You use energy no matter what you’re doing, even when sleeping. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day.
Your BMR decreases as you age so it becomes harder to stay slim as you get older. Likewise, depriving yourself of food in hopes of losing weight also decreases your BMR which is a trap many people fall into.
However, a regular routine of cardiovascular exercise, muscle building exercises and metabolism boosting foods can increase your BMR, improving your health and fitness when your body’s ability to burn energy gradually slows down.
Males and females have to use different equations to determine their BMR using this formula on the assumption that males have a higher percentage of lean body weight than females (more lean body weight = increased BMR).
Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) by using one of the following:
BMR = 66 + (13.75 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in yrs)
BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in Yrs)
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:
Once you know the number of calories needed to maintain your weight, you can easily calculate the number of calories you need to eat in order to gain or lose weight:
If you want to lose fat, a useful guideline for lowering your calorie intake is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For people with only a small amount of weight to lose, 1000 calories will be too much of a deficit.
As a guide to minimum calorie intake, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men. Even these calorie levels are quite low.
An alternative way of calculating a safe minimum calorie-intake level is by reference to your body weight or current body weight. Reducing calories by 15-20% below your daily calorie maintenance needs is a useful start. You may increase this depending on your weight loss goals.
If you are breastfeeding and working out your BMR, then you need to add an extra 500 calories to your daily intake to ensure that your milk supply is not affected. When breastfeeding, weight loss is common for some mums but it should not be pursued at all costs as the mum’s and the babies health is the most important consideration and losing the baby weight should be taken at a much slower level and pace.
BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a measurement that uses a scientific formula to determine a person’s safest, healthiest weight based upon their weight and height. Having a high BMI can be associated with serious health risks including:
| height | ft | in |
| weight | lb |
| height | cm | |
| weight | kg |
To calculate your BMI without the BMI Calculator, follow this simple equation:
BMI provides a helpful guideline for achieving the weight range that’s healthiest for you. You can interpret your BMI results as follows:
Thus, with the use of the BMI Calculator and the BMR Calculator you can constantly monitor your weight.
