Being able to prescribe personalized exercise prescriptions, this "shortcut" to weight loss is something many people don't know about!

Many people know that to lose weight, they need to “control their diet and exercise more”, but how can they achieve the best results through exercise? In fact, cardiopulmonary exercise testing can provide obese patients with a personalized fat-burning prescription, effectively solving the weight loss problems of “exercise is ineffective” and “the more you lose weight, the weaker you become”.

Mr. Wang, 32, who lives in Mawangdui, Changsha, has gained nearly 60 kilograms in the past two years because of his preference for a high-sugar, high-fat diet and a habit of eating late-night snacks. Mr. Wang has tried many forms of exercise, but to no avail. Three months ago, Mr. Wang came to the cardiology clinic of the Mawangdui campus of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital for treatment because he felt chest tightness and shortness of breath during activities.

Examination revealed that Mr. Wang did not have obvious myocardial ischemia, but his obesity had caused a significant decrease in his activity tolerance and cardiopulmonary function, which in turn caused chest tightness and shortness of breath.

Based on the anaerobic threshold and fat burning point data measured by Mr. Wang through cardiopulmonary exercise test, the cardiac rehabilitation team developed an individualized exercise prescription for him.

After three months of exercise intervention, Mr. Wang's body fat percentage dropped from 32.6% to 24.9%, his waist circumference shrank by 12 cm, and his weight dropped by 20 catties. He lamented that the effect of running for two hours in the past was not as good as the current 40-minute scientific exercise.

"Scientific weight loss requires controlling the dosage of exercise like accurately taking medicine." Dong Bo, director of the fourth ward of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center , introduced that in order to actively respond to the call of the National Health Commission to promote the three-year action of "Weight Management Year", the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital has constructed a precise exercise weight loss plan based on cardiopulmonary exercise tests.

The center uses cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) technology, allowing subjects to wear professional monitoring equipment to perform power cycling. The system collects multiple metabolic parameters such as oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide emissions, respiratory entropy, etc. in real time to draw an accurate individual fat burning curve.

By adjusting the intensity of exercise to the oxygen uptake range corresponding to the fat burning point, the patient's fat burning efficiency during exercise can be significantly improved, which not only enhances cardiopulmonary function but also enables more effective weight loss.

At the same time, to ensure the effective implementation of the weight loss program, the medical staff of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center provides obese patients with a full-process management model of "assessment-prescription-tracking".

By measuring resting metabolic rate through the gas metabolism analysis system of the cardiopulmonary exercise test, medical staff can dynamically adjust exercise prescriptions, continuously monitor patients' exercise status, and track weight management progress. This model not only ensures the safety of patients, but also significantly improves weight loss results.

With the clinical application of wearable monitoring devices, "real-time metabolic navigation" is expected to be achieved in the future to ensure that each exercise is performed in the optimal fat burning range.

Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Gong Xun and Li Jiaxin, Department 4, Cardiovascular Medicine, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital

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(Edited by YT)