Ready to step on the scales, Leo faces unique Operation Transformation test
Will step up on special weigh scale
LEO VARADKAR will introduce the nation to the new dietary construct of the Metabolic Age test next Wednesday on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation.
Mr Varadkar will join a host of famous names including Anna Geary, Jake Carter, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Aengus Mac Grianna, Claudia Carroll and dancer Robert Rowinski, who will launch the latest edition of the popular show.
Mr Varadkar – who is a keen runner and has taken part in several triathlons – previously appeared on the programme in 2016, when he was Health Minister, as part of a campaign to get the nation to lose a million pounds in weight.
During this week’s show presenter Kathryn Thomas and the other stars will step on a special weighing scales designed to measure their metabolic age. An RTÉ source said: ‘Metabolic age is based on our Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of energy we burn a day before activity, compared with other people in our age group.’ Muscle, they said, ‘burns more than fat, so the fitter and healthier you are the better and lower your metabolic age’.
This means that ‘an older metabolic age may mean there is work to be done’.
From Thursday, members of the public will be able to measure their own metabolic age as pharmacies across the country take part in an initiative between the Irish Pharmacy Union and scales manufacturer Tanita.
And Wednesday’s Operation Transformation is expected to demostrate that looking fit may not mean actually being healthy. A source said: ‘Our big campaign this year [is] to tell the nation: fat is what we need to lose for health and to be able to measure that is great.
‘In terms of exercise, running and cardio is fantastic, but we are moving away from a focus on weight and looking at body composition. Muscle is heavier than fat and burns more energy.’
RTÉ were tight-lipped on how Mr Varadkar, 40, fared with the test, but the MoS has separately learnt that Wednesday’s result ‘will contain quite a big surprise’.