What is Resting Metabolic Rate?
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is the foundation of your metabolism. It’s the energy your body needs to perform basic functions like breathing and circulation when at rest. Did you know that RMR accounts for up to about 60-75% of your daily energy expenditure, even when you’re not moving?
How Can You Increase RMR?
To truly boost your metabolism, you need to focus on the one thing that makes a real difference in the long-term. And that’s resistance training. But to understand why, let’s take a closer look at the contribution of each organ to RMR.
A Breakdown of RMR
First, let’s take a look at the contribution each organ makes to the overall resting metabolic rate (RMR) as a percentage.
| Liver | 27% |
| Skeletal Muscle | 20-25% |
| Brain | 20% |
| Other organs and tissues (includes fat) | 10-16% |
| Kidneys | 10% |
| Heart | 7% |
✅The liver is the highest contributor.
Organ Calorie Burn Per Kg
Let’s take a closer look at the calorie expenditure of the organs:
| Brain | 240 大卡/公斤 |
| Liver | 200 大卡/公斤 |
| Heart | 440 大卡/公斤 |
| Kidneys | 440 大卡/公斤 |
| Skeletal muscles | 13 大卡/公斤 |
| Adipose tissues (Fat) | 4.5 大卡/公斤 |
| Residual Mass | 12 大卡/公斤 |
✅On a kcal/kg burned basis, the heart and kidneys are calorie-burning powerhouses.
While the heart and liver may burn the most calories per kilogram, you can’t significantly increase their size. The good news is that you can increase your muscle mass through resistance training, which can have a significant impact on your metabolism.
Building muscle is the key to boosting your metabolism. While skeletal muscle may burn fewer calories per kg than the heart and kidneys, you can significantly increase your muscle mass through resistance training. On the other hand, you can’t significantly increase the size of other organs like the liver or brain.
There is one more thing you can significantly increase. Can you guess what it is?
Fat Mass! You can also significantly increase your fat mass but we don’t want that, do we?
Other Considerations
In addition to resistance training, it’s also important to maintain a healthy diet to support your metabolism.
Eating a balanced diet with plenty of protein can help to build and maintain muscle mass while avoiding highly processed foods and excess sugar can help to prevent weight gain. If you don’t already lift weight here’s your reason.
However, make sure you train smart. If in doubt, seek out the help of our personal trainers.
