Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

I have been reading up on how the metabolism works since this is useful for understanding how calories are used by the body. (I have already established that understanding calorie usage is a vital component to successful weight loss based on scientific principles.)

The rate at which the human body burns up calories through normal activity is called the Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR, this is the amount of calories a person needs just for their body to function, without any serious level of exercise. This is in essence the amount of calories you will be using right now, today. So it is a really useful thing to know when working out the level of calories required in food consumed to guarantee weight loss.

I found some great free tools which work out your BMR. Now I have no idea how accurate these actually are but my result seems to be plausible based on what I already know. A good site is:-

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Turns out my BMR is 2010. Meaning on a calorie controlled diet of 1,500 cals per day I will be potentially burning 510 cals of body fat to make up the short fall. A crude calculation since it is far more complex but in essence it is how it works. 7 days x 510 = 3,570 cals per week or approximately 1 pound of fat. Hmmm, now it doesn't sound too impressive. This highlights the need to do some form of extra exercise, see my other posts about the potential extra calories that can be used up with "easy exercise".