Measuring your metabolic rate

Basal metabolic rate or BMR is the minimum amount of energy your body needs to maintain life even when you are resting or sleeping. Interestingly, when we are sleeping, energy or calories are continuously being burnt. Energy during resting is needed to help multiple organs like the heart, brain, liver and kidneys to function. It is even required for blood to flow through out our body.

Metabolic rate is not a constant figure and can vary from one person to another, as it depends on various internal and external factors. Age, height, body composition, gender and many other factors influence the metabolic rate. For instance, younger people have higher basal metabolic rate than older people. Thus, even when an older person has a similar height and weight as a younger person, the BMR will be lower, as BMR slows with age. Incidentally, taller people have higher BMR than people who are short in height.

Though two people can have the same weight, they may look different; one having a lot of lean muscles while the other one may have a lot of fats. Though BMR calculation does not take into account the body composition, it comes handy when counting calories.

Essentially, there are two traditional methods of measuring metabolic rate.

In the first method, also known as ‘general calculation,’ the metabolic rate is your body weight in lbs multiplied by 10. Thus if your body weight is 200 lbs, your metabolic rate would be 200 x 10 = 2000. This method can give you an approximate value of your metabolic rate. If you want to know how much calories you need to maintain your weight or lose weight, you have to try out other methods of measuring BMR.

There is yet another more precise and sophisticated way to measure your BMR; this method is known as the Harris Benedict Equation. This method involves two separate calculation methodologies depending on gender. For a male, the equation would be 66 + (13.7 x weight) + (5 x height) – (6.8 x age). So a 27-year old man, weighing 200 pounds, who is 5 feet and 10 inches tall, will have a BMR of 4300.

This is the amount of calories he has to eat in order to maintain his current weight. If he wanted to lose weight, at an estimate of one pound a week just by diet, he would have to eat 3800 calories. A woman’s BMR score is calculated through the equation: 655 + (9.6 x weight) + (1.7 x height) – (4.7 x age). So a 200 pound 27- year old woman, who is 5 feet and 10 inches tall, will have a BMR of 2567.1.

This is the amount that she would have to eat in order to maintain her weight. If she wanted to lose weight through dieting, she can reduce her calorie intake by 500 (3,500 calories equals one pound) calories per day. This would make her intake 2067.1 calories per day.

The Harris Benedict Equation is considered a more accurate method of measuring BMR. Following this method, you can always re-calculate your BMR once you gain or lose weight.

Over and above the General Calculation and Harris Benedict Equation, there are other ways also to measure BMR. The Underwater Weighing Measurement is considered to be the golden method of calculating body composition. Also conducted are Skinfold tests, which calculates the fat content around the waist, hip and other areas. These are the most sophisticated methods of measuring BMR.