What is BMR(Basal Metabolic Rate) Calculator?

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

Every BMR calculator takes multiple factors into account to give you an accurate value. Let’s understand these variables in brief:

• Age

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:

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:

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:

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:

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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