RMR for weight goals

mrandredparis
mrandredparis Posts: 37 Member
edited January 1 in Food and Nutrition
Has anyone done a test for their resting metabolic rate and how has it informed their goals? I'm getting an RMR test in a week and I wonder how it will help me achieve my goals. Any ideas or thoughts on it would be appreciated.

Replies

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,265 Member
    I don’t think those are that accurate. You’re probably better off to pick something reasonable, choose a reasonable calorie amount and stick with it for 4-6 weeks and adjust from there.

    There are other factors besides RMR in a fatloss equation that will determine whether you lose fat or not.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,760 Member
    What kind of test? The exhaled gases ones should be fairly accurate, though it's just a snapshot and we vary over time. It's important to follow the prep instructions.

    I've thought about doing it, but more for the amusement value. To me, what matters for weight management is getting a solid understanding of my total personal calorie needs, not just RMR but total activity. Doing that by logging calorie intake carefully, and tracking my weight changes (both averaged over multiple weeks) has given me a good handle on that.

    I'm curious about my RMR, because my calorie needs are quite dramatically different from MFP's estimate (and equally different from my good brand/model fitness tracker's estimate). My knowledge of statistics tells me that that's going to happen for a small segment of the population, but I admit I'm curious how much if any of the difference is RMR vs. twitchiness or something else. ;)

    You could plug your measured RMR into one of the standard activity adjustment formulas, and get an overall calorie estimate that way. That might give you a better estimate than MFP does . . . but it's still an estimate, and still IMO would ideally need to be tested against real world results to get a true personalized estimate.

    FWIW, this TDEE calculator has an option to enter your own RMR/BMR estimate, and apply the standard activity factors to get an overall calorie estimate:

    https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,890 Member
    Even if you get an RMR test that's accurate, it's mostly irrelevant. It's your TDEE that matters, relative to your calorie intake. And your TDEE includes all your activity and NEAT etc. It's the total number that matters, and your best way of measuring that is track your calories and track your weight change. For example if you take in 2,000 calories every day and you lose 1 pound per week, you can assume your TDEE is about 2,500.

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