BMR-What the hell it means, and why it's good to know

BMR. It wasn't that long ago that I had no idea what this was.

BMR=Basal Metabolic Rate

Aaaaand in non-medical jargon, the amount of calories your body needs to function if you did NOTHING all day. What your organs need to pump blood, secrete oils, digest, breathe, and filter toxins--you know basically just be alive.

How exactly is that calculated? Basically, the equation takes your height, weight, age, and gender into account. That's the BMR--or, like I said the amount of calories you need to do not a damn thing all day.

Once you get that number, you take into account how much activity you do--whether that be completely sedentary, lightly active, or fucking super hardcore. To be all technical, this is called the 'Harris-Benedict Formula' These are the calories you need to take in depending on your lifestyle--to MAINTAIN your current weight.

Check it out--calculate yours...


Of course, now these are estimations, but there are pretty accurate calculations since they do take in a lot more values. However, it does not take into account those who are exceptionally short/tall/have lots of lean muscle mass--so keep this in mind if you fall into any of those categories, especially those with lots of lean muscle--lean muscle on it's own burns a lot more calories, so knowing that you probably need to increase the amount of calories you take in given your BMR above.

So, how does that relate if you want to lose weight? That number you calculated above--take 15-20% of that away from it( Take BMR and multiply by .15 (for 15%)) That's the number you should take in to LOSE weight.

Remember now that 3500 calories = 1 pound. To lose one pound a week, you can either:

1) Shave off 500 calories from your BMR each day.
OR
2) Shave of 250 calories from your BMR, and exercise enough to burn 250
calories each day.


**NEVER, EVER, EVER go below eating 1200 calories(women)/1800 calories(men) a day. Your body will go into 'starvation mode' and hold on to everything you've got on you. It works against you--trust me--I'll tell you in an upcoming post.***

Trust me, I'm fucking AWFUL with math, but you can figure this out, I promise you :)

There you go, BMR decoded. Use it to your advantage. These are the calculations that some of the most successful dieting (I hate that word) programs advertised use--and if you can do some quick calculations, you can save some moola in the meantime!


Go Fork Yourselves!

~K