How To Effectively Use The BMR To Lose Weight

What is Your BMR?

Simple definitions would be that BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate.The number of calories you need just for your body to function “your basal metabolic rate”, Bottom of Form. Not to be confused with BMI, which is another common term for discussion when it comes to weight management. Find out more about BMI which stands for Body Mass Index here.

You burn most of your daily calories with little to no conscious effort. Whether you’re talking on the phone, working at a keyboard, or just watching television, your body is burning calories to keep your heart pumping, your lungs breathing, and your organs functioning. The calories used to maintain these basic bodily functions add up to your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Basal essentially means basic — think of it as the number of calories that’s just enough to cover all your body’s basic needs.

If you were to do nothing but lay in bed or binge-watch your favorite show, these would be the calories you’d burn – just enough to keep you alive. Your BMR accounts for approximately 60 percent to 75 percent of the total calories you use daily. And again, there’s no physical activity required for this burn rate. It’s the calories you burn, the energy you expend without lifting a finger.

Knowing your BMR helps us here at IIFYM create an extremely effective strategy for fat loss, allowing you to better keep your macros on track and better understand the effect exercise has on your rapidly changing body.

Calculating Your BMR

The easiest way to measure your BMR is to use the BMR calculator by IIFYM. It only takes about 30 seconds to do. Our calculator factors in your height, weight, gender, and age, then we can plug this into our formula to create your macro blueprint.

Your Daily Calories

 Okay, this may sound counter-intuitive, but you’re going to eat the same number of calories every day – whether you work out or not. That’s because the calories necessary to hit your macro will have you at a calorie deficit every day – whether you work out or not. You’ll burn calories daily — some days more, some days less, and that’s okay. Your physical body does need rest to work optimally, it’s an important factor in the big scheme of any fitness plan.

And… you’ll get to eat foods you love and not feel hungry or deprived. Talk about a diet you can live with.

Your Work Out

 The IIFYM BMR calculator asks for your level of physical activity for a very good reason. You can influence your BMR through exercise, spurring your body to burn more calories even when you are just lounging around – this is because muscle at rest burns more calories that fat at rest. So, it follows that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest.

• Aerobic exercise provides a temporary boost to your BMR, an effect sometimes referred to as after-burn or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. This boost drops dramatically following an aerobic workout. Your BMR returns back to its normal level within 15 minutes to 48 hours after working out.
• Strength training provides a more lasting boost to BMR because it alters your body’s composition by shredding fat and adding muscle. We’ve already told you that muscle at rest burns more calories than fat. This is the reason men naturally have a higher BMR than their female counterparts – men usually tend to have more muscle mass.
• You can increase your calorie deficit by adding more exercise. You can also increase the intensity of your work outs to burn even more calories, and have a higher caloric deficit to shred more fat and add more muscle

The advantage of knowing your BMR is that you can find the perfect macro formula to have you losing weight at a comfortable rate for you. Lifestyle changes that you make to your basal metabolic rate make a huge difference in your physical body and in your overall health and wellness.

Eating To Lose Weight using the BMR Method

Losing weight while eating requires you to reduce your intake to below your total daily calorie requirement indicated by your BMR + activity level. Get your BMR Calculated here. Putting yourself in a 500-calorie deficit every day will likely result in the loss of 1 + pound per week.

Your BMR decreases as you lose weight, which means you need to eat even less as your weight goes down to continue to drop pounds. Loss of muscle may be partly responsible for some of the decrease in your BMR.

You may be able to offset some of the changes in your BMR with strength-training exercises to build muscle. Work out your muscles two to three days a week using free weights, resistance bands or body resistance exercises such as squats, sit-ups and push-ups. If you’re not sure where to begin, consult a fitness professional to help design an individualized exercise plan for you.

Article snippet reposted from https://www.livestrong.com/article/266994-how-to-lose-weight-with-bmr/.