if you want to lose body fat, gain muscle or just maintain your weight, you need to know your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. Their BMR is the minimum number of calories your body needs to function at rest. Even when you’re not exercising, your body needs a specific amount of energy to complete basic functions how to breathe and regulate your hormone levels.
Unlike many diets that apply one meal plan to all of their users, your BMR is calculated based on several different factors that focus on the individual, such as your age, gender, current weight, and activity level. Although BMR is not itself a tool for weightlossmay show you information specifically related to you.
Read on to learn more about BMR, how to calculate it, and how it can be a guide to your nutrition and exercise goals.
Read more: How many calories should you burn each day to lose weight?
BMR calculators use several different factors, such as age and gender, to determine your BMR.
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What is BMR and how is it found?
Many people use BMR as a starting point for calculating their daily calorie needs and how to best adjust them to meet their goals. In fact, many macro calculators, such as the popular IIFYMIncorporate BMR into your calculations to tell you about your calorie intake and macro needs based on your goals.
A common misconception about BMR is that it’s the number of calories your body burns at rest, but that’s a different metric: resting metabolic rate, or (RMR). Your BMR is the energy your body needs to perform basic functions, while RMR is the number of calories your body Burns while at rest. Some people use the measurements interchangeably, but they are not necessarily the same.
BMR calculators
There are many different calculators available online that can calculate your estimated BMR. Keep in mind that some of them will ask you to enter your body fat percentage, which many people don’t know. If it doesn’t, you can either estimate or use the images provided (as IIFYM does) to guess.
Some of the best BMR calculators:
BMR and TDEE
Once you start to learn your BMR, you’ll probably also find information about your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEEsince BMR is often calculated first to find TDEE.
Your BMR tells you your calories needs, when you take that number plus how much you burn every day during normal activity and exercise, you get your TDEE. So really, TDEE is the number you work with to figure out how to adjust macros or calories for body composition goals, according to IIFYM.
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How to use your BMR to help you lose weight
Weight loss is complicatedbut using calculators that take your BMR into account is helpful in taking a more personalized approach to your calories Y macronutrient needs. The way most BMR based calculators and macros work is by factoring your TDEE in with your targets.
If you want to lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit, which means that the calculator will set your daily food intake to equal fewer calories than you burn. Sometimes when you take an online quiz to find this number, you’ll be asked how fast you’d like to lose weight. Then the calorie deficit will be adjusted accordingly. The faster you want results, the more extreme you have to be with cutting calories. But many experts say that slow and steady is optimal compared to trying to lose a lot of weight quickly.
If you want to maintain your weight rather than lose or gain it, knowing your BMR and TDEE can help you know how many calories you need to consume each day to maintain your weight. The other side of the weight loss coin is gaining muscle mass. This also requires you to strategically approach your nutrition and add calories to your day (probably in the form of protein and carbohydrates) to ensure you can gain muscle.
More for your health and well-being
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified healthcare provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or healthcare goals.
