It is very frequent to see references to BMI or calorie deficit when discussing about weight loss. They do represent important indicators to understand your body and how to promote weight loss efficiently, but these indicators are incomplete. The reason for this, is that they do not consider how many calories your body needs just to survive while resting. This is where the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) comes into place. In this article we will explore what BMR is, what it really means and how you you can get to know what your BMR is.
What is the Basal Metabolic Rate?
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy required to keep the body functioning at rest. It is the energy required to maintain vital functions such as circulation, respiration, cell production, and protein synthesis.
An easy way to understand what BMR stands for is to consider it as the resting metabolic rate or amount of energy your body would need per day if you would do nothing but sleep and rest. It does not include any energy wasted with exercise.
BMR is affected by several factors like age, gender, height, weight, body composition and health status. As BMR represents the calories used just to ensure the basic life-sustaining functions, there are theories that suggest that individuals with higher BMR will have a easier time remaining thin, when compared with others with lower BMR. The rationale for these theories is that if you spend more calories on the basic functions you will have less calorie surplus, which would translate in less calories to be stored as fat cells. These concepts are commonly described as having a good metabolism that keeps them slim.
Besides the reasons mentioned above, BMR is also a great indicator for weight loss planning programs since it allows to have an idea of what you need for the basic functions and then calculate what should be your calorie deficit to achieve the weight loss you are looking for. This calorie deficit will be achieved by planned nutrition and if desired with physical activity that will burn additional calories, forcing the body to consume some of the stocked calories in the fat cells. There are some foods and herbs that have thermogenic effects, increasing slightly the body temperature and consequently increasing the BMR. Products using these foods and herbs have become quite popular as weight loss supplements.
What is my BMR?
There are several formulas to calculate your BMR, some more complex, some easier to use. Below you can find a BMR calculator using a rather simple formula, that you can use to learn your BMR. Enter the info requested below and press submit and you will get your BMR result.
Your Basal Metabolic Rate is:
Please note that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends that healthy weight loss should be done with a calorie deficit of 500 to 750 calories to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. The minimum daily calorie intake recommendation is 1200 calories for women and 1500 calories for men. There are diets that are more aggressive and use values under the 1200 daily calories, but these diets should be done with caution and are not suitable for long term.
The other aspect to consider is that your BMR is a dynamic value, it will change over time with several aspects. When you are ill, your BMR will be increased since the basic life support functions will be more active. When you lose weight, the BMR will decrease since there will be less mass to care for but this can also be compensated by building muscle tissue, which will require more calorie consumption in a resting state when compared with fat tissue. Likewise, very aggressive diets, with extremely low daily calorie intake will reduce your BMR, this is your body adaptation to calorie deprivation.
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