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Old 02-24-2010, 09:50 AM   #1  
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Question Fit Day Lifestyle Calories Question

I signed up for a fitday account yesterday to help myself journal tighter for the next while. But, I am confused on the lifestyle calories thing.

I understand the concept of basal metabolic rate and that if I just exist, I burn a certain number of calories based on my gender, age, weight and height. (female, 30, 208, 5'1") But what is confusing me is that it is so high? I entered in "sits all day" - the first level above sedentary to be conservative. It tells me that I have about 2200 lifestyle calories before I plug in my exercise. That seems like an awful lot! So, if I understand what that means, if I eat 2200 calories a day and do no exercise, I will maintain? I will admit that my journals weren't super tight, but I don't think I ate over 2200 calories on a regular basis even before my journey? I must have had quite a bit more because I gained weight.

Maybe I have my own answer, but I thought I would throw this out to you guys to see your thoughts on it? Thanks!!
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Old 02-24-2010, 09:55 AM   #2  
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Most people find that Fitday is way, way high on calories burned through exercise and daily living. So they ignore it and use Fitday strictly for food calorie counting purposes.

All calculators are guesstimates, they're all over the map, and none know your unique body and its calorie needs. My best advice is to ignore all calculators and track your calorie intake, compare it to your fat loss, and tweak accordingly.
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Old 02-24-2010, 10:12 AM   #3  
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Thanks, Meg. I think that makes a lot of sense. I checked the Mayo Clinic and they said I need 1700 calories per day to maintain. That seems to fit in with what I thought also. I think I will use 1700 as a mental guideline, and also use the weight graph compared with the calories graph to actually see what it is for me. I try to eat about 1500 calories on exercise rest days and 1700 on exercise days - at my weight when I ride my stationary bike for an hour at a pretty good pace, I burn 500 calories. I've just found that if I go below 1500, my metabolism seems to come screeching to a stop. I usually only have 1 or 2 rest days a week.
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Old 02-24-2010, 10:28 AM   #4  
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The MAYO clinic seems much more reasonable to me. It gives me 1900 cals to maintain IF I'm exercising at least three days per week....

That helped me understand why I haven't been able to maintain a two-pound a week loss-- because I'd have to drop my cals BELOW 1200 to get a 1000k deficit.
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Old 02-24-2010, 10:42 AM   #5  
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Many many years ago, I set mine at "sedentary". That gives me about 1600 cals.

I'm a nurse. I work 5 8hr shifts a week. I walk uptown for errands probably 5 times a week. I exercise sporatically ... about 30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week.

In over seven years I have never failed to lose weight if I eat 1600 or less.

Like Meg says, I ignore all exercise calculators. But, I'll admit that I did wonder at first. The gals here at 3FC (Meg included) convinced me that it's not worth the struggle.
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Old 02-24-2010, 04:53 PM   #6  
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Thanks, ladies!!
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