BMR?

sdopps

Can someone explain to me in basic simple terms what BMR is and how it affects my weight loss?

brianandmarlene2

Its the calories you would burn no matter what. Even if you stayed in bed all day.

JoDeeD

BMR is how many calories you burn just by living (if you didn't do anything but lay around and be). You add calories to that by increasing activity. You can look under the tools tab to look for the BMR calculator. It also has an explanation.

ruststar

It stands for Basal Metabolic Rate and is an estimate, based on a formula, of how many calories someone your height, weight, gender, and age burns just to operate all your body functions. If you were in a coma the hospital would be negligent if they didn't feed you at least that amount.

The amount you actually need depends on your activity level. Sedentary people can multiply their BMR by 1.2 to figure out how much they need to maintain their current weight. More active people will need more.

To lose weight you need to have a deficit between what you need to maintain and what you take in. For example, if your BMR is 1500, and you are sedentary so you multiply by 1.2 to get 1800. To lose weight you'd need to create a deficit, and the most common way is lowering how many calories you eat, or increasing your activity. A combination of both is most common.

riccoismydog

BMR is how many calories you would burn in a day without moving at all. It is the caloric out put for things such as digestion, cellular level functions, thinking, ect.

Your BMR will drop as you lose weight, even the extra fat needs a small amount of calories to maintain its life. Muscle will burn more calories resting, so your bmr will get higher as you increase your muscle mass.

If your BMR is say 1400, you should try to keep your caloric intake above that. You don't want to break down fat just to stay alive. It is not good for you (or so I hear, Im not a scientist)

Your BMR on this site as it is calculated is an estimate. You would be better if you can find a calculator based on your body fat percentage, but that would take more testing than most people have access to.

To lose weight, eat enough to stay alive, exercise more and when you add up your bmr plus exercise and subtract food make sure your in a deficiet of calories.

If your not losing weight, or you hit a huge plateau it's because one of your calculations are off.

Rain_Howard

Others have explained what it is. What it really means though, is debatable. Much like the BMI it is an outdated formula that does not take into account enough variables to be accurate. A basic (very basic) guideline perhaps.