Let’s begin with the simple truth. Your Basal Metabolic Rate provides only enough energy to support your vital organs such as the heart, lungs, nervous system and kidneys. It is not sufficient to help you roll over in bed, cough, or chew a piece of gum. Your BMR releases a significant amount of calories to keep you alive but that’s all!
Here’s a modern explanation. Let’s compare BMR to your smart phone battery. As long as the battery has been charged, your smart phone will function. It will not however, make you pancakes, drive your car (well, maybe someday, yikes!), or charge itself when its battery is depleted. To work efficiently your smart phone needs an external source of energy to continuously re-charge it. So does your body. When the battery on your device starts to run down, it goes into Low Power Mode until it either stops or gets re-charged. So does your body. When the body is running out of fuel, it goes into a low power situation that slows down the metabolism to conserve energy for the vital organs. And like a device, in this state, the body limits its functions and under performs.
If you understand nothing else from this blog, understand that if you don’t eat enough calories every day to meet your BMR, your body involuntarily goes into a Low Power Mode. Try as you may, it will not respond to calorie restricted diets, exercise, or supplements. Even worse, the longer the body is in Low Power Mode, the more back-up programs it sets in place to prevent it from happening again. A smart phone kept in Low Power Mode takes longer to recharge and demands more re-charging to sustain its charge. The body is no different. The body triggers a hunger response to encourage you to eat more than it needs. You think you have eaten enough to re-charge your ‘battery’ but your body tells you otherwise.
Don’t fall into the ‘Eat Less Exercise More’ trap. Make sure you eat enough calories to meet your BMR and get your metabolism working to perform well and meet your goals. How many calories do you need to lie in bed and blink? Use this BMR calculator and get your head around keeping yourself out of Low Power Mode!
