How would you respond to an advertisement for a weight-loss diet that claims that eating certain foods can elevate the BMR and thus promote weight loss? How can someone change his or her BMR?

Answer 1

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate atwhich the body uses energy to support its basalmetabolism.Basal metabolism is the sum total of all the involuntaryactivities that are necessary to sustainlife, including circulation, respiration,and new tissue synthesis, but excludingdigestion and voluntary activities. Basal metabolismis the largest component of the averageperson's daily energy expenditure. BMR is affected by age, height, growth, body composition, fever, stress, environmental temperature, fasting/starvation, malnutrition, and the hormone thyroxine.Many weight-loss advertisements make this claim that eating certain foods can elevate the BMR as a marketing gimmick. This is false because you cannot increase your BMR by eating certain foods. Any meal temporarily steps up energy expenditure due to the thermic effect offood, and there is no specific food that accelerates it further. In order to lose weight you would have to increase your energy expenditure associated with voluntaryactivities (as opposed to involuntary activities, i.e., BMR). If you increase voluntary activities, you will spend more calories, and if you keep doingso day after day, your BMR will also increase somewhat as you build lean tissuebecause lean tissue is more metabolically active than fat tissue.