What is BMR, and why calculate it?
BMR is the minimum energy required by your body to keep you alive. It is how many calories your body requires if you are lying in bed all bed doing nothing. This BMR calculator for men will calculate the average calories a male body at rest consumes. While BMR can be calculated for both men and women using different equations, my BMR calculator is focused on calculating BMR for men only.
Factors affecting BMR
BMR primarily depends on height, weight, and age. BMR goes up as height and weight increase and goes down as you get older. It is more dependent upon height and weight for men than for women. In addition to these variables, another major factor that impacts BMR in men is genetics. Some men just have a higher metabolic rate than others who are the same age. This genetic variance is the reason that any BMR calculator is at best an estimate of your true metabolic rate.
How to calculate BMR
To exactly determine your BMR, you need to measure your energy expenditure over the day with a calorimeter designed for humans. It sounds easy enough, but human calorimetry is quite complicated. There are several methods, and all of them involve equipment or being confined to one room for an entire day. Since few people have the time and money needed to set up a lab measurement, scientists have developed formulas to approximate your BMR with varying degrees of accuracy.
The BMR Equations for Men
Two of the most common formulas used to estimate BMR are Mifflin–St. Jeor and Harris-Benedict. They are easy to use, and they only require your weight, height, age, and gender – no special measurements are needed! I’m still working on building a BMR calculator for men that does the math for you, so here are the mathematical formulas used, so you can estimate it yourself.
Metric Harris-Benedict BMR calculation for men
To determine your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), use the following formula: Multiply 6.077 by your weight in pounds, then add 12.189 times your height in inches. Next, subtract 5.677 times your age in years. Finally, add 88.362 to obtain your BMR value
Imperial Harris-Benedict BMR calculation for men
To compute your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), you can employ the following mathematical equation: Multiply the weight in pounds by 6.077, then add the product of 12.189 multiplied by the height in inches. Afterward, subtract the result by multiplying 5.677 by your age in years. Finally, add 88.362 to obtain the value of your BMR.
Drawbacks of using the formula
The Harris-Benedict BMR formula does not take into account the amount of fat and muscle in your body. Even so, this calculator provides a good estimate of your BMR and can be used to determine a starting point towards a healthy life.
Activity levels and BMR
Knowing your basal metabolic rate is just the starting point – basal means minimum, so unless you are in a coma, you burn more calories every day than your BMR would indicate. You can estimate how many calories you burn using a BMR multiplier based on your activity level. For the Harris-Benedict equation, the multipliers are:
- Sedentary – a desk job, no exercise: BMR x 1.2
- Light exercise, 1–3 days per week: BMR x 1.375
- Moderate exercise, 3–6 days per week: BMR x 1.55
- Heavy exercise, 6–7 days per week: BMR x 1.725
- Very heavy exercise, twice a day (professional athlete level): BMR x 1.9
BMR calculator for men to lose weight
Even if you don’t have a BMR calculating laboratory, you can estimate your BMR with this formula. This approximation is an important tool to keep your body fit and to maintain your weight. Be sure you eat fewer calories than your body needs, as determined by your BMR.
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