How do you calculate bmr to lose weight

Your BMR is not in itself a tool for weight loss , but it can be a helpful starting point for figuring out how to adjust your diet and exercise goals. The problem with a lot of diets and weight loss programs out there is that they are "one size fits all. Your BMR is calculated based on several different factors that are personal to you, like your age, gender, current weight and activity level. Read more: Quarantine weight gain: 5 reasons that have nothing to do with food.

Keep reading to find out about what BMR is, how to calculate it and how it can help you with your nutrition and exercise goals. Many people use BMR as a starting point to calculate their daily calorie needs and how to best adjust them to reach their goals. In fact, many macro calculators, like the popular IIFYM , incorporate BMR into their calculations for telling you about your calorie intake and macro needs based on your goals. One common misconception about BMR is that it is the amount of calories your body burns at rest, but that is a different metric -- Resting metabolic rate or RMR.

Your BMR is what energy your body needs to perform basic functions, while RMR is the amount of calories that your body burns while at rest. Some people use the measurements interchangeably, but they aren't necessarily the same thing. There are many different calculators available online that can calculate your estimated BMR.

Note that some of them will ask you to enter your body fat percentage, which many people do not know. Your BMR tells you your calorie needs, when you take that number plus how much you burn every day during normal activity and exercise, you get your TDEE. It's the same formula except you add in a multiplier that's dependent on how much "activity" you have in a given day. This includes all the working out we do as well as all the little things we do like showering, walking around the office, taking out the trash, cuddling with puppies, yelling at the TV… You know.

Normal stuff. So following the EverydayHealth examples, if the man exercises 3 days a week, his daily caloric requirement is 1, And if the woman in the example exercises 6 days a week, her daily caloric requirement is 1, So if your TDEE ends up being 2, calories per day, you need to eat fewer calories to achieve "weight loss". This would put you at approximately losing 1 pound per week. And to test the accuracy of your TDEE, just see if your weight drops by about a pound per week.

Then, all you need to do is track your calorie intake via an app like MyFitnessPal and adjust your TDEE multiplier as your exercise routine changes. Meal prepping is going to be your best bet for staying on top of a calorie deficit!

You can make one big meal, split it by calories and weight into separate containers, and just grab and go. The more barriers you can reduce when having to think about your calories, the better you will do, I promise. Here are some great meal prep recipes for you to dig into. Just knowing what your body needs and how your unique BMR and TDEE affect your weight loss strategy will help you immensely when trying to lose weight. Once you have your numbers, pick a calorie deficit that you feel confident sticking to, and start your journey toward the life of your dreams.

Nathan Phelps is a foodie, writer, marketer, and musician living in the great city of Nashville, TN. Shop Inside Chomps Learn. Your cart is empty Start shopping. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And that goes for most aspects of our lives, right? The calories used to maintain these basic bodily functions add up to your BMR. BMR is one of many factors in the total number of calories you burn in a given day, also called your total daily energy expenditure TDEE.

TDEE is determined by genetics, biological sex, age, body size, and lean body mass. Hormonal health can also affect metabolism. At rest, a pound of fat burns roughly two calories per day and a pound of muscle burns roughly six calories, Dr. Church says. BMR is often used interchangeably with resting metabolic rate, or RMR, but they are slightly different. It is typically determined only in laboratory settings, with people undergoing measurements in a darkened, temperature-controlled room immediately after 8 hours of sleep and 12 hours of fasting and reclining, according to the American Council on Exercise.

Knowing your BMR or RMR can help you better determine your total daily energy expenditure in order to create a caloric deficit, defined as consuming fewer calories each day than you burn for energy. A caloric deficit is required to lose weight. But because most people do not have access to state-of-the-art labs that are required to determine BMR, equations are often used to make approximations.

The easiest way to measure your metabolic rate is to use an online calculator. You can find many calculators online, and all use varying equations. The commonly used metabolic equation, called the Harris and Benedict equation, was first designed in and updated in It uses height, weight, biological sex, and age to determine RMR and is based on average lean mass levels.