Why knowing your RMR is crucial to help you lose weight – Here’s why

It's no secret that to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. What many people don't realise, however, is how large that deficit depends on your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Without knowing your RMR, it's difficult to figure out just how much you need to reduce your calorie intake to see results. In this blog post, we'll discuss the importance of measuring your RMR. So, if you're looking to finally shed those last stubborn pounds, read on!

1. Your RMR (resting metabolic rate) is the number of calories your body burns at rest

Your RMR is the number of calories you burn during 24 hours without performing any deliberate physical activity. It can be thought of as similar to your body's furnace, which burns fuel at all times – even while you're sleeping – to maintain bodily functions and offset your weight loss from eating.

2. RMR accounts for around 60% of your daily calorie expenditure

This means that RMR is extremely important in determining how much you should be eating every day. Knowing your RMR and matching it to your activity levels can help you create the caloric deficit needed for weight loss without feeling overly hungry or fatigued.

3. RMR varies widely between people

Your RMR is unique to you and is affected by factors such as weight, lean muscle mass, fat mass, age, fitness and current diet. Unfortunately, your genetic makeup has an impact on your metabolism which means you have little control over it. People with the same weight and body types may still have a different metabolism. This is the reason why online RMR calculators are can be so inaccurate. They cannot for you as an individual!

Figure 1: Typical contribution of organs to body mass to basal metabolic rate. Although muscle and fat mass have a relatively low metabolic rate (per gram) compared to organs, their total mass means their overall contribution is similar.

Adapted from Challenges in tackling energy expenditure as obesity therapy: From preclinical models to clinical application.

4. How do you measure RMR?

The RMR metabolism test we use for the Ignite Metabolic Programme is a none invasive simple test takes between 10 and 20 minutes. During the test, you breathe into something called a metabolic cart which measures how many calories you are burning. This is called indirect calorimetry. After the test, we give you your metabolic rate and the number of calories you require each day for your goal.

How can this help you lose weight?

To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit means you burn more calories than you are consuming through food and drink. If you know how many calories you burn from an RMR test, you will then know how much you need to eat to lose weight.

More is not better. The idea with dieting to lose weight and keep it off whereby dieting too aggressively can actually stall your progress. This is the reason why as part of Ignite, we help you to to eat the most amount possible as this makes it easier to stick to your diet, it's more enjoyable and reduces the impact of metabolic adaptation, which can slow down your metabolism.

Metabolic testing enables us to easily to customise your diet and exercise regime to create a realistic calorie deficit and healthily lose weight.

Ignite - The Metabolic Weight Loss Programme

Have you tried all sorts of diets but can't seem to lose weight and keep it off? Are you sick of not being able to find a diet that you can stick to?

Then Ignite could be for you.

Ignite uses metabolic testing to craft a diet and exercise plan around your metabolism so you know exactly what you have to do to lose weight, and keep it off.

For more information about Ignite visit www.boxnutrition.co.uk/ignite or contact us at info@boxnutrition.co.uk