A basal metabolic rate test estimates your resting energy needs: the calories required while at complete rest, under defined measurement conditions.
This is a starting point for personalising your nutritional plan. To estimate total daily expenditure, include daily non-exercise activity (NEAT), exercise and the energy cost of digesting food, rather than resting expenditure alone.
Often, sports nutritionists estimate resting needs with equations using weight, height, sex and age.
A test using indirect calorimetry can improve the individual estimate when performed under appropriate conditions.
It measures oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Using established equations, it estimates resting energy expenditure.
This can help inform an athlete’s plan, but no test predicts every day’s needs exactly. It provides a useful estimate to combine with activity, goals and follow-up when personalising nutrition.
