Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR, is an amount of energy that a body burn to maintain basic biological function. These basic biological functions includes keeping the heart beating and keeping the lungs moving. A person burns this energy even when a person is doing nothing at all.
Basal Metabolic Rate is a baseline measurement of energy use, and Basal Metabolic Rate is a foundational number that dictate how a body function. Many people attempts to manage their nutrition through guesswork, but understanding Basal Metabolic Rate allows a person to move away from guesswork and toward informed decisions. To estimate Basal Metabolic Rate, a person can use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
What Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Is and Why It Matters
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is a tool that use a person’s weight, height, and age to create an estimate of Basal Metabolic Rate. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation isnt a perfect tool, but the Mifflin-St Jeor equation is more reliable than intuition. Because human biology is complex, two men who has the same weight may have different Basal Metabolic Rate numbers.
This occurs because body composition influences Basal Metabolic Rate. Muscle tissue is metabolically expensive, which mean muscle tissue requires energy to exist. Fat tissue is passive, which means fat tissue do not require as much energy to exist.
Therefore, adding muscle mass can increase a persons Basal Metabolic Rate, and increasing Basal Metabolic Rate can increase the amount of calories a person need to maintain weight. Basal Metabolic Rate is only the foundation of energy expenditure, so you must also consider your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE. Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the sum of your Basal Metabolic Rate and the energy you burn through physical movement.
For example, a person with a sedentary desk job have a lower Total Daily Energy Expenditure than a person who is a competitive athlete. If you consume the same amount of calories as a competitive athlete, you will gain weight because your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is lower than the athlete’s Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Additionally, age affect how a body processes fuel.
As a person age, the metabolism may slow down, and as the metabolism slow down, the margin for error in nutrition becomes smaller. To manage energy intake, you must manage your macronutrient, which include protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein is a vital macronutrient because protein have a thermic effect.
The thermic effect mean that the body burns more energy to digest protein than the body burns to digest fats or carbohydrates. Because the body burns more energy to digest protein, protein can assist with metabolic efficiency. You can track your macronutrients and your energy expenditure using various tool.
Some people use a food scale to ensure they are eating the correct amount of food, and some people use wearable devices to monitor how much a person move. Some people use DEXA scan to measure body composition, but a food diary is also a tool that you can use to monitor food intake. Consistent use of a tracking tool is necessary because consistent use of a tracking tool lead to more accurate nutritional managment.
