, who are not obese. So it is incredibly responsive to diet and lifestyle interventions, and that's obviously massive. We got to get our fiber, you have to get your protein, managing your appetite and your satiety. So it's not a, it's not a jail, It's not a sentence, but it's great information to know about yourself and know, okay, this is something that I really have to stay on top of. So knowing how much energy you actually need and then understanding your genetics and furthermore understanding you and the way that the brain works. So when we eat, and especially again, this comes into that holiday timeframe, we're generally off of our routines. We're probably under more stress. So our natural response oftentimes is to consume food when we're stressed out, right? Then you may also be stimulated to eat food when you smell something delicious or when you see something. Your body will naturally start to create or increase your saliva and start to sort of in the anticipation that digestion is going to start to happen. So those are things that happen during the holiday season. You go over to friends' houses, you go to a party, go to Thanksgiving dinner, you go to whatever buffet or whatever you're going to, you're probably going to see and smell food and therefore be more likely to consume that food. And the food that you are eating, you are likely not going to be able to understand or know how much you've consumed. Another piece of that is just that the food might just be there. You may not even want it, but you're just, it's just there and you're used to eating it. Or it might be part of a social situation where everybody's eating and what happens if you don't? Are you gonna have somebody ask you? Probably not, but there are various social situations. And then are these things happening out of habits? So all of those things that I just mentioned are things that we need to tune into ourselves. And this is part of what we're going to be doing in that 21-Day Nutrition Reset Challenge, is tuning in and understanding what does your body need in this moment. Is this a stress response with which you're eating? Are you bored? Are you just seeing and smelling the food, but it's not really time to eat yet and you're not necessarily hungry, but it's just there? Or are you eating just because Your friend is having a drink, so you want to have a drink as well. These are all things that we need to take into account. And I tell you why it's hard is that our prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain, it's located right above your eyebrows, is in high demand. That is the part of your brain that's doing all the planning and all of the executive functioning. That is, um, it's tired, y'all, especially during the holidays. And when we're stressed, the amygdala is going to take over and pushes out that prefrontal cortex operational processes more so than not. So then it just becomes harder to make those decisions of, is this something that I want to consume that is beneficial for me in the long term? We as humans operate very much in the short term. So there's a lot going on, and these are all of the things that we're going to be talking about in that 21-Day Nutrition Reset Challenge. Yes, you'll get meal plans, plans. Yes, you'll get recipes and all that good kind of stuff, but really educating you on how do we deal with not only the stress, not only the exposure to all of these different things, how to make those decisions, how to tie in, just like Coach Carly and I talked about last week. And if you missed that episode, go back to last week, check that one out about goals and values and mindfulness. All of this truly ties in and then ties into your overall energy needs. And that's, that's sort of next level. That gets into our Longevity Nutrition Coaching program, which happens after the challenge, where we get into your genetics. We get into how much energy do you need, how to calculate that, at least to the best of our ability, and understanding variations. And just like that predictive equation that I just told you about, so those things that you see on the app of like, oh, you're sedentary, add this many calories, you're active, add this many— that is not the greatest tool. And I show you how to actually try to calculate that. So a lot going on in this episode, but one way or the other, listen, you're human and it's okay. It's okay to be susceptible to things like eating more during social gatherings. You know, that's, that's just part of our culture. And I'm not here to shame you. I'm here to tell you that you're human too. And there are ways that we can continue to reach our longevity goals and our health goals and still enjoy ourselves. At these various parties or soirees or whatever it is that you're doing during the holidays and know that it's okay. You can get back on track and we can help you. So check it out at theenduranceedge.com/challenge. That's where you can sign up for our 21-Day Nutrition Reset Challenge to reset your gut, reboot your mindset, and detox your kitchen so that we have an amazing 2025. You kick off your health goals the right way. And again, it's more than just an eating plan, y'all. This is really comprehensive, holistic way of getting you on the right track. We got you. And if nobody has told you today, you are stronger than you think you are. Thanks for listening, and I will catch you guys next week. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.
