What is a Good Amount of Resting Calories? Your Guide to RMR

October 12, 2025 •

4 min read

The average female burns around 1,410 resting calories per day, while the average male burns approximately 1,696. While these figures provide a rough baseline, understanding what is a good amount of resting calories is a highly personal matter that depends on your unique physiology, lifestyle, and health objectives.

Quick Summary

The optimal number of resting calories varies significantly among individuals based on factors like age, sex, weight, and muscle mass. Accurately estimating your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) provides a vital baseline for personalizing your nutrition and fitness strategies to meet your specific goals.

Key Points

Individuality is Key: There is no universal 'good' amount of resting calories; the number is unique to each individual.
Calculate Your Baseline: Use the Mifflin-St Jeor or Harris-Benedict equations to accurately estimate your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), the calories your body burns at rest.
Muscle Mass Matters: Building lean muscle through strength training is one of the most effective ways to increase your RMR, as muscle is more metabolically active than fat.
Avoid Crash Dieting: Severe calorie restriction can cause your metabolism to slow down, making long-term weight management more difficult.
RMR is Only the Start: Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) also accounts for physical activity and the thermic effect of food. Use RMR as a baseline for determining your TDEE.
Many Factors Influence RMR: Your age, gender, body size, hormones, and genetics all play a significant role in determining your resting calorie needs.

Understanding Resting Calories: RMR vs. BMR

Before determining what is a good amount of resting calories, it is essential to distinguish between a few key terms. The calories you burn at rest are most accurately referred to as your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). RMR is the total number of calories your body burns to perform basic functions while at rest, such as breathing, circulating blood, and maintaining body temperature.

This is slightly different from your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which represents the minimum calories your body needs to function in a complete state of zero movement, often measured in a strictly controlled clinical setting after a full night's sleep and fasting. For practical purposes outside of a lab, RMR is a more convenient and frequently used metric, and it is approximately 10% higher than BMR to account for minimal daily movements.

How to Estimate Your Resting Calories

Since the precise measurement of RMR via indirect calorimetry is expensive and impractical for most people, validated equations are widely used to provide a reliable estimate. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is considered one of the most accurate predictive formulas for this purpose.

Here are the Mifflin-St Jeor equations:

For Males: RMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) – (5 × age in years) + 5
For Females: RMR = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) – (5 × age in years) – 161

Using a calculator with these equations can give you an excellent starting point for understanding your body's unique energy expenditure needs. Remember, this number is a foundational baseline and does not include the calories you burn through daily activities or exercise.

Major Factors That Influence Your Resting Calories

Your individual RMR is influenced by a combination of factors, which is why a single "good" number doesn't exist. These factors include:

Age: RMR generally declines with age. This is often linked to a decrease in lean body mass over time.
Gender: Men typically have a higher RMR than women of the same age and weight due to generally having a higher proportion of muscle mass.
Body Composition: This is one of the most significant and changeable factors. Muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat tissue, meaning it burns more calories at rest. Building muscle is one of the most effective ways to sustainably increase your RMR.
Body Size: Larger people have a higher RMR because they have more tissue to maintain.
Genetics: Your genes play a role in determining your metabolic rate, which is why some individuals naturally have a higher or lower RMR.
Hormones: Conditions like hyperthyroidism can significantly increase RMR, while hypothyroidism can decrease it. Hormonal shifts during the menstrual cycle or pregnancy also affect metabolic rate.
Calorie Restriction: Severely restricting your calorie intake can trigger metabolic adaptation, where your body intentionally slows down its RMR to conserve energy. This is why crash diets often lead to a plateau in weight loss.

RMR vs. Active Metabolism: A Comparison

To fully understand your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), it's important to see how your resting calories compare to the energy you burn through other means. The following table breaks down the main components of your daily calorie burn.


Feature	Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)	Active Metabolism
Definition	Calories burned for basic life-sustaining functions (breathing, circulation).	Calories burned through all forms of physical activity.
Component of TDEE	Makes up the largest proportion, approximately 60–75%.	Includes Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) and Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT), accounting for 25–40%.
Variability	Relatively stable, but can be influenced by age, genetics, and body composition.	Highly variable, depends directly on an individual's daily activity level and exercise habits.
Impact on Weight	Provides the baseline for understanding minimum energy needs for maintenance.	Offers the most significant opportunity to increase overall calorie burn and create a deficit for weight loss.
Influence of Muscle	RMR is directly increased by building more metabolically active muscle mass.	Higher muscle mass enables higher intensity and duration of activity, leading to greater active calorie burn.

How to Use Your RMR for Health Goals

Knowing your RMR is the foundational step for creating an effective strategy for weight management. Here is how you can use this knowledge:

Calculate your TDEE: Multiply your RMR by an activity factor that corresponds to your average weekly activity level. This will give you your total daily calorie expenditure.
Create a sustainable deficit: If your goal is weight loss, consume slightly fewer calories than your TDEE, but never below your RMR. For healthy and sustainable weight loss, aim for a modest deficit rather than an extreme one.
Prioritize strength training: To boost your RMR over time, focus on building lean muscle mass through resistance training. Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest, providing a metabolic boost.
Listen to your body: While calculations are a useful guide, your body's signals are important. The sensation of hunger, for example, can be a useful indicator of your energy needs.

Conclusion

Ultimately, there is no single answer to what is a good amount of resting calories. Instead, a "good" amount is one that is appropriate for your individual physiology and health status. By calculating your own RMR and understanding the factors that influence it, you can gain a powerful insight into your metabolic baseline. This information, combined with mindful nutrition and consistent physical activity, will enable you to create a sustainable and personalized approach to achieving your wellness goals. Remember that building and maintaining muscle is the most effective long-term strategy for increasing your resting calorie burn and supporting a healthy metabolism.

For more in-depth nutritional guidance, consider consulting with a registered dietitian or nutritionist to create a plan that fits your unique needs and circumstances.

Optional Outbound Link

Learn more about calculating your BMR from the Cleveland Clinic

Frequently Asked Questions

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) are very similar, but BMR is measured under stricter, clinically controlled conditions (like after an overnight fast), while RMR is measured under less restrictive, real-world conditions. For most people, RMR is a more practical and accessible figure to use.

You can estimate your resting calories using predictive equations like the Mifflin-St Jeor formula, which takes into account your age, gender, weight, and height. For the most accurate measurement, however, indirect calorimetry is used in a clinical setting.

Yes, RMR typically decreases with age, a phenomenon often attributed to a natural decline in lean muscle mass. Maintaining an active lifestyle and incorporating strength training can help mitigate this decline.

Yes, the most effective way to increase your RMR is by building lean muscle mass through resistance training. Since muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat, it burns more calories even when you're at rest.

Not necessarily. While a higher RMR means you burn more calories at rest, extremely high RMR can sometimes be linked to underlying medical conditions, such as hyperthyroidism. The goal is a healthy, not just a high, metabolic rate.

Both diet and sleep play significant roles. Severe calorie restriction can slow down your RMR as your body tries to conserve energy, while lack of quality sleep can disrupt hormones that regulate metabolism. Consuming enough calories from nutritious sources and getting adequate sleep supports a healthy metabolism.

Knowing your RMR is the starting point for calculating your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). With this baseline, you can determine the appropriate calorie intake to create a sustainable calorie deficit for weight loss, maintenance, or gain.