What is meant by basal metabolic rate? It depends on which factors? What is it's effect on our weight?

Basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy expressed in calories that a person needs to keep the body functioning at rest. Some of those processes are breathing, blood circulation, controlling body
temperature, cell growth, brain and nerve function, and contraction of muscles.

Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. During this complex biochemical process, calories in food and beverages are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function.

Even when you're at rest, your body needs energy for all its "hidden" functions, such as breathing, circulating blood, adjusting hormone levels, and growing and repairing cells.

The number of calories your body uses to carry out these basic functions is known as your basal metabolic rate - what you might call metabolism.

Several factors determine your individual basal metabolic rate, including:
1) Your body size and composition:The bodies of people who are larger or have more muscle burn more calories, even at rest.
2) Your sex: Men usually have less body fat and more muscle than do women of the same age and weight, burning more calories.
3) Your age: As you get older, the amount of muscle tends to decrease and fat accounts for more of your weight, slowing down calorie burning.

Your basal metabolic rate accounts for about 70 percent of the calories you burn every day.
In addition to your basal metabolic rate, two other factors determine how many calories your body burns each day:

1 Food processing (thermogenesis): Digesting, absorbing, transporting and storing the food you consume also takes calories. This accounts for 100 to 800 of the calories used each day. For the most part, your body's energy requirement to process food stays relatively steady and isn't easily changed.

2) Physical activity:
Physical activity and exercise-such as playing tennis, walking to the store, chasing after the dog and any other movement - account for the rest of the calories your body burns up each day.
Physical activity is by far the most variable of the factors that determine how many calories you burn each day.

Metabolism and weight:

It may be tempting to blame your metabolism for weight gain. But because metabolism is a natural process, your body has many mechanisms that regulate it to meet your individual needs. Only in rare cases do you get excessive weight gain from a medical problem that slows metabolism, such as Cushing's syndrome or having an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism).

You gain weight when you eat more calories than you burn - or burn fewer calories than you eat.

One more important factor that decides whether your body will use glucose or fatty acids for energy is the insulin level in blood.

 If high, body uses glucose and if low, body uses fatty acids for energy. Our diet plan by reducing eating frequency lowers insulin level in blood. This facilitates burning of fats by body for energy. As a result you lose weight and tummy😊

So, don't blame your metabolism and come into action to lose weight👍