What is BMR?
Basal Metabolic Rate is the mimimal caloric requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. Therefore your Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories you'd burn if you slept all day.
With age, it becomes harder to eat whatever you want and stay slim for your Basal Metabolic Rate decreases as you age. Depriving yourself of food also decreases your BMR, thus is not a way to lose weight. You will need a regular routine of cardiovascular exercise to increase your BMR. By improving your health and fitness, you will maintain your body's ability to burn energy instead of it gradually slowing down.
The first step in designing a personal nutrition plan for yourself is to calculate how many calories you burn in a day; your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). TDEE is the total number of calories that your body expends in 24 hours, including all activities. TDEE is also known as your "maintenance level". Knowing your maintenance level will give you a starting reference point from which to begin your diet.
Note that the higher your lean body mass is, the higher your BMR will be.This means that the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, and it requires a reat deal of energy just to sustain it. And a good way to increase your BMR is to engage in weight training in order to increase or maintain lean body mass.
The Harris-Benedict formula (BMR based on total body weight)
The Harris Benedict equation is a calorie formula using the factors of height, weight, age, and sex to determine basal metabolic rate (BMR). This makes it more accurate than determining calorie needs based on total bodyweight alone. The only variable it does not take into consideration is lean body mass. Therefore, this equation will be very accurate in all but the extremely muscular (will underestimate caloric needs) and the extremely overfat (will overestimate caloric needs).
However, once you have your BMR calculated, you will be able to work out your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) by multiplying your BMR by an activity multiplier chart. You can find this in the 'calculators' section with a simple to use BMR calculator. With these tools, you can then work out the number calories your body needs to reach your goals of weight loss or lean muscle gain.
Additional Reading
Check out our "books" and "pills section for additional information on improving your health by controlling your BMI / BMR and other parameters.
