🧠 Understanding BMR
BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. It's the amount of energy (calories) your body needs to maintain basic life functions like breathing, blood circulation, and cell production while you're at rest. Even if you did nothing all day, your body still requires calories to survive — and that's your BMR.
📊 How BMR is Calculated
The most commonly used and scientifically validated formula is the Mifflin-St Jeor Equation:
For men: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(y) + 5
For women: BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(y) − 161
🔥 Why BMR Matters
Knowing your BMR helps you build a nutrition plan that fits your goals — whether it's fat loss, maintenance, or muscle gain. It gives you a baseline of how many calories your body needs at rest. From there, you add extra calories based on activity level, which leads to your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).
💡 Practical Example
A 30-year-old woman who weighs 68 kg and is 165 cm tall has a BMR of:
10×68 + 6.25×165 − 5×30 − 161 = 1,421 calories/day
This means she burns ~1,421 calories just by existing — before any walking, working, or exercise.
❌ Common Misconceptions
- • BMR ≠ total calories burned in a day.
- • BMR is not the same as metabolism speed — it's just the resting component.
- • You cannot drastically “boost” BMR with supplements — muscle mass and age are the main factors.
📌 Quick Tips
- ✅ BMR is influenced by muscle mass — more muscle = higher BMR.
- ✅ Starving or extreme dieting can decrease your BMR.
- ✅ You can estimate BMR but for best results, combine with real tracking.