Basal Metabolic Rate

Your basal metabolic rate is the starting point for weight loss and gain.

Perhaps one of the most important terms to know in fitness and health is Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). BMR is the amount of calories your body burns involuntary in a 24 hour period. All of the many complex processes that occur in your body need energy to operate, and that energy is achieved by burning calories.

There are many processes that take place in your body. From your beating heart, to the digestive process, your body burns a lot of calories. Every person has their own basal metabolic rate, and it flucuates from day to day. Gender, height, weight, waist, age, genetics, diet, fitness, etc.. all play a role in determining your BMR. Do you want to know what your BMR is? Click here, fill out the form, and you will be presented with an estimate of your BMR.

So how is knowing your basal metabolic rate going to help you? Let's say your goal is to lose fat, and your BMR comes to 1,800 calories. Let's also say that you're moderately active and you burn roughly 600 calories throughout the average day. That means your body is burning 2,400 calories total per day. Now that you know this number, then it can help you determine how many calories you can consume in order to lose weight. If you want to lose 1 lb of fat per week, then you would need a 500 caloric deficiency each day. That would bring you to 3,500 calories, which happens to be the amount of calories that makes up 1 lb. of fat. With 2,400 calories in mind, then you would need to consume roughly 1,900 calories. 2,400 - 1,900 = 500 calorie deficiency.

The same concept applies to building muscle mass. Just tack on 500 calories extra (2,900 calories) and you will gain 1 lb. of fat per week. If you really want to lose the weight, then you can increase your daily caloric expenditure by performing more cardio and burning more calories.

You can actually increase your basal metabolic rate! How so? By performing resistance training, you build extra muscle mass. One of the involuntary processes that burns calories on a day to day process is the calories required in order to maintain your muscle mass. Therefore if you build extra muscle, you're increasing your BMR!