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Fyrhazzrd
06-17-10, 08:39
Can someone link me to factual information on BMR between men and women. I can find information pointing to men having a higher BMR, and I can find information saying women have a higher BMR, and I have found information saying they are pretty much the same. The only difference being how you live your lifestyle.

All I basically want to know is that:

Given all things equal. IE same muscle mass between the man and women, same weight between the man and women, Same height, and same lifelstyle. The only thing different between the two being gender.

Who would have the higher BMR?

Basically I'm trying to disprove the myth that women think men can lose weight easier than women.

Thanks

chuckman
06-17-10, 12:06
A man would have a higher BMR than a woman for no other reason than generally having a greater muscle mass-to-body fat ratio. I would think, as a mathmatical exercise, that if a man and a woman had the same percentage of muscle mass and body fat it would equal; if a woman had more muscle mass than body fat, her BMR would be higher. BUT...men just have more muscle mass than women.

Fyrhazzrd
06-17-10, 12:23
That's pretty much my thinking as well. But I can't find any scientific evidence to prove it.

I've seen some men that have just about zero muscle mass. I've also seen men and women who get their BMI checked out and they come out pretty much the same, even though they are the same height and weight. So that would tell me that they had pretty close to the same muscle mass as well.

chuckman
06-17-10, 12:41
A very quick check (I just don't have a lot of time) didn't show me anything 'scientific.' Google just showed me a bunch of corroborating articles, but nothing that referred to a journal article that conclusively showed what we know. I can shoot some articles that show that men have a higher skeletal muscle mass than women, which you can interpret that to sustain that mass one must have a higher BMR.

One thing to be careful of is the whole BMI thing. Unless one gets body fat checked by the water-immersion thing or calipers, those insert-your-weight-here BMI graphs can be inaccurate or misleading. Men have more testosterone, which aids in building muscle mass. Women have more estrogen, which aids in a higher body fat composition. So, two BMIs can be close based on hight and weight, but the percentage of that weight based on muscle or fat could be different.

Fyrhazzrd
06-17-10, 15:23
A very quick check (I just don't have a lot of time) didn't show me anything 'scientific.' Google just showed me a bunch of corroborating articles, but nothing that referred to a journal article that conclusively showed what we know. I can shoot some articles that show that men have a higher skeletal muscle mass than women, which you can interpret that to sustain that mass one must have a higher BMR.

One thing to be careful of is the whole BMI thing. Unless one gets body fat checked by the water-immersion thing or calipers, those insert-your-weight-here BMI graphs can be inaccurate or misleading. Men have more testosterone, which aids in building muscle mass. Women have more estrogen, which aids in a higher body fat composition. So, two BMIs can be close based on hight and weight, but the percentage of that weight based on muscle or fat could be different.

The BMI check I'm referring to is one that looks like a scale that you stand on, and it has metal pads that you put your feet on. I'm not sure exactly how accurate those are though.

P2000
06-17-10, 23:35
I believe there are 3 or maybe more different equations for BMR, and all 3 give different numbers. BMR calculations are guesses at best, and vary from person to person. There are better methods which are measurements rather than calculations, but they are costly to perform.