How to Lose Weight With Your BMR

No matter how many fad diets and quick fix weight loss plans there are, calorie counting and regular exercise remain a reliable way of taking off the pounds. A BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is key to determining how many calories a person needs to lose, gain or maintain weight and refers to the amount of energy a body uses while resting. Use your BMR as a guide when you're setting weight loss goals as it will enable you to calculate how many calories you need to cut down on or burn off.

Instructions

• 1

  Understand how your metabolism works. Some people are born into families with slower metabolisms while some burn energy faster and find it easier to stay slim. Genetics is only one factor affecting your BMR, so the good news is that even if you've inherited a slow metabolism, you can change it. Age is another factor and from 20 years-old onwards metabolic rates decrease annually by two percent. Gender plays a part too, as does your weight. The heavier you are, the higher your BMR is. Lack of sleep can also have a negative effect on your metabolism and "put you at higher risk of obesity and diabetes," according to Everyday Health. Insufficient sleep on a regular basis can increase appetite and interfere with insulin resistance, both of which influence the metabolism.

• 2

  Calculate your BMR. Use an online calculator like the one provided by the health and fitness site Shape Fit. Simply enter your age, weight, gender and activity level and it will give you your basal metabolic rate.

• 3

  Use your BMR to determine your calorie reduction. Now that you know how many calories your body uses when it's doing nothing except keeping you alive, decide how many to cut out. Sari Greaves RD, CDN, an American Dietetic Association spokesperson says, "Putting yourself in a 500-calorie deficit every day should result in the loss of one pound every week." A 50 year-old woman weighing 150 lbs., for example, who is "lightly active" needs 1,762 calories to maintain that weight. To lose a pound a week. she will need to reduce her calorie intake to 1,262 daily.

• 4

  Exercise more and burn off the energy. By increasing your physical activity, you can boost your basal metabolic rate so that your body burns calories faster, not only during exercise but when you're resting too. When the 50 year-old woman who weighs 150 lbs. increases her exercise to "very active," she needs 2,304 daily calories to maintain her weight instead of 1,762. In other words, she's burning off or using up more calories and so fewer are stored as fat. Everyday Health has information about what constitutes different levels of activity.

  Try for a minimum of 150 minutes of "moderate-intensity aerobic activity" every week, the recommended amount for a healthy adult. It sounds like a lot, but do the exercise in short chunks of 10 or 15 minutes throughout the week and it will soon add up.