BMR
Of interest to me is how our bodies burn the calories we consume. This isn’t so much an interest in the science, but an interest in being thin. I know that probably sounds vein and shallow, but I don’t mean it to. I just don’t like carrying around excess weight, and I feel better and I think I look better without it. To that end, I was reading up on Basal Metabolic Rate.
Essentially BMR is what our bodies burn just keeping our organs functioning. It does not take into account energy needed for assimilating food or any other activity, and should not be confused with Resting Metabolic Rate. Resting Metabolic Rate is a little more useful when trying to lose weight since it will give you more of a drop dead number for dieting, or maintaining weight.
I found a BMR calculator online. Oh, and because it declines with age, it helps if you are young. And not by a terribly small sum
My height (6′ 2″) and current weight (175) and age (35) give me a BMR of 1858.05. Using my same stats at 25, and then 45 are 1926.05 and 1790.05 respectively. By the time you are 45 (if you are me) you will be burning 136 calories less than you did at 25 even if every thing else stays the same (food intake, exercise). Lame.
So the older you are, the harder you’ll have to work. This world has it in for us! :)
Hey Nathan -
Interesting stuff. Did you end up reading about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent ? I used one of the charts listed under that page to check the estimated calories I burned during my run today and it ended up being within a percent or so of what my Garmin calculated, which surprised me. (I expected the Garmin to be off by way more).
I had not read it…until now. Very cool. I see the online calculator and it does seem to give me readings similar to the garmin.
I was reading an article the other day about calorie counts on gym equipment, and that they were usually heavily inflated. However the numbers they were giving were way higher than any number I have ever seen.
http://tinyurl.com/2ypt7t