Basal metabolic rate is something developed in hospitals for bed-ridden patients on total parenteral nutrition. It is the calories you burn just staying alive.

Basal metabolic rate is something developed in hospitals for bed-ridden patients on total parenteral nutrition. It is the calories you burn just staying alive. If you, a healthy person walking around, eats at your BMR, you will, definitely, loose a heap of weight. However, the BMR for the average human is quite low. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate Also, on brief review, Taubes appear to thoroughly misunderstand the issue on a variety of levels. I'm going through more of his material, if I am mistaken, I will report my error.