Your BMR — basal metabolic rate — is the number of calories your body burns just to keep you alive at complete rest. Breathing, circulation, brain function, keeping your cells running: that baseline is your BMR, and for most people it's the biggest chunk of what they burn each day. Here's what it means and how to use it.
What BMR includes
BMR is what you'd burn lying still all day, doing nothing. It typically accounts for 60–70% of your total daily calories — which surprises people who assume exercise is the main burn. The biggest driver of your BMR is how much you weigh and how much muscle you carry.
BMR vs TDEE
This is the key distinction:
- BMR = calories burned at rest.
- TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) = BMR plus everything else — walking, exercise, fidgeting, digesting food.
Your TDEE is your maintenance level — the number that keeps your weight stable — and it's what you actually plan your diet around. Full method: how to calculate TDEE and what are maintenance calories.
How to use your BMR
BMR is the starting point for working out your calorie target:
- Estimate your BMR from your weight, height, age and sex (calorie calculators use the Mifflin-St Jeor formula).
- Multiply by an activity factor to get your TDEE.
- Adjust for your goal — below for a deficit, above for a surplus.
Can you change your BMR?
A little, slowly. More muscle raises it, since muscle burns more at rest; crash dieting lowers it. The honest take on "boosting" it is in how to boost your metabolism.
Turn your BMR into a real target
forme works out your calorie and macro target from your body and goal, then tracks it from a quick scan — so the number you set actually gets hit.
The bottom line
BMR is what you burn at rest just to stay alive — usually most of your daily calories. Add your activity to get your TDEE, then adjust for your goal. This is general information, not medical or dietary advice.