Your resting metabolic rate is the number of calories you would expend if you remained at rest for an entire day. You can view this number on your profile Goals & Settings page, and if you click the words "resting metabolic rate" you will be taken to a detailed explanation.

On this page we show your resting metabolic rate as determined by a number of different mathematical formulas, most of which take into account your age, gender, height, and weight. We use the first Harris-Benedict Equation to compute your RMR as a basis for many of the calculations we make throughout site.

RMR is a difficult number to calculate, and it can also be affected by many environmental values that cannot be universally measured. Some doctors or trainers are able to precisely measure a person's RMR, so if you have a more accurate number, we have given you the ability to override our default setting.

You may also wish to try gradually adjusting your RMR if our weight change predictions (see Lesson 9: Reports) are consistently off and you are certain your logging inputs are complete and accurate.

Since RMR will change over time (particularly as your weight changes) we will use your RMR override as a baseline as we continue to adjust your RMR according to weight information you provide.

If you wish to return to the default RMR calculation, just delete your custom number from this page.

Estimated Daily Metabolic Rate

Since you do not spend every moment of every day at rest, your RMR does not tell us the total number of calories you expend in a day. For that, we need to make some adjustments based on your typical daily activity. We do this with the lifestyle information we collected when you joined the system. The information is also available on your profile Goals & Settings page.

When you click the words "occupation activity" you will be taken to the form that lets you update this information. Estimate this as best you can, and keep these settings in mind if you later determine that you need to make adjustments to account for inaccuracies in your energy balance numbers (see Lesson 9: Reports).