What is BMR?

Basal Metabolic Rate

BMR is short for Basal Metabolic Rate. 

Your Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest, also known as your metabolism. 

What is Metabolism? 

Metabolism describes all the chemical processes that go on continuously inside your body to keep you alive and your organs functioning normally, such as breathing, repairing cells and digesting food.  These chemical processes require energy. The minimum amount of energy your body requires to carry out these chemical processes is called the basal metabolic rate (BMR). 

What affects my BMR? 

Anything that results in an increase to your metabolic rate will increase your BMR. This includes exercise, stress, fear and illnesses.  Your BMR is relative to body mass, age, weight and height. It is also affected by your gender; as it widely regarded that men need more calories than women. As you get older, your BMR will decrease – meaning that you need to eat less to maintain your metabolic rate.  Regular exercise and improvements to your health and fitness will help to improve your body’s ability to burn energy. 

What can I do to speed up my metabolism? 

While you don’t have much control over the speed of your metabolism, you can control how many calories you burn through your level of physical activity.  The more active you are, the more calories you burn.  Some people who are said to have a fast metabolism are probably just more active – and maybe more fidgety – than others. 

Here are the 3 most effective ways of burning calories: 

Aerobic activity 

Aerobic exercise is the most effective way to burn calories. You should aim to do at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity, such as walking, cycling and swimming, a week.  

You can achieve this target by doing 30 minutes, 5 days a week and breaking down your activity sessions in chunks of 10 minutes.  

Strength training 

Muscle burns more calories than fat, so increasing your muscle mass will help you lose weight. Aim to do muscle-strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on 2 or more days a week. Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include lifting weights and high-intensity bouts of exercise. Heavy gardening may also do the job. 

Be active 

Try to make activity part of your daily routine. That could include walking or cycling all or part of your journey to work. You could also take the stairs instead of the lift.  

 

Use the link below if you would like to calculate your BMR 

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/bmr-calculator.html 

 

 

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