Your Resting Metabolic Rate (or RMR)

Are you in the habit of leaving your vehicle running in the parking lot for long periods? Probably not, since it costs you money. You burn up expensive gas just to keep the engine running. Let’s say you’ve left your vehicle running in the driveway and it’s turning over at 1,000 RPM. Next door, your neighbor has also left his car running, but his engine is idling at 2,500 RPM. Your neighbor’s vehicle is working harder and therefore burning more gas and costing him more money.

The same kind of principle holds true for your body except that in this case, burning fuel more quickly is a good thing.

[Side note: Here’s a question for you to ponder: if a fat person is seated on a park bench next to a muscular person, guess who is expending more energy?]

Unlike a car’s engine, however, you don’t operate on gasoline. I’ll bet you’re please about that. The fuel that your motor requires to keep itself (and you) functioning is measured in terms of the calories you consume through food and drink. Things are so much easier with a vehicle! When the tank is full, you stop putting gas in the tank, or else it overflows. When it’s empty, the engine just dies. Your body is infinitely more complex than that. For one thing, your gas tank (i.e. your stomach) is elastic and you can overfill it. Moreover, when your stomach is on empty and you haven’t put anything in for a couple of days, your body starts consuming itself to get fuel. Imagine your car doing that…

The important similarity, though, is that your body requires fuel (calories) just to keep itself going. That’s right, while sitting on the couch or even sleeping, your body burns up calories operating vital bodily functions like pumping blood throughout the body, breathing in and out, breaking down food, and many others. Up to 60% of your daily energy needs come from these basic life-sustaining functions. The remaining 40% will depend on lifestyle factors such as how much exercise you get, how much and what type of food you eat, and how much muscle is on your frame.

[Answer to side note above: the muscular person is expending more energy. The reason is that the body works harder to maintain muscles.]

While we determine the speed of an idling car engine in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM), the idling speed of your body is formally known as your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).

Resting Metabolic Rate Calculator

Using a Resting Metabolic Rate Calculator can help you determine your Resting Metabolic Rate. While the result may not give a totally accurate picture, as it doesn’t account for such factors as your muscle mass, lung capacity, or training history, it can certainly provide you a good starting point. (Note: a more accurate measurement can be performed by your doctor or personal trainer using the “gas exchange assessment”).

You can find your RMR by using this free RMR Calculator: Resting Metabolic Rate Calculator. You’ll then have an idea of the number of calories you need daily to maintain your present weight. The next step will be for you to count the calories you consume for a couple of days to find out how far away you are from that number.

For example, if your RMR is 2,800 daily calories and you’re consuming 4,000, it’s pretty obvious that you’re overeating. To lose weight, you can cut down on your calories, raise your RMR, or both. When you consume fewer calories than your RMR, you produce a “calorie deficit”. Let’s say you’re hoping to lose one pound a week (which is considered a safe amount). This would indicate you’ll need to produce a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories per week, or 500 calories daily.

If you cut out too many calories, however, you’ll be starving yourself and won’t be successful at slimming down. Your body will know something is up when the calories stop coming in and it will lower your metabolism. The result will be that you’ll feel like you have no energy, you’ll be moody and you’ll probably lose a few friends. A better strategy, one that will make you feel better (and make you more popular) involves boosting your metabolism.

Metabolic Rate and Weight Loss

We understand from the discussion above that if your metabolism is slow, you won’t burn as many calories while resting. With a slow metabolism, you need to watch what (and how much) you eat, or you’ll end up with a weight problem. What’s worse, once you have a weight problem, your metabolism actually slows down, so the problem is compounded. You need to get out of this vicious cycle.

One basic fact will probably help you more than anything else in your quest to lose weight: increasing your muscle mass raises your RMR. Keep in mind that your body expends more energy to feed the muscle, so your engine idles at a higher rate and you burn up more fuel.

So don’t waste your time taking pills or supplements to increase your RMR. The simplest thing you can do is get started on a fitness regime that includes strength training with free weights. Before long, you’ll be stronger and have more lean muscle on your frame. Combine your strength training with high intensity cardio training and proper nutrition and the fat will start dissolving from your body. Your body fat percentage will go down, you’ll look lean, feel great and be on the road to good health that you can keep for the rest of your life.

Conclusion

Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) indicates the number of calories you need per day to maintain your present weight. You can use this number to help you lose weight by establishing a calorie deficit. The most helpful way to lose weight is to increase your lean muscle mass through strength training, which in turn will raise your metabolic rate.