Fr. Warren Metzler faced several hurdles on the road to weight loss. A 71-year-old diabetic with flagging health and a busy schedule as a parish priest, Metzler needed help losing some serious weight.
Working with Paula Franetti of Pittsburgh-based
MetaFitness, he accomplished just that. He slowly lost 45 pounds over the year and turned the effort into a church fundraiser,
The Biggest Loser, raising $39,000 from parishioners.
“I’m the incredibly shrinking pastor,” laughs Metzler. “My parish was very concerned with how heavy I was getting. I kept to Paula’s outline and joined a gym. It’s really given the parish spirit.”
MetaFitness takes a new approach to weight loss, combining a metabolism assessment—how the body burns calories for energy—with a customized program of nutrition, exercise and counseling. Founded by Franetti in 2005, the company has doubled its business this year and plans to add a North Hills and South Hills location to its existing location in the Edgewood Towne Center.
“The fitness industry is really growing here,” says Franetti, who has 20 years experience as an exercise physiologist, fitness coach and wellness director. “This program is about training people to be energetic. The only way to take weight off is to make the body work more efficiently.”
Franetti uses an armband by Pittsburgh-based
Body Media to assess a patient’s metabolic lifestyle. Patients often complain they get stuck at a weight and can’t get beyond it, she says. “We train you to eat in a proper way that matches how you burn your calories so your body doesn’t go into starvation mode.”
The cost is $300 for an assessment and $1000 for the one-year program. MetaFitness also provides a licensed dietician and nutritionist, a certified well coach and a licensed acupuncturist.
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Writer:
Deb SmitSource: Paula Franetti, MetaFitness
Image courtesy MetaFitness