Determining Your Workout Calorie Needs through Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)


Muscle building exercise

Whether you want to gain kilos or you want to shed some pounds, knowing the exact workout calorie needs is a must. And Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the energy quantity you can use to measure it. BMR is the minimum calories your body need to survive.

In terms of workouts, you can think of BMR as the amount of energy you burn if you stay in bed all day. Involuntary functions such as pumping blood and breathing determine the basal metabolic rate. When muscle mass increase, BMR doesn’t increase because the muscle requires more energy to maintain its level of activity.

Why BMR Matters in your Workout Calorie Needs

When you know your BMR, you can keep count on your calorie need. You can understand how much calories you need to burn daily and how much to consume. With BMR, you can also calculate the number of calories you need to eat so as to reduce fat, gain muscle, or to maintain overall weight.

Further, the total number of calories your body uses daily is known as total daily energy expenditure. This is determined by your BMR, together with the level of your activity on any given day. The total daily energy expenditure also varies significantly based on sex and age.

Men have higher total daily energy expenditure as compared to women because of their muscle mass. Since your activity levels change daily, it is almost impossible to know the actual amount of total daily energy expenditure.

The Difference Between RMR and BMR

BMR cut foods

You may find the term RMR being used synonymously with BMR. These two concepts are not the same as RMR which stands for Resting Metabolic Rate, which measures the basic BMR processes including the energy you expend in other processes such as digestion and non-exercise daily movements.

Most of the daily movements that are not exercise related such as brushing teeth and food digestion tend to consume a constant amount of energy in most days. Because of this, you can estimate the RMR with a considerable level of accuracy.

RMR and BMR numbers are close enough to be interchangeable. However, when calculating the calorie intake needs to lose or gain weight, you must be specific. There are both BMR and RMR calculators to help you get the right numbers.

Once you determine your total daily energy expenditure using your BMR, you can come up with a nutrition plan tailored to the level of energy expenditure. In this way, you will not end up consuming too much or too little calories, and everything you will consume will be in be in measured form.

 

 


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