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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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
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 |
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
For those who undertake a physical job involving strenuous work, multiply the BMR by 1.9 to determine their daily caloric needs.
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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:
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.
Each person’s genetic makeup is different, and with varying metabolic rates encoded into their respective DNA, the BMR also differs.
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.
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.
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.
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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