Here's a calculator to figure your basal (resting) metabolic rate. It uses the Harris-Benedict equation to figure your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This will show you how many calories your body will use/burn in a day to keep you alive if you are at complete rest. Just plug in your height, weight, age, and sex to give you your BMR info.

Once you have your BMR estimate, you can add your daily exercise/activity calories expended to that number to show how many calories you're burning in a day. Here's a calculator to figure calories burned with specific activities. Subtract from that number your daily caloric intake and you can figure out your daily caloric deficit that leads to weight loss ... if your metabolism is *up to speed*.

You have to burn 3,500 calories to lose one pound.

So, figure out your daily caloric deficit and divide that into 3,500 to figure out how many days it will take to lose one pound.

Here's mine:

I'm 5' 5"

201 lbs.

52 years old

female.

My BMR = 1,590.45 calories burned per day at rest to stay alive*IF* my metabolism is functioning normally.

Yesterday I consumed about 800 calories.

I biked for 55 minutes at a *mild pace* per the activity calculator and burned approximately 500 calories ... maybe a bit less since I didn't consistently keep that pace... sometimes slower and occasionally faster.

So, 1,590.45 (BMR) + 500 (activity cals burned) = 2,090.45 calories burned yesterday. Minus the 800 calories I ate = 1,290.45 calories burned total.

That equals a bit more than 1/3 a pound burned/lost yesterday if my metabolism is working at a normal pace.

*My daily goal (from my dietician) for calorie intake is 850 - 1000 calories to prevent slowing metabolism.

Here are some of the things that can speed or slow your metabolism:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

 

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Basal Metabolic Rate is the mimimal caloric requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. This is the amount of energy your body would burn if you slept all day (24 hours). Let's look at some factors that affect BMR:

Age: In youth, the BMR is higher; age brings less lean body mass and slows the BMR.

Height: Tall, thin people have higher BMR's.

Growth: Children and pregnant women have higher BMR's.

Body Composition: The more lean tissue, the higher the BMR. The more fat tissue, the lower the BMR.

Fever: Fevers can raise the BMR.

Stress: Stress hormones can raise the BMR.

Environmental Temperature: Both the heat and cold raise the BMR.

Fasting/Starvation: Fasting/starvation hormones lower the BMR.

Malnutrition: Malnutrition lowers the BMR.

Thyroxin: The thyroid hormone thyroxin is a key BMR regulator; the more thyroxin produced, the higher the BMR.

So, how are your numbers??? This makes me wish I was a tall, lean, 6' 8", 20 year old guy! ; )

I am totally impressed!!! It sure gives me insight into what it takes thats for sure! I copied it off   I was looking at your ticker and it says your goal is to be 101.....are you freaking nuts at 5'5"???? Ok now that I have that off my chest.....I'm going to go to bed and ponder all this info!!! Thank you for finding it and sharing it with us.  Sherry

I have a hard time figuring out the tickers, but if she's lost 25 and has 76 more to go that would be 101 pounds lost, not 101 ending weight.  Of course I could be wrong and it could just be a coincidence.

obviously I have a hard time with the tickers too! Man I was worried....I thought that was her goal...Man I have alot to learn on here...I did enjoy reading about the MBR. There is so much info out here that I just either ignored or never knew....I think it's great!

No, I don't want to be 101 ... I want to lose 101 lbs! I started out at 226 and my goal is 125. ; ) Although, I'd be happy with 140.

Even floating in a cool pool helps burn calories-your body has to work to stay alive and warm.  I go to water aerobics in an arthritis therapy pool, and the calorie burn just isn't there (but I'm doing it for my Mom and my leg)....

One thing I still struggle with is I want to eat X calories a day-but my activity varies so much I really need to consume based on my activity level...like a normal person.

Another way to increase your BMR or calorie burning capacity is to increase your muscle mass. We're not talking heavy duty, weight lifting. It's just small weights with multiple repetitions. Use just enough weight to have a good and fatigued muscle toward the last couple of repetitions.

I'm currently focusing on my upper body, since I think biking should be taking care of lower body right now, and here's 2 of the links I've been utilizing. HERE and HERE. This is another very helpful LINK.