Your RMR: Resting Metabolic Rate
Think of your RMR as a daily calorie budget. For every 500 calories you save daily you will lose 1 pound per week. Since you know your RMR now you can calculate exactly how many calories you need to save/cut in order to lose any REALISTIC amount of weight per week. If you are obese or close to being obese it may be very difficult to cut so much so fast. Start off gradually by cutting your caloric intake to the level of your RMR. After that continue to cut to a level were you can lose 1 to 2 pounds per week.
Lets say you would like to lose 2 pounds per week and your RMR is 2500 calories. At 500 calories per pound you would have to save/cut 1000 calories per day to lose 2 pounds per week. As a result your daily target caloric intake should be 1500.
2500 RMR
-1000 (500 calories for each pound)
-------
1500 (caloric intake per day)
To utilize your RMR properly to lose weight it is imperative that you stay on top of your caloric intake. You don't have to know your exact caloric intake but you should have a very close approximation of your daily caloric intake. This means that you will have stay on top of counting calories every day which is a lot easier today than it was a few years ago. There are hundreds of websites that let you know how many calories are in everything from pizza to your average 12 ounce steak. (more on those sites later). In addition to that most sit down and fast food restaurants provide nutritional information on their websites for all of their dishes.
Recently my family was starving on a Friday night so we decided to order out instead of cooking. Everyone in my family with the exception of my youngest son and myself is currently trying to lose weight. Naturally we keep track of our calorie budgets by counting calories. My oldest son had about 400 calories to spend that evening so we had a choice of pizza or burgers. I knew the burgers would be better but to teach my family how to make healthier decisions I showed them how the choices stacked up:
Pappa Johns Meal
350 calories (1 slice the Works Pizza)
170 calories (1 garlic Parmesan bread stick)
280 calories (2 cinnapie sticks)
65 calories (1 chicken strip)
0 calories (water)
-------
865 Total Calories
Wendy's Meal
190 calories (4 piece kids chicken nuggets)
190 calories (1 small chili)
105 calories (1/2 kids meal fry)
0 calories (water)
-------
485 Total Calories
We obviously chose Wendys that night. Not only is the Wendys meal almost half of the caloric intake of the Pappa Johns meal, it is also a lot healthier. It has less fat, less carbs, and more protein.
Cutting Too Much
It is highly recommended that no one decrease their caloric intake to less than 1200 calories per day. Doing this is very unsafe and could lead to a wide variety of medical problems. If an adult is only taking in 1200 calories per day chances are that they are not getting enough of the nutrients their body needs to stay healthy. Also, losing more than 2 pounds per week is not healthy for people who are not overweight or obese. Keep in mind that losing too much too fast can lead to loose flabby skin.
Exibit A:
This fact leads to a dilemma. What if you're in a rush to drop some weight but don't want to pass out because you've lowered your caloric intake to malnutrition levels. Lets say that in order for you to lose 2 pounds per week you would have to lower your caloric intake to a unhealthy 1000 calories per day.
Example:
2000 RMR
-1000 (500 calories/pound= 2 pound loss per week)
-------
1000 (caloric intake per day)
It is very unhealthy to take in anything under 1200 calories per day as an adult so how is a person in this situation supposed to lose weight fast much less at all.
The solution: Raise your RMR by doing some strength training and increase your daily calorie burn with cardio workouts.
Adding strength training to your routine permanently increases your RMR/Metabolism by lowering your body fat percentage. In other words by gaining a little muscle you will raise your RMR and have to do less to lose weight. Lets say the person in the example above raises their RMR with some strength training and adds cardio to their routine. The result may look like this.
2200 (Increased RMR due to strength training)
+ 300 (calories burned performing cardio exercises)
-------
2500 Total calorie burn per day
-1000 (500 calories/pound= required 2 pound loss per week)
-------
1500 (caloric intake per day)
Notice that since this persons raised their RMR and is performing cardio exercises they can eat more (1500 v.s. 1000) and still lose two pounds per week. Being able to eat more and still lose weight is a major advantage of understanding what your RMR is and how to use it to accomplish your fitness objectives.
Hitting The Wall
Most people who are trying to lose weight typically just change their diets. This works for some time until they hit that hump they just can't seem to get over. Let me explain what happens.
If you are restricting your caloric intake without doing strength training exercises you can lose weight. Unfortunately for every 1 pound you lose 60% of that pound will be muscle and 40% will be fat. That's right only 40% of that weight will be the fat you are trying to lose and 60% will be the muscle you need to help you to burn fat. This is very detrimental to your objective of losing weight and keeping it off because the less muscle you have the slower your Metabolism will be. Your Resting Metabolic Rate/RMR is calculated based on your Lean Body Mass/LBM. The formula for this is:
RMR=LBM/2.205*30.4
Accordingly, the higher your LBM (total weight minus fat) the higher your RMR will be. In other words the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn doing nothing. Less muscle means a lower RMR and slower metabolism. A slow metabolism leads to easy weight gain and it is harder to lose weight if your metabolism is slow. Add to this fact that our bodies naturally lose LBM as we age and you have a recipe for diet failure the older we get. That is why so many people seem to be able to eat anything they want at a young age and not gain weight but as they age they start to gain weight even though they may eat the same way or less.
Many people (especially women) also go on diets many times through out their lives without strength training. Each time they go on a diet they lose more and more muscle. Later on in life they try the same diet again and can't seem to get the same results.
The reason for this is that without strength training while dieting they lose 60% of their muscle per pound of weight loss they have which slows their metabolism tremendously.
Hypothetically speaking lets say that at age 20 Jane had an RMR of 2000. She goes on various diets over time and loses a few pounds every once in a while. Now at the age of 30 her Metabolism/RMR has been lowered to 1500 because her diets over the years have eaten away at her muscle. Now when she tries the same diets she can't lose weight anymore. She can change this by doing strength training to increase her Metabolism to the level it was in her twenties.
