[Danzer5570]

Hey everyone! I just have a question that I'm confused about...and I think I may just be stupid or something. But I figured I'd ask anyway.

So I was recording what I ate and my exercise in my FitDay journal, and I thought I'd click on "Am I burning the calories I eat?" Yesterday I ate about 1800 calories, and did 20 minutes of cardio. When I put my cardio in, it said I burned around 130 calories. But when I went to see if I was burning the calories I ate, it said I burned 3000 calories for the day (you know when you can compare your calories in vs. calories out)!!!! How is that possible? When I only did 20 minutes of cardio? Is there a certain number of calories you burn each day without doing any activity or what? I hope it's not a real obvious answer, otherwise I'll feel pretty dumb. But can someone please help me out? Thanks!

[PhysDom]

Yes! Fitday takes into account 3 types of activity -- basal, lifestyle, and activity.

Basal is the amount of calories needed if you were just to lay (lie? I get them confused) in bed all day -- heart beating, breathing, etc.
Lifestyle is the amount fitday calculates based on how active a lifestyle you selected -- mostly sedentary, seated work, work with some movement, a job moving boxes all day, etc..
Activity is the amount of calories burned doing activities 'above and beyond' your normal amount -- so the cardio you did is a good example.

If the calories consumed is 500 cals less than those burned each day (on average), in one week you'll burn about 3500 calories -- or 1 pound per week.

Of course, all of the calorie counts for activites/basal/lifestyle in fitday are an estimate based on some simple factos (age, height, current weight, etc.) and may not be exact for you.

But I love this tool in fitday... when I look at a week in average, I can see that even if I mess up and eat tons one day, I'll still have a caloric deficit.

Hurrah! And keep up the logging.

[Meg]

Hi Heather! It's not a dumb question at all - it's a good one and I'll bet a lot of people don't know the answer to it.

Phys Dom's right about how Fitday breaks down calories: you use about 55-60% of your daily calories just to keep your body running every day. That's your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), also known as Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Another 5% of your calories are used for digestion and the remainder of your calories are burned through exercise and every day activities. The total number of calories you use in a day is called your Active Metabolic Rate (AMR). That's the number you got from Fitday.

Here at 3FC, we have a Daily Calorie Needs Calculator that estimates the amount of calories you need to eat in a day to maintain your weight based on your activity level (your AMR). If you want to lose a pound a week, you'd subract 500 calories from your AMR and if you want to lose two pounds per week, you'd subtract 1000 calories. Calculators aren't 100% accurate but are a useful place to start for figuring out your daily calorie needs.

[Danzer5570]

Thanks so much gals! And I'm definitely gonna check out that calculator here on 3FC

[Tealeaf]

I never found the 3FC's calorie counter. It's neat! Thank you for linking it.

I kinda doubt fitday's calorie estimations. If you enter anything other than sendentary, then enter the exercise you actually do, it in effects counts the calories from the exercise twice. Once, from your lifestyle, and then again from your log. I think it would be nice if they pointed that out somewhere on their site.

[srmb60]

Right Tealeaf ... I put sedentary in and then just count anything that is out of my usual routine activity-wise.

[WaterRat]

Wow, I didn't know that calculator was there either. Interesting. It's been awhile since I looked at Fitday too, other than to enter foods, so I'll have to remember to check that out.