BIOLOGY Volume 1 - A Guide to General Biology - 2004

9. ENERGY UTILIZATION

9.5. Gas Exchange in Mammals

9.5.8. Basal Metabolic Rate

Basal metabolic rate (basal METABOLISM) refers to the minimum level of Metabolism and Energy expenditure required solely to sustain life during complete rest or Sleep. To determine the basal metabolic rate, a person must remain in a state of physical and mental rest and fast for 12–18 hours. This ensures that the subject's gastrointestinal tract is empty by the time of measurement. The value of the basal metabolic rate depends on an individual's age, sex, body mass, and health status, and also correlates with The ratio of body surface area to volume.

Last update: 06/08/2026

Editorial and Educational Adaptation: This material has been compiled based on the primary/original source text. The project team performed an editorial review, corrected technical inaccuracies, structured sections, and adapted the content for an educational format.

What was processed:

elimination of formatting defects (OCR errors, structural breaks, corrupted characters);
editorial organization of content;
standardization of terminology in accordance with academic sources;
verification of factual statements against the original source text.

All mentions of the author, publication year, and origin of the primary text have been preserved in accordance with the source.