Basal Metabolic Rate

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) can be explained as minimum amount of calories required to sustain the body’s functions and processes, when the body rests. It is responsible for consumption of about 70% of total calories used up by the body. BMR is regulated by a hormone called as thyroxin. This hormone is produced by thyroid gland, which helps to control the body’s metabolic activities. Thyroxin affects the heart rate, body weight, muscle strength and blood cholesterol levels.

BMR generally decreases with age. BMR is affected by certain body functions such as respiration, circulation and maintenance of constant body temperature. Exercise, calorie consumption and lean body tissue can also affect this rate. Body weight, height and environmental temperature also play a significant role in increasing the BMR. If BMR is increased, then there would be constant calorie consumption. It results in burning excess fats and remarkable weight loss. Increase in BMR offers a number of health benefits such as reducing the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, heart attack and diabetes. An average BMR for adults ranges between 1200 and 1800 kcal.

Determination of BMR

BMR determines the overall metabolic rate and calories required to lose, gain or maintain the body weight. BMR is determined using some genetic and environmental factors.

• Genetics: Some people are born with higher metabolism rate, while some have slow metabolism.
• Age: BMR generally decreases with age. After 20 years, it reduces about 2% every decade.
• Gender: Men have a lower body fat percentage and a greater muscle mass. As a result, they have a higher BMR.
• Body Surface Area: Your height and weight contribute a lot in determining BMR. The greater is your body surface area, the higher is your BMR. Thin, tall people have a higher BMR.
• Weight: If your body weight is more, then your BMR would be higher. The metabolic rate of obese women is about 25% higher than the metabolic rate of slim women.
• Body Fat Percentage: If the body fat percentage is lower, then BMR will be higher. Generally men have lower body fat percentage and hence, they have 10-15% higher BMR than women.
• Body Temperature: With an increase of 0.5 C in the internal body temperature, BMR increases by about 7%. The chemical reactions in the body take place more quickly at higher temperature.
• Diet: Because of starvation or serious abrupt calorie reduction, BMR can drop by about 30%. The low-calorie weight loss diets can cause dropping of BMR to up to 20%.
• External Temperature: External temperature also affects BMR. Exposure to cold temperature leads to increase in BMR, in order to create an extra heat to body’s internal temperature.
• Glands: Thyroxine accelerates the metabolic activity of the body. More thyroxine is produced; higher is the BMR. In case of thyrotoxicosis (excess production of thyroxin), BMR may be doubled.
• Exercise: Physical exercise decreases body weight by burning calories as well as increases BMR by building extra lean tissue.

Some short term factors affecting BMR are high levels of stress hormones, certain illnesses such as fever and increase or decrease in environmental temperature. These factors cause an increase in BMR. Starvation, fasting or malnutrition results in lowering BMR.

How To Calculate BMR?

While designing a personal nutrition plan you need to calculate the calories that you burn in a day. Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is a total number of calories that are spend by the body within 24 hours doing all activities. TDEE is also known as the maintenance level. The calorie expenditure can vary from person to person and it is much higher in extremely active people or the athletes.

There are various formulas to determine the calorie maintenance level, considering the factors such as age, weight height, sex, activity level and lean body mass. Any formula that involves your lean body mass would give an accurate determination of your energy expenditure.

A Quick Method (based on total bodyweight)

It is a quick and easy method to determine the calorie requirements. It involves use of total current body weight times a multiplier.

Fat loss = 12-13 calories per lb of bodyweight
Maintenance (TDEE) = 15-16 calories per lb of bodyweight
Weight gain = 18-19 calories per lb of bodyweight

This method doesn’t consider the activity levels or body consumption. The extremely active people may need much more calories than this formula indicates.

Equations Based on BMR

Determining the basal metabolic rate using various factors such as age, weight, height and sex is more accurate method to calculate TDEE. Then multiply the BMR by an activity factor to calculate TDEE.

The Harris-Benedict Formula

It is a calorie formula using the factors such as age, sex, weight and height to determine BMR. In this formula, the lean body mass is not taken into consideration.

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x wt in kg) + (5 x ht in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x wt in kg) + (1.8 x ht in cm) – (4.7 x age in years)