What Is a Good BMR? Average BMR by Age and Gender

There is no single “good” BMR — a good BMR is the one that matches your body. Most adult women have a BMR of about 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day, and most adult men about 1,600 to 1,900. A 35-year-old woman weighing 70 kg burns about 1,395 calories a day at rest — normal for her age and sex.

Averages are useful for one thing only: telling you whether your own number is ordinary or unusual. This guide gives you the average BMR for each age group, explains why men burn more than women, shows how BMR falls as you age, and helps you judge where your own number sits.

Average BMR by Age and Gender

The table below is worked out with the Mifflin-St Jeor formula — the equation most dietitians use, published in 1990 — for two typical adults: a woman weighing 60 kg at 165 cm tall, and a man weighing 75 kg at 178 cm tall. The ages change; the bodies stay the same, so you can see the pure effect of age.

Two patterns jump out. First, men run roughly 400 calories a day above women at every age in this table — but most of that gap comes from the man in the table being 15 kg heavier and 13 cm taller, not from sex alone. Second, BMR falls by exactly 50 calories per decade for both, because the formula subtracts 5 calories for every year of age. Over the 50 years from 20 to 70, that is a 250-calorie drop — about 15 percent — even if weight and height never change.

These are averages for typical bodies, not targets. A taller or heavier person will sit above their row, a smaller person below it, and a muscular person above it at any size. To find your own number, use a free bmr calculator rather than reading across from this table.

Why Do Men Have a Higher BMR Than Women?

Men typically have a higher BMR than women of the same weight and age, and the reason is body composition, not effort. Men usually carry more muscle and less body fat, and muscle burns far more energy at rest than fat — roughly 6 calories per pound of muscle per day, against about 2 per pound of fat.

The size of the sex gap is visible in the formula itself. Take the same body in both versions of Mifflin-St Jeor: a 35-year-old weighing 70 kg at 165 cm. As a woman: 10 × 70 + 6.25 × 165 − 5 × 35 − 161 = 700 + 1,031.25 − 175 − 161 = 1,395 calories a day. As a man: 10 × 70 + 6.25 × 165 − 5 × 35 + 5 = 700 + 1,031.25 − 175 + 5 = 1,561 calories a day. Same weight, same height, same age — a 166-calorie difference, built into the formula as the gap between the −161 and +5 constants. In real life the gap is usually larger, because the average man is also taller and heavier than the average woman, which is why the table above shows a gap of about 400 calories rather than 166.

None of this means a woman’s BMR is “low” or a man’s is “high” in any absolute sense. Each is normal for its body.

How BMR Changes with Age

BMR falls with age, and the fall is slow, steady, and mostly about muscle. The Mifflin-St Jeor formula builds in a decline of 5 calories a year, which is about 1 to 2 percent per decade after age 20. In practice the decline is a little steeper after 50, because muscle loss — sarcopenia — accelerates: without strength training, adults typically lose muscle mass through their 50s, 60s, and beyond, and every kilogram of muscle lost takes its resting burn with it.

The numbers make the point concrete. Our example woman at 70 kg and 165 cm has a BMR of 1,395 at age 35. At the same weight and height, her BMR would be 1,445 at 25 and 1,295 at 55 — a 150-calorie spread across 30 years. That sounds small, and it is: age alone never explains a weight-gain plateau.

The encouraging part is that the age decline is not inevitable. It is mostly muscle loss, and muscle loss responds to strength training at any age. A 60-year-old who lifts weights twice a week can hold a BMR closer to their 40-year-old self than a sedentary 50-year-old. Our guide to how to increase your BMR covers the seven most effective ways, starting with muscle.

Worked Example: Is 1,395 a Good BMR?

Return to the woman this series uses throughout: 35 years old, 70 kg, 165 cm, 28 percent body fat, lightly active. Her Mifflin-St Jeor BMR is 1,395 calories a day. Her Katch-McArdle BMR, worked out from her lean mass of 50.4 kg (70 × 0.72), is 370 + 21.6 × 50.4 = 1,459. Her Harris-Benedict BMR is 1,466. All three sit in the normal adult range, and all three agree within 71 calories.

Now compare her with the table. She is heavier than the 60 kg woman in the table, so her BMR should run a little higher than the table’s 1,295 for a 35-year-old at 60 kg — and it does, by almost exactly 100 calories, which is the 10 calories per kilogram the formula adds. Everything checks out: her BMR is ordinary for her body. Her lightly active TDEE is 1,395 × 1.375 = 1,918 calories a day, and our guide to BMR vs TDEE explains how the two numbers work together. To see your own number the same way, use a free basal metabolic rate calculator — and if you know your body fat percentage, the same page’s body fat calculator result gives you the lean-mass version too.

What Moves You Above or Below Average?

If your BMR sits well above or below the average for your age and sex, one of five things usually explains it:

• Size. Bigger bodies cost more to run. Every extra kilogram adds about 10 calories a day; every extra centimetre of height adds 6.25. A tall person is not “high metabolism” — they are simply large.
• Muscle mass. The biggest lever you control. A muscular person can sit 100 to 200 calories above the average for their age and sex at the same weight, purely because more of their weight is lean tissue.
• Body fat percentage. Two people at the same weight can differ by a hundred calories or more if one carries much more fat, because fat tissue burns so little at rest. This is why formulas based on lean mass exist at all.
• Thyroid and hormones. An overactive thyroid raises BMR noticeably; an underactive one lowers it. If your calculated BMR looks right but your weight behaves as if your burn were far lower — or far higher — a thyroid check is worth discussing with a doctor.
• Measurement error. Most “unusual” BMRs turn out to be wrong inputs: weight entered in pounds instead of kilograms, height guessed instead of measured, or body fat percentage estimated from a photo.

One factor does not change your BMR at all: exercise. A workout raises the calories you burn that day, but it does not raise your resting burn the next morning — except slowly, by building muscle. That is why activity shows up in your TDEE, not your BMR.

What Counts as a Low or High BMR?

A BMR below about 1,200 calories a day for a woman or 1,400 for a man is unusual for a healthy adult, and usually belongs to a small, older, or very light person — or to someone whose inputs are wrong. A BMR above 2,000 is equally unusual outside tall, heavy, or very muscular men.

The practical use of “average” is narrower than most people think. It tells you whether your calculator result is plausible, and it tells you roughly where your maintenance calories sit before activity is added. It does not tell you how much to eat — that comes from your own BMR multiplied by your own activity level, not from a table row. For the eating side, our calorie calculator turns your BMR into a daily target, and our free BMI calculator shows where your weight sits for your height.

FAQ: Average BMR by Age and Gender

What is a good BMR for a woman?

Most adult women have a BMR between about 1,300 and 1,500 calories a day. A 35-year-old woman weighing 70 kg has a BMR of about 1,395 — squarely normal. Your own “good” number is the one that matches your weight, height, age, and muscle mass.

What is a good BMR for a man?

Most adult men have a BMR between about 1,600 and 1,900 calories a day. A 30-year-old man weighing 80 kg at 180 cm has a BMR of about 1,780 by Mifflin-St Jeor.

Does BMR decrease with age?

Yes, by roughly 5 calories a year — about 50 calories a decade — mostly because muscle mass declines. From age 20 to 70, that is a drop of about 250 calories a day at the same weight and height. Strength training slows the decline considerably.

Why is my BMR lower than average?

Usually because you are smaller, lighter, or less muscular than the average person in the table — or because your inputs are wrong. Check that weight is in kilograms and height in centimetres. If the inputs are right and the number still looks very low, a thyroid check is worth discussing with a doctor.

Is a higher BMR always better?

Not necessarily. A higher BMR mostly means a bigger or more muscular body, which burns more at rest and makes weight management easier. But a very high BMR with unexplained weight loss can be a sign of an overactive thyroid, so an unexpected change is worth checking.

How do I calculate my own average BMR?

Use the Mifflin-St Jeor formula — (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161 for women, ending in + 5 for men — or use a free BMR calculator and compare the result with the table above for your age group.