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BMR calculator

How many calories your body burns at rest, before you move at all, and what that becomes on a normal day.

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What BMR is

Your basal metabolic rate is the energy your body uses to keep you alive at rest: breathing, blood flow, keeping warm, repairing tissue. For most adults it is 60 to 70% of everything they burn in a day. Moving, sport and digesting food make up the rest.

The calculator uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the most accurate of the common formulas for healthy adults, and shows the revised Harris-Benedict result next to it. If you know your body fat, it also gives the Katch-McArdle result, which works from your lean mass and suits very muscular people better.

From BMR to a daily number

Nobody should eat at their BMR: it is the floor, not the target. The table under your result multiplies it by common activity levels. To set a number for losing, keeping or gaining weight, use the calorie calculator.

Questions

What is a normal BMR?

Most adult women fall between about 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day and most men between 1,500 and 1,900. Bigger, younger and more muscular people burn more.

Should I eat my BMR to lose weight?

No. Your BMR is what you would burn lying still all day. Eating that little while you move and train leaves you tired and hungry and costs muscle. Start from your daily total and take 300 to 500 calories off.

Can I raise my BMR?

A little. Muscle burns more than fat at rest, so strength training and enough protein help over months. Age lowers it slowly.

Sources

  1. Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241-247.
  2. Roza AM, Shizgal HM. The Harris Benedict equation reevaluated: resting energy requirements and the body cell mass. Am J Clin Nutr. 1984;40(1):168-182.
  3. McArdle WD, Katch FI, Katch VL. Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance. 8th ed. Wolters Kluwer; 2015.