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Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is a measure of the energy your body uses in normal, everyday functions, like digesting food, moving your lungs and pumping your heart. This maintenance level is the minimum number of calories your body needs in order to function. Add this number to your calories burned through exercise and activity, and you get your total daily calorie expenditure. Now you know about how many calories you could eat without gaining weight. The first step is finding out what your BMR is. Now, you could check in to one of those exclusive mountaintop clinics in northern Europe where they hook you up to the latest in beeping machines, jumping lights and squawking monitors. But that would take days and cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Or you could do this simple worksheet. If you know your height, weight, age and gender, you can easily calculate your own BMR. Just print up the worksheet and fill in your vital statistics: BMR FOR WOMEN
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Member Comments
If you feel like you are "starving" on your recommended amount of calories, I recommend getting your body composition tested. It doesn't cost that much. - 8/7/2012 5:19:34 PM
For a "sedentary lifestyle" that involves actually getting out of a bed and walking around, even if one doesn't exercise and mostly sits or stands (e.g.: desk job, watching TV from a couch, driving a car, whatever), the resulting BMR number above should be multiplied by 1.2.
It might be useful to have the "sedentary lifestyle calculation" (x 1.2) added to the above calculation matrix, because I expect that many if not most of the people reading this page might not normally be lying around in bed 24/7.
I would personally also add 4 words to the first sentence, for clarity:
"Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is a measure of the energy your body uses AT ITS CURENT WEIGHT in normal, everyday functions, like digesting food, moving your lungs and pumping your heart."
As mentioned elsewhere on this site (though apparently not here), BMR calculations are rough average estimates. People's actual individual metabolisms may vary. :) - 7/13/2012 5:27:27 AM
If you consistently burn a whole lot of calories through exercise on a weekly basis, though, then the calorie limit is reset to a higher level to make sure you are getting enough food (otherwise your body goes into 'starvation mode' and you stop losing weight). - 10/8/2010 8:05:36 AM