Many people wrongly assume that the BMR = maintenance calories. That is not so. BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the amount of calories that your body needs just to function. That means to sustain all the vital organs like the heart and the basic functions like breathing.
Most people, besides breathing and staying at rest, also do other things during the day, like walking and sometimes even being active. 🙂
All these activities require a greater expenditure of calories than the BMR. So in order to change your weight you need to find what your MAINTENANCE calories are. Maintenance calories are your BMR calories + the amount of calories that you expend throughout the day on going around doing your daily activities (for example walking or doing sports).
If your goal is to gain weight, then you should eat more calories than your maintenance calories. For people that are trying to lose weight, they should first calculate their BMR and their maintenance calories. After that they need to eat less calories than their maintenance calories, but still more than their BMR.
Here are two calculators that you can use to calculate your BMR and your maintenance calories:
Read more: How to gain weight
Yeah you’re wrong, bmr is how many calories your body burns daily doing nothing, metabolic rate** why would that be maintenance calories when you have your daily caloric intake for that??
I am a bit confused with what you mean. Yes, your BMR is what your body burns just doing basic bodily functions like breathing. However, throughout the day, you also do other things than just lie still and breathe. You also walk around or play sports. So your body needs to expend further calories in order to cover those activities as well. Your BMR + the calories your body needs to spend in order to cover the more active activities like walking around = your maintenance calories. Basically, your maintenance calories is the amount of calories that you need in order to maintain your current weight.
thank-you for clearing my doubt i was confused about this from a long time and after reading this blog i am good to go for to my next (weight -loss diet ).
I think the author is incorrect when he states “For people that are trying to lose weight, they should first calculate their BMR and their maintenance calories. After that they need to eat less calories than their maintenance calories, but still more than their BMR.”
Why would someone wanting to lose weight need tobeat MIRE calories than their BMR? It does not make sense. Someone wanting to lose weight will lose weight faster the more calories BELOW their BMR they eat. The way it’s presented there would be a range of calories to eat to lose weight when in actuality only one criteria has to be met – eat fewer calories than your maintenance calorie count (and the greater number of calories below the maintenance calorie count one eats, the more weight they will lose).
Eating below your BMR is unsustainable. While yes, you will lose weight, in the long run it will hurt you. Studies show that people who go on a too aggressive diet, usually end up gaining the weight back up. Most people will feel lethargic, tired, and constantly hungry, with the body also not having the energy in order to do much in the gym. Hence, most people will just give up and go back to their old habits. Losing weight should be done in a sustainable way.