BMR

BMR(Basal Metabolic Rate) in simple English means the amount of energy a body expends/uses at the state of rest to maintain normal bodily funtions.

Definition: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories your body burns at rest to maintain normal body functions. It is the amount of calories per day your body burns, regardless of exercise.

So higher the BMR of your body, more is amount of calories it burns at the state of rest. The BMR of a person changes according to age, gender, diet and exercise. The BMR of a person is determined by various genetic and environmental factors. Some of them are:

• Genetics: Some people have a higher metabolic rate, while some have slower, and that is because of Genetics.
• Age: BMR reduces with Age. It drops 2% per decade after the age of 20.
• Gender : Men usually have a higher BMR as they have more muscle mass and less fat.
• Body fat percent: Your Body fat percent has to be low if you desire a higher metabolic rate.
• Physical Exercise: Physical exercise not only burns fat but also in turn increases your BMR. If you are doing weights and building muscle, you are burning calories even while sleeping.

How to increase your metabolic rate:

• Eat at regular intervals: Eating at regular intervals helps in increasing the BMR. Try and have 5-6 small meals in a day. Starving or eating very less food will only slow down your metabolism.
  
• Exercise: Regular exercise helps in speeding up the metabolism. So exercise daily.
  
• Weight Training: Weight training helps in boosting your BMR as it builds up muscle. 1 pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day.
  
• Drink 8-10 glasses of water.
  
• Avoid Alcohol, excessive sugar intake and starving.
  
• Consume food with High Nutrition Value.

Hope this post has given you a general idea of BMR. Stay fit and live well:)

Eat more to Burn more

People think that if you want to be fit or if you want to lose weight u should reduce the quantity of the food you are eating. Some people end up starving themselves. This will just make you gain weight instead. To see a change in your body there definitely has to be a change in the quality of your food. Anything deep fried, sweets and simple carbs should be avoided. Food groups like protein, complex carbs, fruits and vegetables should be included in one's diet. Instead of having 3 large meals, divide them into smaller 5-6 meals. This helps in increasing your BMR i.e the Basic Metabolic Rate*. It is the rate at which your body burns energy. The higher the BMR the better. Let your last meal of the day be the lightest and avoid any carbohydrates in the night.An early dinner is always a good option. Include oats in your daily diet as that helps reduce cholesterol and is a good from of fibre. Proteins can be derived from fish, chicken, pulses and eggs. Avoid bakery products as much as you can and especially anything made of refined flour. White bread can be replaced by whole wheat brown bread.

Let you diet plan be flexible and something that you can maintain. It should not be a tedious task to keep track of what you eat. It should be enjoyable. You can treat yourself once in a while with something that you really like, but do watch on the quantity and the time of the day you are eating. Incase you have to go out for dinner or lunch, be extra careful with your diet for the next few days, and put in a little more time in your exercise. Please do remember that exercise and diet go hand in hand and it helps in achieving your targets faster. Develop a mindset of healthy eating and living thus you can indulge in your favourite things once in a while. Remember one thing, that every person is different and every body's requirement is different too. So if one from of diet is good for Mr A it not necessary that it has to be good for Mr B too. So find out your body type and make your own diet plans that will suit you.

*Will write a seperate post on BMR.