Possibly the most misunderstood and confusing parts of losing weight is knowing exactly how many calories/kilojoules you are allowed to consume each day without putting on any weight.
If you’ve ever been confused in the past, or maybe confused right now as to why you’re not losing weight, I really hope this post will explain why.
Now while I am certainly don’t claim to be a Doctor, a Dietician or a Naturopath, I believe the reason why people get confused when they can’t lose weight comes down to something called BMR.
BMR…??? What the heck is that??
BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate, which basically means the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day.
Everybody has a Basal Metabolic Rate, and it’s different from person to person. A 6 ft tall, 90kg 21 year old male’s BMR will be a whole lot different then a 49 year old, 5 ft 5” woman who weighs 85kgs.
Knowing precisely what you Basal Metabolic Rate is probably one of the most important things, or numbers you could ever know when attempting and trying to lose weight. This is because if you consume (eat) more calories in a day then your current BMR (the number of calories you burn during the day), you will put on weight. However, if you consume fewer calories in a day then your current BMR, you will lose weight.
This is why you’ll find that most diets out on market try and get you to focus on lowering the number of calories you consume everyday.
While I’m not going to go over in this post all the ways to consume less calories then you burn each day, I’ll leave that for another day 
, I would like to help you workout today what your Basal Metabolic Rate is.
Fortunately, the good news is that there are some fantastic calculators out there which make it super simple to work this number out. If you type into Google “BMR Calculator” and hit search, you’ll be presented with a stack of results. Alternatively you can visit the calculator I have used in the past which is at http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/metric-bmr-calculator.php
Super Important Note: Make sure you type “BMR calculator” and not “BMI calculator”. BMR and BMI are two complete separate things.
Once you have found a calculator you wish to use, all you need to do is enter your current height, weight (no lying on this one ), age, and whether you are male or female, and then hit the calculate button.
When you hit the calculate button or the submit button, it should say something like “You have a BMR of ……..”. For me it says “you have a BMR of 2085”. This means that my body would burn 2085 calories if I did nothing but stay in bed all day.
Just a quick note of caution, given that it’s a calculator, I would expect it to provide a good estimate, but not be 100% accurate. By visiting your local doctor, dietician, naturopath etc.. they should be able to do a few quick test which would give you a better estimate.
So check out the BMR calculator, enter your details and take note of the number that’s calculated, and then ask yourself “Am I currently consuming less calories in a day then my BMR?”. If you are, great stuff. If not, stay positive because there are stack of ways to do this, and I’ll be presenting a heap of resources to help out.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post, and If you did, feel free to share this post by clicking on one of the buttons in the ‘Share & Enjoy” section just under here, or feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Until Next Time,
Paul
