Metabolism is defined as the rate at which you burn calories. Calories are found in all foods. If you burn 3500 excess calories in 1 week you will lose a pound. You do this by eating less and exercising—your body knows when to start “eating its own fat storage” when it is not getting enough from foods and/or you are burning extra calories by exercising.
Do you know someone who seems to eat whatever she wants, doesn’t seem to exercise at all, and yet doesn’t gain weight? You may have heard someone like that say, “I have a good metabolism.” They’re partially right.
What they should say is something like this, “I have a high BMR which allows me to burn calories while at rest with greater efficiency than many other people.” Well, maybe they shouldn’t say it like that since they’re likely not to get invited out to lunch anymore.
Simply put, your BMR is the amount of energy you need to fuel basic metabolic functions like respiration, digestion, and maintaining core body temperature—in other words what you need to sustain life. Another way to think of it is that it represents how many calories you burn without any form of exercise. Of course, none of us are likely to sleep twenty -four hours a day, so our BMR alone doesn’t provide us with an accurate picture of our basic caloric needs. You can determine your total caloric need based on accepted formulas and how active you are. The number of calories required for those physical activities varies, but generally, physical activities require anywhere from 150 to 600 calories per hour. The variables to take into account are how long and how intensely you do the activity, your fitness level, and what activity you’re doing.
Simply performing day-to-day activities is not enough to lose weight. Yes parking further away from your destination or taking the stairs instead of the elevator will improve your health, especially for somebody who leads a sedentary lifestyle. (I classify these and other activities like being a mom and chasing after kids as “bonus calorie burns”.)
Now if this is all the science you ever want to know you can skip the reading below. Within the next week Moms Into Fitness will be launching some Personal Training software that will calculate all this stuff for you! So check back soon.
Figure your BMR by using the calculation below:
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )
Your BMR tells you how many calories you need to consume to maintain basic body functions. This number is what you need to consume if you were completely sedentary—if you didn’t move much at all during the course of a day.
For Example my BMR is 655 + (4.35 x 104 lbs.) + (4.7 x 62”) – (4.7 x 30)
655 + (452) + (291) – (141) = 1,257
So, if I eat 1,257 calories/day WITHOUT exercising I will MAINTAIN my weight.
To Maintain Weight = BMR
To Lose Weight < BMR
And we haven’t even touched the surface of exercise yet! You’re here at Moms Into Fitness because you want to start or continue exercising, right? So instead of lauching into more science I want you to start by using your BMR to eat the right amount of calories for your metabolism. Then check back in another week and we will have our Personal Training Software tell you how to rev your metabolism with exercise!
All the Best, Lindsay Brin
