Mysterious Calorie Burn

[emccorm]

Ive been reading quite a bit and there seems to me that there is a lot of research and knowledge on ones resting metabolic rate and obviously its quite easy to get a decent estimate of how many calories are burned during exercise, whether it be on the erg or bike or road or in the pool etc.

what i cant really work out, is how many cals we as humans burn day to day just doing normal everyday activites. My understanding is, and please correct me if i am wrong is that our BMR/RMR only accounts for how many cals are required to keep us alive at rest. It doesnt make an estimate of what we need to perform daily tasks like walking to the bus stop etc.

Does anyone have a decent handle on an approximate number for this?

My best guess based on hunger is that this is probably between 5 and 10 cals per day per kg (2.2lbs) of body weight for your average person whose daily activity resides somewhere between being bed ridden and being a bricklayer or some other movement intensive type job. So if you are 100kgs, or 220lbs, just by going about your day you can expect the body to burn somewhere between 500 and 1000 cals. Again,this is just my best guess, but it is only a guess.

Would love to hear from anyone who has an opinion on this. 500 cals daily can well and truly be the difference between weight loss and weight gain, am wondering if anyone can shed some light on this calorie black hole.

[gregsmith01748]

Hi,

There is a BMR calculator on the web here: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

which includes a guideline for multipliers on top of bmr for daily calorie needs, as follows:

Harris Benedict Formula
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

When I did this, I assumed that I was somewhere between sedentary and lightly active for my life, and then I added the calorie burn from specific exercise sessions to the total.

My BMR is 1790 cal. My multiplier is 1.3, if I don't exercise, I need 2400 calories.
If I go and do a hard hour on the erg, my heart rate monitor informs me that I have burned about 1000 calories.

That means that if I want to maintain my weight, I need to eat about 3400 calories. When I was trying to lose weight, I aimed to create a 5000 to 7000 calorie deficit per week, just under 2 pounds of weight loss. So I would try to keep my calorie intake at 2400 and do an hour a day on the erg (or running or whatever). I was really persnickety about the details at first because I knew how easy it is to ramp up the calorie intake without noticing, but after I got into the routine it got a lot easier to estimate what was going on. Now I just try to avoid eating any junk on days when I am not exercising and eat a lot of healthy food. The most important routine was to weigh myself every day at exactly the same time. Weight bounces around a lot on a daily basis, but you need all the data points to start to discern the upward and downward trends to adjust calorie intake or exercise level.

Sorry for the rambling reply, but you hit on one of my favorite topics.

[Steelhead]

A rule of thumb from Ninth Edition, Nutrition for Health, Fitness, & Sport for an active person is:

15 times your weight in pounds equals the number of calories necessary to maintain your weight.