BMR Calculator Online - Formula, Benefits & Chart

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Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is a measurement of the amount of calories that your body requires for basic and essential functions. A BMR calculator is a free online tool that allows you to quickly determine what your Basal Metabolic Rate is. It takes into account factors such as your gender, age, height, and weight.Using a BMR calculator has many benefits. Firstly, you get to save a lot of time since it takes only a few seconds for the calculator to display the results. Secondly, it eliminates errors and mistakes that can occur when you try to compute your BMR manually. And finally, it allows you to create a customised diet and exercise plan for following a healthy lifestyle.

Advantages of using a BMR Calculator

A Basal Metabolic Rate calculator is crucial to know your body’s BMR which in itself holds several benefits as follows:

Time Efficient

Manual calculation can be quite complex and time consuming. In fact, manual process is also prone to errors. Using a BMR calculator will eliminate the possibilities of making errors and will provide the right BMR within seconds. All you need to do is enter your details ,such as gender, age, weight, and height in the tool.

Maintenance of a Healthy Lifestyle

Each body is different and there is ‘no one size fits all’ when it comes to diet and physical fitness plans. The BMR calculator can be a starting point for planning on how to customise your diet and exercise goals for a healthy lifestyle. Also, it ensures that you are including the right foods in your meal plan that consist of macronutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, as well as micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals too.

Gives a Direction to Weight Maintenance Journey

The BMR calculator gives an estimate of the number of calories you must be consuming to meet your weight maintenance goals. If the goal is to shed a few pounds, you would need to eat less than your BMR, and if the goal is to put on weight, then you shall have to eat a bit more than your BMR.

How to Calculate BMR

There are multiple equations to calculate BMR and each of them has been proven to give accurate results. However, certain variables as mentioned below are pivotal to calculate BMR for a precise BMR result:

Variables in BMR

The older and more agile an individual is, the lower is his/her BMR. To put it simply, a lower number of calories is required to perform the basic functions of the vital organs in the body. The BMR decreases with age as the free fat mass (i.e., the weight of the body without any weight of the fat tissues) gradually drops during the ageing process.

Gender

Men are statistically proven to have a higher BMR than women, as men’s free fat mass is on an average more than women’s.

Height (in cms)

Irrespective of weight, individuals who are tall and thin usually tend to have a higher BMR than their shorter counterparts, owing to the greater surface area of their skin.

Weight (in kgs)

The BMR is calculated using the body’s lean mass, i.e., the muscle mass as it requires a lot of energy to maintain itself. So, if the muscle mass increases, then the BMR is also higher.

It must be noted that the BMR is calculated under a controlled environment where an individual’s nervous system is in an inactive state, i.e., the body and mind must be in a resting or sleeping position.

BMR Calculation Formula

As stated above, several BMR calculator formulae may be used to estimate a person’s BMR. The BMR calculator formulae are basically equations derived from statistical data. These equations form the basis of BMR calculation for most online BMR calculators.

Here are some topmost and widely used equations or BMR formulae that the online BMR calculators rely upon for an accurate BMR calculation:

Mifflin-St Jeor Equation

This is the latest equation currently in use by most basal metabolic rate calculators available online and has been proven to throw up accurate BMR results. The equations are devised separately for males and females, based on the ‘S’ factor.

BMR (measured in Kcal/day) = 10W + 6.25H -5A +S

Where,

W = body weight in kgs

H = height in cms

A = age of the person in years

S = +5 Kcal/day for women, and -161 Kcal/day for men

Harris-Benedict Equation

Since 1919, the Harris-Benedict equation is the oldest and most commonly used equation by basal metabolic rate calculators for the longest period until the arrival of the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. The equation was subsequently revised to sharpen the accuracy of the BMR result, and two separate equations are employed for men and women to determine their BMR using a BMR calculator for men and women.

Revised Harris-Benedict Equation for Men

BMR (measured in Kcal/day) = 13.397W + 4.799H - 5.677A + 88.362

Revised Harris-Benedict Equation for Women

BMR (measured in Kcal/day) = 9.247W + 3.098H - 4.330A + 447.593

Where,

W = body weight in kgs

H = height in cms

A = age of the person in years

BMR Chart

As mentioned above, based on parameters like age, weight, and height, the BMR chart gives an account of the number of calories needed by an individual to perform the basic functions while at rest. Here’s a BMR chart calculated using the BMR formula of Mifflin St Jeor equation for men and women across different ages, heights, and weights:

Height (in Cms)	Men			Women
Height (in Cms)	Age (in Years)	Weight range (in kgs)	BMR (in Kcal/day)	Age (in Years)	Weight range (in kgs)	BMR (in Kcal/day)
152.4	25	40-50	1233-1333	25	40-50	1067-1167
	35		1183-1283	35		1017-1117
	45		1133-1233	45		967 - 1067
	55		1083-1183	55		917- 1017
	65		1033-1133	65		867-967
165.1	25	50-60	1412-1512	25	50-60	1246-1346
	35		1362-1462	35		1196-1296
	45		1312-1412	45		1146-1246
	55		1262-1362	55		1096-1196
	65		1212-1312	65		1046-1146
182.9	25	60-70	1623-1723	25		1457-1557
	35		1573- 1673	35		1407-1507
	45		1523-1623	45		1357-1457
	55		1473- 1573	55		1307-1407
	65		1423-1523	65		1257-1357
195.6	25	70-80	1803-1903	25		1637-1737
	35		1753-1853	35		1587-1687
	45		1703-1803	45		1537-1637
	55		1653-1753	55		1487-1587
	65		1603-1703	65		1437-1537

Note: You can also use a BMR calculator to understand how much calories your body requires to perform bodily functions while at rest.

How Many Calories Do You Need Every Day?

Once you calculate the BMR online using any of the calculators, you can calculate your daily calorie intake by multiplying your BMR with a factor ranging between 1.2 and 1.9, depending on your activity level.

Sedentary

If your body is physically inactive for a large period with minimum or zero exercises, the number of daily calories required by the body is calculated by multiplying your BMR with 1.2.

Lightly Active

Lightly active persons usually work out for 1-3 days of the week. Multiply the BMR with a factor of 1.375 to calculate your daily caloric intake.

Moderately Active

People who work out for at least 3-5 days of the week fall into this category. Their daily calorie requirement is to be calculated by multiplying the BMR with a factor of 1.55.

Very Active

For very active individuals who exercise every day throughout the week without fail, the daily caloric intake is estimated by multiplying their BMR by 1.725.

Extremely Active

For those who undertake a physical job involving strenuous work, multiply the BMR by 1.9 to determine their daily caloric needs.

Ideal BMR for Men and Women

Check out the below table to know the ideal or normal BMR for women and men per hour:

Age	Male (calories per hour)	Female (calories per hour)
20–29	39.5	37.0
30–39	39.5	36.5
40–49	38.5	36.5
50–59	37.5	35.0
60–69	36.5	34.0
70–79	35.5	33.0

Ideal BMR for Children

The ideal or normal BMR for children and their daily calorie intake varies quite drastically depending on their age, gender, and activity level. The below table illustrates the ideal BMR for kids (between the age of 2 and 18) per day:

	Boys	Girls
Moderately Active	1000-2800 Kcal/day	1000-2000 Kcal/day
Inactive	1000-2400 Kcal/day	1000-1800 Kcal/day

How can you use BMR to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle?

Your BMR and daily activity levels are useful to determine the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), i.e., the number of total calories your body uses on a daily basis. Once you calculate the BMR online and use it to compute the TDEE, you would now have a fair idea of how many additional calories you shall need to add/reduce from your daily nutritional diet plan to gain/lose weight.

BMR vs RMR vs BMI

Here’s how BMR, RMR, and BMI are different from each other:

BMR	RMR	BMI
BMR full form is Basal Metabolic Rate.	RMR full form is Resting Metabolic Rate.	BMI full form is Body Mass Index.
BMR is the number of calories that your body expends while it is at rest without performing any additional activities.	RMR also measures the number of calories your body expends while it is at rest. It additionally measures the calories burned while digesting food.	BMI is a value derived using the weight and height of the person. It helps you get an estimate of your body fat.
As BMR does not take into account the calories burned during digestion, it is usually lower than the RMR.	RMR is generally a bit higher than the BMR as it also counts the calories burned in the digestion of food.	BMI doesn’t consider other factors such as bone density, muscle mass, and overall body composition to understand your body fat level.

Food digestion accounts for nearly 10 percent of the body’s Total Energy Expenditure (TEE), due to which the value of RMR is higher than the BMR.

Factors Affecting BMR

It is a commonly held belief that the more your body weighs, the more energy it needs to maintain itself, increasing the BMR as well. However, the BMR is not solely dependent on an individual’s body weight, and other factors besides age and gender also have a bearing on the BMR as stated here:

Free Fat Mass (FFM)

It is defined as the weight of the body minus the body fat in the tissues. In simple terms, the FFM is what is commonly termed muscle mass or lean mass. A high ratio of FFM to fat mass is known to increase the basal metabolic rate. The more the lean muscle mass over fat mass, the greater is the BMR.

Genetic Makeup

Each person’s genetic makeup is different, and with varying metabolic rates encoded into their respective DNA, the BMR also differs.

Dietary Habits

Small meals, evenly spaced between intervals are known to increase the BMR, and starvation has demonstrated that the BMR levels could drop by nearly 30 percent.

Physical Activity

A reasonable amount of physical activity that you undertake in a day affects your BMR. Physical exercise, especially body-building exercises ensure that the FFM in the body increases resulting in a higher BMR.

Body Temperature

Whenever the body temperature rises, the pace of various chemical processes in your body grows even faster, creating a higher energy demand. Thus, the BMR increases as the body temperature also increases. Similarly, in colder regions, your body requires extra energy to raise its temperature to an optimum level. Thus, the BMR increases in such cases too.

Hormonal and Reproductive Health

Hormones such as the thyroid gland are responsible for the regulation of metabolic rate, and when there is a high prevalence of this hormone in the bloodstream, the BMR increases. Menopause in women can have an impact on the BMR figures depending on the female hormonal levels in the body. Similarly, the BMR also increases in pregnant women due to the growth of a foetus inside their wombs. The BMR of the baby is also accounted for while calculating the daily calorie supply.

Supplements

Certain supplements such as caffeine, are known to increase the BMR, to accelerate weight loss.

To Conclude

You can make use of a BMR calculator to make a systematic plan for losing weight by counting calories and incorporating exercise into your routine. Blindly following a diet plan without evaluating your individual needs could be counter-productive to your weight management journey.

If you want added medical protection, you should also look into getting a health insurance plan for yourself and your family. With the skyrocketing cost of healthcare, a good health insurance plan will keep you financially covered so that you can focus on your well-being without any stress.

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Why is it important to calculate my BMR?

Your BMR is an indicator that reflects the effectiveness of your diet and daily lifestyle. If your BMR is lower than the average, you may need to lose weight for a healthy body. Further, keeping a check on your BMR helps you when getting your ideal health insurance.

What can I do to increase my BMR?

Quality sleep, balanced and nutrient-dense diet spread across fixed intervals, adequate hydration, and regular physical exercise can aid in increasing your BMR.

Does BMR change with time?

Several factors such as age, gender, weight, and genetics are instrumental in determining the BMR. The body composition in terms of muscle and fat changes as individual ages, altering the BMR as well.

I am suffering from fever. Can I measure my BMR?

You might be on medication or any medical supplements if you are suffering from fever. Such supplements tend to falsely increase the BMR. So, it is advisable to calculate BMR online when you are in a healthy condition.

Despite the daily physical activity, why is my BMR not increasing?

Not every form of physical activity is known to increase your BMR, although calories are burnt to help balance your intake with cardio exercises. Only strength-training exercises such as bench press etc., help in building muscle mass or FFM, resulting in a BMR increase.