BMR in Women vs. Men
Basal Metabolic Rate. Your BMR is the rate of which your body burns calories when you’re at your resting state. The activity that stimulates this so-called “burning” of calories is the basic bodily functions your body runs through on a daily basis. That includes tissue repair, digestion, breathing, etc. BMR can be considered as the sum of energy expenditure(EE) of tissues and organs in a fasting and resting state and in thermoneutral conditions. It depends on the mass and metabolic rate of tissues and organs. So basically, you can just be sitting there and you’ll be burning calories from different parts of your body at different rates while doing nothing. That is your BMR.
Generally when calculating BMR, age, sex, weight, height, and amount of physical activity is taken into consideration. The trends show and the general belief is that women tend to have a lower BMR rate than men. This means the Women burn fewer calories than men. Why is that?
A study that looks at the relationship between basal metabolic rate, gender, age, and body composition and a study that looks at low resting metabolic rate shows that the reason women have a lower BMR has to do with the fact the women have less fat free mass (FFM) than men, a lower low resting metabolic rate than men, and overall EE is approximately 5–10% lower in females compared to males after adjusting for different menaces in body composition, age, and activity.
There are many things to consider and the physical difference in men in women is one of them. For one, females and males have a significant difference in FFM as adolescence where men have more, however, this changed as they become adults as that is no longer a significant difference. Also, the amount of muscle mass, which increases BMR, is different from men and women. Looking at those circumstances and many others, overall women have lower 24 hour EE.
BMR depends on body composition as expressed by fat‐free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) and on gender, age, physical activity, and nutritional status. The main determinant of BMR is FFM whereas FM is significant only in obese subjects. This translate over to other things like why women have a higher prevalence of obesity compared to men. That also means that FFM is significant in calculating BMR and that is what women have less of. Therefore that is why gender is an important factor in BMR
That is why when you are trying to figure out your BMR you have to consider not only your height, weight, age, and amount of physical activity but your sex has an important significance on your metabolism. In general, females lose fewer calories from doing nothing.
by Vicky Vo
Sources:
Cunningham, J J. “A Reanalysis of the Factors Influencing Basal Metabolic Rate in Normal Adults.” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 1980.
Garn, Stanley Marion, et al. “The Sex Difference in the Basal Metabolic Rate.” Child Development, vol. 24, no. 3/4, 1953, pp. 215–224. JSTOR.
Lazzer, S., Bedogni, G., Lafortuna, C. L., Marazzi, N., Busti, C., Galli, R., Col, A., Agosti, F. and Sartorio, A. (2010), Relationship Between Basal Metabolic Rate, Gender, Age, and Body Composition in 8,780 White Obese Subjects. Obesity, 18: 71–78. doi:10.1038/oby.2009.162
