BMR Chart by Age and Weight for Men and Women

Fact-checked against peer-reviewed sources. Last updated: October 27, 2026.

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is how many calories your body burns in a day at complete rest. It depends mostly on four things: your weight, height, age and sex.

The charts below show BMR for common ages and weights. Every number was calculated with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, the formula dietitians use most often for healthy adults.

Want your exact number instead? Use the BMR calculator. It takes about 10 seconds.

How to Read These Charts

1. Pick the chart for your sex.
2. Find the row closest to your age.
3. Find the column closest to your weight.
4. Adjust for your height using the height table further down.

Each chart uses one fixed height. Women are set at 5'5" and men at 5'10". If you're taller or shorter, the height table tells you how much to add or subtract.

BMR Chart for Women (Height 5'5")

Calories burned per day at rest.

BMR Chart for Men (Height 5'10")

Calories burned per day at rest.

Height Adjustment Table

Find your height, then add or subtract the number from the chart value.

Two Examples of Using the Charts

Example 1: Woman, 45 years old, 170 lb, 5'8"

She sits between the 40 and 50 rows and between the 160 and 180 lb columns. The four nearby values are 1,397, 1,487, 1,347 and 1,437. Their average is 1,417.

She's 5'8", so she adds 48 from the height table:

1,417 + 48 = 1,465 calories/day

Running her exact numbers through the formula also gives 1,465. The chart method works well.

Example 2: Man, 33 years old, 190 lb, 6'0"

The nearby values (30 to 40 rows, 180 to 200 lb columns) average 1,803. Add 32 for being 6'0":

1,803 + 32 = 1,835 calories/day

The exact formula result is 1,845. The chart lands within about 10 calories.

What Changes Your BMR the Most

The formula makes it easy to see how much each factor matters:

So 20 lb of weight change shifts BMR by about 90 calories a day. Ten years of age moves it by 50. Weight has a bigger effect than most people expect.

BMR for the Average American Adult

The CDC's most recent body measurement data (2021 to 2023) gives these averages for adults 20 and over:

• Men: about 5'9" (68.9 in) and 199 lb
• Women: about 5'3.5" (63.5 in) and 171.8 lb

At age 40, that works out to:

Does Metabolism Really Drop Every Decade?

The Mifflin-St Jeor formula subtracts 5 calories for every year of age. That suggests a steady slide from your 20s onward.

A large 2021 study in Science tells a different story. Researchers led by Herman Pontzer looked at data from over 6,600 people in 29 countries, aged from one week to 95 years. Once they adjusted for body size and muscle, they found:

• Metabolism stayed fairly steady from about age 20 to 60.
• After 60, it slowly declined, roughly 0.7% a year.

So why does the formula still take off calories for age? Because most people lose some muscle and gain some fat as they get older. The formula only knows your weight, not what that weight is made of. The age term is a stand-in for those body changes.

What this means for you: if you stay active and keep your muscle through strength training, your real BMR may stay closer to the younger rows of the chart.

Why Your Real BMR May Differ From the Chart

These charts are estimates. In a 2005 review of BMR formulas, Mifflin-St Jeor was the most reliable, landing within 10% of measured values for more people than any other formula. Still, some people fall outside that range.

Your real BMR may be:

• Higher than the chart if you carry more muscle than average.
• Lower than the chart if you have higher body fat or have lost muscle over time.
• Different for medical reasons, such as thyroid conditions or certain medicines.

If you know your body fat percentage, the Lean Body Mass Calculator gives a Katch-McArdle BMR that accounts for muscle directly.

From BMR to Daily Calories

BMR is only your calorie burn at rest. To find how many calories you burn in a normal day, you multiply BMR by an activity factor. That gives your TDEE.

For example, the woman in Example 1 (BMR 1,465) who exercises lightly 1 to 3 days a week:

1,465 x 1.375 = 2,014 calories/day

The TDEE Calculator does this for every activity level. For more on the difference, read BMR vs. TDEE explained.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a normal BMR for a woman?

For an average-sized American woman around 40, BMR is roughly 1,400 to 1,450 calories a day. Most adult women fall somewhere between about 1,100 and 1,700, depending on size and age.

What is a normal BMR for a man?

For an average-sized American man around 40, BMR is roughly 1,800 calories a day. Most adult men fall somewhere between about 1,400 and 2,100.

Is a higher BMR better?

Not by itself. A higher BMR just means you burn more at rest, usually because you're bigger or carry more muscle. A higher BMR from muscle is a good thing. A higher BMR from extra body weight is not.

Can I eat my BMR number to lose weight?

Most people shouldn't eat that low. BMR doesn't include any daily movement. Set your target from your TDEE instead, then subtract a moderate amount. The Calorie Deficit Calculator can help.

Why doesn't the chart include teenagers?

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation was built and tested on adults. It isn't meant for anyone under 18.

Sources

1. Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, Scott BJ, Daugherty SA, Koh YO. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1990;51(2):241-247. doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/51.2.241
2. Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2005;105(5):775-789. doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2005.02.005
3. Pontzer H, Yamada Y, Sagayama H, et al. Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science. 2021;373(6556):808-812. doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5017
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. FastStats: Body Measurements. cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm