The amount of calories (energy) burned while your body is at rest. Note: some people just take their body weight and multiply it by ten to get a rough estimate of the calories taken in to maintain the same weight. That is not the same on every website.
In other words, BMR calculates the amount of calories needed to burn, maintain, or increase in order to achieve a specified weight. Below is a more exact method to determine BMR.
Mathematical Equation:
Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
Other facts to know:
This measurement is not completely accurate because it can not determine the difference between muscle mass and fat mass. For example: based off of this formula, some athletes who are extremely healthy may have a high BMR because they have a lot of muscle mass and muscle weighs more than fat. Therefore this calculation, just based off of height, weight, and age, may sometimes misjudge the amount of calories an individual needs.
Don’t starve yourself to lose weight:
Do not try to starve yourself to lose weight. Without consistent fuel source in the form of food, the body will naturally lower its metabolism or slow itself down to conserve fuel, making it harder to lose weight! Think of a fire at a camping trip. The fire burns most efficiently when there are small consistent logs put on it. A big log (big meal) will put it out and make it sluggish and a hand full of pine straw will flame up quickly but then rapidly be depleted. The body is the same as a campfire and needs consistent moderate amounts of fuel. Without a source of fuel, it will take energy from sources other than the fat stores which is counter productive. As stated in the BMI section, the goal is to gain lean muscle mass and lose fat mass. Exercising will help build muscle mass, and the body needs more fuel to maintain the muscle created. This muscle burns more which means the metabolism is increased. Weight loss with a balance of exercise and proper eating is crucial for short term and long term progress.
Variances:
In most cases, men have a higher BMR than women because they have more lean muscle mass so they have a faster metabolism.
Older individuals have a lower BMR making it important to exercise even as you age. This will help increase your metabolic rate keeping you healthy. |
