What is BMI and BMR?

When you’re trying to lose weight you tend to focus heavily on the number on the scale. Chances are that the number on that scale represents your success or failure, and so you are married to it. There are other factors that play into your success though and just as you take your measurements, you also want to look at the big picture here. When you think of your body overall you want to think of the fat, the muscle, and your overall body makeup. That being said, you may wonder what is BMI and even what is BMR. If you consider these, you are being quite proactive.

So though you may not have considered these measurements or the numbers, a health expert or even nutritionist is going to care about these a great deal. These are the numbers that tell the story; they speak to the fact that you may have a great deal of muscle or you may have too much fat. They may speak to the health risks, for example, if it is taking too much for your body to even be at rest. They may work with you and create a better picture of success, or they may even work against you and hurt your potential progress. Whether you like them or not though, your BMI and BMR are quite important in looking at the big picture.

So what is BMI and how does it compare to BMR? Better yet, why do these numbers matter so much? Is there any benefit to looking at them rather than just the scale alone? There are really important things behind these numbers regarding your overall makeup, and it’s time to really gain some crucial understanding into how this factors into your health and weight loss.

BMI is your Body Mass Index, which measures how much fat compared to muscle you have on your body:

This is perhaps the number that most of us at least have some familiarity with. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a common measure and it takes into account your overall body makeup. You will understand with this measurement just how much fat you have on the body as a percentage. So you will gain an understanding of how much fat you have compared to the rest of your body; it’s a lower number if you are more muscular. If you have to lose weight this is a great measurement to know and understand, for it will help to shed light on what your current picture is, and really what you need to be striving for to get to a healthy level.

BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate and measures the amount of energy your body requires at rest:

So when you set out to lose weight you probably thought about what is BMI and how this factored into the big picture. What you probably didn’t think about was your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), but you should. This is just how much energy it takes for your body to perform vital functions at rest. This also takes into consideration your gender, your body makeup, and your overall picture of health. So this is very eye opening in terms of what is happening in the body on a daily basis.

These two are related. If one is high the other generally is too:

The bottom line here is that if your BMI is high, then your BMR will be high too. If you have too much fat on the body then it will require you to expend too much energy to perform even the simplest of tasks. This can be very telling, much more so than just weighing yourself on a scale. So be in tune to elevated levels on either part.

Learning how to calculate them can be the hardest part:  

There are some ways to measure both BMI and BMR, but it may be best to get a professional involved. A trained fitness professional, dietician, or even a medical professional can help you understand what is BMI and BMR, and what your levels are in both instances. You want to be in tune to this and really understand what’s happening within your body, and it may be just what you need to lose weight and get healthier in the end!

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