How to Calculate Basal Metabolic Rate

Your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR, refers to the amount of calories you burn each day through minimal activity. This number is based on factors such as height, weight, gender and age. Measuring BMR is a starting point for a diet because you can calculate how many additional calories you will need to burn to lose weight. Calculating BMR takes relatively little time, but you'll need to take into account such factors as physical activity and calories consumed when determining a diet/fitness plan.

Instructions

• 1

  Type in your height, weight, age and gender at bmi-calculator.net. Click "Calculate BMR." Look at the green bar above the BMR generator to see the number of calories you would burn during a day of inactivity.

• 2

  Track your physical activity for a day. Write down how often you exercise and what type of exercise you did. Use NutriStrategy's chart to determine how many calories you burned. Add this number to your BMR to determine how many calories you burn in a day.

• 3

  Keep a diary of what you eat for a day. Look at nutrition labels to determine the number of calories you consume.

• 4

  Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for each of seven consecutive days.

• 5

  Examine the difference between the calories you burned and the calories you consumed during the week to help set a diet and exercise regimen that will allow you to attain your weight-loss goals.