What Is Basal Metabolic Rate?

Your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR, is an extremely important number which allows you to properly setup your diet for peak performance in either losing or gaining weight. Basically, your BMR is the amount of energy/calories that your body needs to maintain it’s current state at complete rest.

Calculating your BMR can be inaccurate if you are extremely overweight, or very muscular, but is probably the best way of determining how your diet should look like to gain or lose weight.

Probably the most popular method of determining BMR is by using the Harris-Bendict formula which is different for both Men and Woman. Let’s take a look at it.

Men
BMR = 66.4730 + (6.23 x weight lbs.) + (12.7 x height in.) – (6.775 x age)

Woman
BMR = 655.0955 + (4.35 x weight lbs.) + (4.7 x height in.) – (4.6756 x age)

So taking that formula and calculating it for a 180lb 24 year-old man who is 52103 tall, and here is what you get.

BMR = 66.4730 + (6.23 x 180) + (12.7 x 70) – (6.775 x 24)
BMR = 66.4730 + 1121.4 + 889 – 162.6
BMR = 1914.273

So this individual would need approximately 1914 calories to maintain their current state/body weight at complete rest. This person would probably need about 2200-2300 calories on any given day because people normally don’t stay in bed all day.

So once you know your BMR you can plan your diet around that. To lose weight you’ll eat 400-500 calories below your BMR, and to gain weight you need to eat 400-500 calories above your BMR. Use your BMR as a guide, and remember that a 500 calorie deficit will help you lose between 1-2 lbs a week which is exactly what you want.

By: Justin D. Robinson

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Justin Robinson writes about Diet and Fitness on his blog. Visit him at fitness.entropyconcepts.com for more great articles.