Sunday, March 28, 2010

What Is A BMR? (Basal Metabolic Rate)

What is a BMR? A BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. It basically means if you stay in bed all day and do virtually no exercise, how many calories does it take to maintain your body.

When I was at my biggest of 252 pounds my BMR was 1,850, or in other words the calories needed for my body to keep my heart beating, my brain functioning, my lungs breathing was 1,850. The bigger your body the more calories it takes to maintain that weight.

When you lose weight your BMR goes down so it takes fewer calories just to maintain. Today my BMR (considering I am a few years older and a lot of pounds lighter) is 1,262.

So for comparison purposes---

252 pounds I needed 1,850 calories just to maintain my weight.
120 pounds I need 1,262 calories just to maintain my weight.

If you add exercise to the equation then I need more calories just to maintain my weight. This is why the bigger the person the faster they lose in the beginning.

You can "kinda sorta" gauge how much weight you will lose in advance by knowing your caloric intake, the number of calories used to maintain your weight, and how many calories you are burning daily.

If each pound is worth 3,500 calories (and it is) and my BMR is 1,850 calories, then we have the following:

3,500 - 1,850 = 1,650

So this means that if I just eat enough calories to maintain my weight I should lose about 1/2 pound of weight daily. Add exercise to the mix and I'll lose even more.

This is not an exact science, this is an estimate. Your metabolism is not the same as mine and my metabolism is not the same as your mother's. We are all different.

Here is a calculator to measure your own BMR:

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

At the same token when you are bigger and you walk on your treadmill at 2 miles per hour for 30 minutes, you are going to burn MORE calories than if you weigh 100 pounds less and do the same exact exercise. This is why the closer you get to goal the harder it is to lose those last few pounds. It takes more calories for a bigger body to walk 2 miles per hour for 30 minutes than it does for a smaller body to walk 2 miles per hour for 30 minutes.

Make sense?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The math is a bit off on your 1/2 pound exaple.
3500 lost is a pound lost but if your BMR is 1850 the deficit per day needs to be added up meaning 500 deficit per day or 1850-500= 1350 toatal calories per day would net one pound loss per 7 days.

if you eat 1350 and also burn 500 the daily deficit would be 1000 or 2 paunds every 7 days.

Anonymous said...

I guess you'll want to place a twitter button to your blog. I just marked down this article, but I had to complete it by hand. Simply my 2 cents.

WASaBubbleButt said...

Sorry, I don't know how to do that. I don't know anything about Twitter. But if I did, I would! ;o)