The calories that you consume each day are used by your body to provide energy for digestion, physical activity, and to maintain your resting metabolic rate. Your resting metabolic rate, also referred to as your basal metabolic rate, is the amount of calories you burn to maintain functions such as breathing and circulation. Your BMR accounts for approximately 70 percent of your daily caloric expenditure. Many factors influence your resting metabolic rate. If you fail to consume sufficient calories to satisfy the overall energy requirements of your body, your body will burn fat for energy. Consult with your health-care provider before beginning a diet program.
Misconceptions
A common misconception is to blame a slow metabolism for gaining weight, or for an inability to lose weight. for example, an individual may suspect that they have an underactive thyroid gland. According to MayoClinic.com, medical conditions that slow your metabolism are rare. If you suspect that you have a medical reason for gaining weight, consult with your health-care provider.
Body Mass
Your weight and body composition help determine how many calories you burn at rest. Very obese people burn more calories, on average, than slimmer people. The larger bodies of obese people cause their body processes to work harder to sustain their mass. Because, in general, they consume more calories than non-obese individuals, they burn more calories during the process of digestion. The calories burned during digestion represent approximately 10 percent of your daily caloric expenditure. Your ratio of lean body mass to fat helps determine your resting metabolism. Lean mass, or muscle tissue, burns more calories at rest than fat. As your lean body mass increases, so does your resting metabolism.
Age
Generally, as you age, your resting metabolic rate decreases. Sedentary lifestyles and decreases in the production of testosterone in men, and estrogen in women, cause a progressive decrease in lean body mass. You lose approximately 50 percent of your lean mass between the ages of 20 to 90. The loss of lean mass means that you will start gaining weight in your later years if you consume the same amount of calories that you did when you were younger.
Gender
If you are a male, you likely will have a higher resting metabolism than a female of the same weight. Males, in general, have a higher percentage of muscle mass than females.
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