BMR Calculator- Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate
Like Body Mass Index, Basal Metabolic Rate is a significant component of keeping human weight and health in check. It helps monitor one's health by ensuring they achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
It is possible to determine if someone needs to gain, lose or maintain their current weight through their BMR.
Please read on to know more about BMR and its importance.
What is BMR?
BMR refers to the number of calories that your body burns at rest. This energy is required to keep the body functioning by breathing, producing cells, processing nutrients, and circulating blood.
Other activities that make up BMR include heartbeat, respiration, and body temperature maintenance.The term refers to all calories that the body needs to fulfill its basal (most basic) life-sustaining functions.
BMR is the body's energy required for optimum performance at rest and in a neutral environment after 12 hours of an inactive digestive system.
It is one's rate of metabolism after waking up in the morning after several hours of eating nothing.
BMR vs. RMR
BMR and RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) are often used interchangeably. There is, however, a slight difference between the two terms.
As mentioned above, BMR refers to the minimum number of calories or energy required to keep the body functioning while at rest. RMR, which is also referred to as resting energy expenditure (REE), on the other hand, refers to the number of calories (not minimum) that the body burns during rest.
Despite the slight difference, an individual’s RMR should be an accurate estimate of their BMR.
RMR is thus a rough estimate of your body's BMR, which makes the latter more accurate, as said. BMR is usually slightly lower than RMR, while the latter better determines the individual's daily calorie requirements. It is a more accurate representation of the number of calories that your body burns in a day.
How to Calculate BMR
BMR varies from one person to another depending on a range of factors. The factors include age, dieting, height, weight, gender, exercise habits, and environmental temperature.
Calculate Your BMR
BMR Formulae
1. The Harris-Benedict formula is one of the most popular techniques for calculating BMR, and it takes into account an individual's four most important factors (height, weight, age, and gender).
Women
BMR= 655+ (9.6 * weight in kg) + (1.8 * height in cm) – (4.7 * age in years)
Men
BMR= 66+ (13.7 * weight in kg) + (5 * height in cm) – (6.8 * age in years)
2. There is also the Mifflin-St Jeor equation which is currently believed to give accurate BMR results. It is as follows:
BMR (kcal / day) = 10 * weight (kg) + 6.25 * height (cm) – 5 * age (y) + s (kcal / day),
where s is +5 for males and -161 for females.
3. You can also determine your BMR through the Katch-McArdle Formula. It is the third method of finding BMR based on the formula below:
BMR = 370 + (21.6 * Lean Body Mass[kg])
To use the above formula, you should know your lean body mass.
4. Besides the above formulas, you can also determine your BMR via the formula:
Men: BMR = 88.362 + (13.397 x weight in kg) + (4.799 x height in cm) – (5.677 x age in years)
Women: BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) – (4.330 x age in years)
Understanding the Results
Most people’s BMR scores range between 1000 and 2000 calories, and these results mean that most people need between 1000 and 2000 calories to ensure optimum body functioning while at rest.
Depending on your BMR results, you should know when to maintain your current weight, gain or lose—consuming more calories than your BMR leads to an increase in weight, while a lower consumption results in weight loss.
How Many Calories Do You Need Every Day?
The daily calorie requirement varies from one person to another due to factors such as age, gender, height, weight, pregnancy, physical activities, muscle mass, environmental factors, hormones, genetics, and drugs.
If you estimate your BMR using the Harris-Benedict formula, you can calculate your daily calorie requirement by including the following based on your lifestyle:
Sedentary: These individuals get little or no physical exercise, multiple the BMR by 1.2.
Slightly active: People who exercise between one- and three-days weekly should multiply their BMR by 1.375.
Moderately active: Multiply the BMR by 1.55 if they exercise moderately between three and five days.
Very active/ Extra active: Multiply the BMR by 1.725 and 1.9 respectively for people who engage in strenuous exercises six to seven days weekly or have physical jobs.
The figures derived from the above calculations are the number of calories each needs daily to maintain their current weight.
How to change BMR? (TO LOSE FAT OR GAIN MUSCLE)
Depending on your BMR results, you should work towards maintaining your current weight, losing, or gaining more weight. If you consume more calories than what you need every day, you gain more weight, making it ideal for underweight people.
People looking forward to losing weight to gain a healthy figure should consume fewer calories than they need based on their BMR results. Just like BMI, BMR also plays a significant role in weight loss or gain.
Note: Use online calculators to measure BMR does not give accurate results. To get accurate results, consult a certified professional or use a calorimetry device.