avatarNathalie Saint-Clair

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Abstract

BMR?</h2><p id="31b0">BMR stands for <b>Basal Metabolic Rate</b>. Most people know that when you eat food you’re taking in calories and when you exercise you’re burning calories. But keep in mind that no matter what you are doing throughout the day, you are always burning calories. Your body uses calories for even the simpliest of functions like breathing. The rate at which you burn calories depends on how much you exert yourself. Your BMR is the number of calories your body will automatically burn in a day even if you lay in bed for 24 hours.</p><p id="f712">If your goal is to lose weight you should be eating less calories than your BMR. To gain weight you should eat more calories than your BMR. There are several calculators online to help you determine your BMR and caloric needs (link at the end of the article).</p><p id="56c5">For example if you’re trying to lose weight and you’ve been eating healthy throughout the day but then you slip up and eat 6 cookies before bed, you’re not going to automatically derail your weight loss efforts. It’ll take far more than 6 cookies for you to gain any weight.</p><p id="f505">This is exactly what happened to me. I found myself beating myself up over those 6 cookies. I restarted my weight loss journey at the beginning of this year and for the past week I’ve been eating so many carbs. I’ve had Starbucks coffee sweetened with vanilla syrup, plantain chips, mini muffins etc, so when I stepped on the scale to check my weight on Saturday (1/15/22) I was just crossing my fingers that I lost at least a little weight. Come to find out that I actually lost 4.5 lbs that week, a total of 6 lbs in the past two weeks.</p><p id="a374">At first, I was surprised until I actually checked my BMR, something I hadn’t done in a while. The heavier you are the higher your BMR will be and since my weight is pretty up there my BMR is almost 2,000 calories. This means that if I don’t get out of bed all day, I will automatically burn 2,000 calories. But I have a job that keeps me on my feet so I’m walking around A LOT which means on a day-to-day basis I am definitely burning far more than 2,000 calories. It’s important to note that as you lose weight your BMR will get lower, so you’ll have to adjust your food intake and/or excersise regiman as your weight changes. But small slip ups won’t hurt especially in the beginning of the journey.</p><p id="287a">Right now the only thing I’m doing to lose weight is drinking apple cider vinegar most mornings, intermittent fasting with a little flexibility (ie I try to only eat between the hours of 12 PM–8 PM), and choosing healthy food options as much as possible. Though I’m not counting calories per say, I’ve been doing this long enough to guestimate how many calories I’m taking in. I’m nowhere near perfect with the choices I make, but it seems I don’t need to be because doing my best is good enough since I lost 4.5 lbs in a week.</p><p id="777c">If you insist on finding out your BMI you can <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm">Click Here</a> for the BMI Calculator that I used. <a href="https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/bmr"><b>Click Here</b></a><b> </b>for the <b>BMR Calculator</b> I used.</p><p id="fd55"><i>Thank you for taking a moment to read this. If you want to follow my journey consider <a href="https://medium.com/positively-healthy-vibes"><b>following my publication posit

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ively healthy vibes</b></a> as I continue to write about my journey to better mental and physical health, which will include my on/off battle with depression and my journey to lose 99 lbs. My mission is to live my life as positive and healthy as possible. Below are a few stories about this journey.</i></p><div id="8350" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/new-year-new-me-2022-will-be-the-year-i-finally-truly-love-me-ea8154351b8e"> <div> <div> <h2>New Year, New Me — 2022 Will Be The Year I Finally Truly Love Me</h2> <div><h3>An honest reflection on why I failed in 2021</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*TYJ2xAucxAP8_EBI)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="489b" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/i-gained-the-weight-back-and-now-i-have-to-deal-with-it-6f8100e28ea"> <div> <div> <h2>I Gained The Weight Back And Now I Have To Deal With It</h2> <div><h3>Part One</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*UbzaVLqz_YoC4cqr9bGROw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="a2de"><pre>Follow <span class="hljs-keyword">my</span> adventures:</pre></div><div id="cf8a"><pre>I am Positively Healthy Vibes on YouTube <span class="hljs-keyword">Instagram </span><span class="hljs-keyword">and </span>TikTok in which I promote positivity <span class="hljs-keyword">and </span>document my weight loss <span class="hljs-keyword">journey.</span></pre></div><div id="9a7c"><pre>Follow Me <span class="hljs-keyword">On</span> Twitter @Nathalie_Clair1 (can y’all believe someone <span class="hljs-keyword">else</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">has</span> that so I had <span class="hljs-keyword">to</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">add</span> the <span class="hljs-number">1</span>) <span class="hljs-keyword">where</span> I promote myself <span class="hljs-keyword">as</span> a writer. </pre></div><div id="e02c"><pre>You can message <span class="hljs-keyword">me</span> directly <span class="hljs-keyword">on</span> Twitter <span class="hljs-keyword">or</span> email <span class="hljs-keyword">me</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">at</span> [email protected]. </pre></div><div id="1a9f"><pre><span class="hljs-keyword">If</span> you are <span class="hljs-keyword">not</span> yet a Medium Member you can Sign Up Here <span class="hljs-keyword">to</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">get</span> unlimited <span class="hljs-keyword">access</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">to</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">all</span> Medium content <span class="hljs-keyword">for</span> <span class="hljs-meta">$5</span> a month.I will receive a referral bonus <span class="hljs-keyword">when</span> you sign-up <span class="hljs-keyword">using</span> my link.</pre></div><div id="3034"><pre>You can also support <span class="hljs-keyword">me</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">by</span> buying <span class="hljs-keyword">me</span> a coffee Here.</pre></div></article></body>

When It Comes To Managing Your Weight Your BMR Is Far More Useful Than Your BMI

How finding out my BMR made me realize that I can eat some cake (or in this case cookies) and still lose weight

Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash

What Is BMI?

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a scale used to determine whether you are underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. The BMI scale uses only your height and weight as a metric for what your weight should be and does not take into account any other factors. Yet it is still widely used to determine whether or not someone is at a healthy weight.

I recently watched a Tik Tok video of a young woman talking about how her doctor told her she needed to lose weight because her BMI said she was overweight. Initially hearing that she was overweight made her feel like crap, but she eventually decided she didn’t care.

Watching her video, I could clearly see she was pretty slim and definitely did not need to lose weight. She did however have large breasts at the time of the appointment, which she later got reduced. By the time she went back to the doctor, her weight was in the normal range and her doctor complimented her for making the changes she suggested to lose weight. She told her doctor that she didn’t make any changes, she got a breast reduction. Her doctor was stunned and admitted that she didn’t take that into account.

Looking through TikTok there are so many skinny/slim/petite women who are overweight according to that chart and it makes no sense. The BMI chart is widely inaccurate. It doesn’t take into account muscle mass, bone density, water weight, no it’s all about this arbitrary number on the scale vs your height, that’s it. The BMI scale is basically used to make beautiful confident women feel bad about their bodies. Women already have a ton of pressure to look a certain way. Doctors really need to stop using BMI as a way to make healthy women that clearly look perfectly fine feel like crap.

I’m overweight and I know it. According to that chart, I’m obese which is the highest category on the BMI scale. Though a google image search for “BMI chart” shows some charts that have multiple levels of obesity (class 1, class 2, class 3 etc), most online BMI calculators will ask for height and weight and determine that anyone with results over 30 are obese. Keep in mind something as important as gender is not even a factor in computing BMI. This means my BMI results would be the same if I was 200 lbs or 500 lbs, a man or a woman. How ridiculous is that?

When it comes to my goal weight, I do have a number in mind, but I also plan to look in the mirror and see what looks and feels like a good weight for me to maintain.

If you are trying to change your weight whether you’re trying to lose weight, gain weight, or even if you’re just trying to maintain your weight, knowing your BMI won’t help you with those goals but knowing your BMR will.

What is BMR?

BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. Most people know that when you eat food you’re taking in calories and when you exercise you’re burning calories. But keep in mind that no matter what you are doing throughout the day, you are always burning calories. Your body uses calories for even the simpliest of functions like breathing. The rate at which you burn calories depends on how much you exert yourself. Your BMR is the number of calories your body will automatically burn in a day even if you lay in bed for 24 hours.

If your goal is to lose weight you should be eating less calories than your BMR. To gain weight you should eat more calories than your BMR. There are several calculators online to help you determine your BMR and caloric needs (link at the end of the article).

For example if you’re trying to lose weight and you’ve been eating healthy throughout the day but then you slip up and eat 6 cookies before bed, you’re not going to automatically derail your weight loss efforts. It’ll take far more than 6 cookies for you to gain any weight.

This is exactly what happened to me. I found myself beating myself up over those 6 cookies. I restarted my weight loss journey at the beginning of this year and for the past week I’ve been eating so many carbs. I’ve had Starbucks coffee sweetened with vanilla syrup, plantain chips, mini muffins etc, so when I stepped on the scale to check my weight on Saturday (1/15/22) I was just crossing my fingers that I lost at least a little weight. Come to find out that I actually lost 4.5 lbs that week, a total of 6 lbs in the past two weeks.

At first, I was surprised until I actually checked my BMR, something I hadn’t done in a while. The heavier you are the higher your BMR will be and since my weight is pretty up there my BMR is almost 2,000 calories. This means that if I don’t get out of bed all day, I will automatically burn 2,000 calories. But I have a job that keeps me on my feet so I’m walking around A LOT which means on a day-to-day basis I am definitely burning far more than 2,000 calories. It’s important to note that as you lose weight your BMR will get lower, so you’ll have to adjust your food intake and/or excersise regiman as your weight changes. But small slip ups won’t hurt especially in the beginning of the journey.

Right now the only thing I’m doing to lose weight is drinking apple cider vinegar most mornings, intermittent fasting with a little flexibility (ie I try to only eat between the hours of 12 PM–8 PM), and choosing healthy food options as much as possible. Though I’m not counting calories per say, I’ve been doing this long enough to guestimate how many calories I’m taking in. I’m nowhere near perfect with the choices I make, but it seems I don’t need to be because doing my best is good enough since I lost 4.5 lbs in a week.

If you insist on finding out your BMI you can Click Here for the BMI Calculator that I used. Click Here for the BMR Calculator I used.

Thank you for taking a moment to read this. If you want to follow my journey consider following my publication positively healthy vibes as I continue to write about my journey to better mental and physical health, which will include my on/off battle with depression and my journey to lose 99 lbs. My mission is to live my life as positive and healthy as possible. Below are a few stories about this journey.

Follow my adventures:
I am Positively Healthy Vibes on YouTube Instagram and TikTok in which I promote positivity and document my weight loss journey.
Follow Me On Twitter @Nathalie_Clair1 (can y’all believe someone else has that so I had to add the 1) where I promote myself as a writer. 
You can message me directly on Twitter or email me at [email protected]. 
If you are not yet a Medium Member you can Sign Up Here to get unlimited access to all Medium content for $5 a month.I will receive a referral bonus when you sign-up using my link.
You can also support me by buying me a coffee Here.
Health
Bmi
Bmr
Weight Loss
Weight Management
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