I'm wondering what you all have figured your daily calorie needs to be? By this I mean the number of calories you need just to live and breathe, as well as calories needed for everyday activities such as sleeping, working, eating, cleaning, typing on 3FC..etc. This does not include the additional calories you need for your exercise routine.

As for me, I use fitday's "seated work" setting, which is around 2040 calories (the exact number varies a slight bit depending on my exact weight for that day). I've been keeping a chart of my daily calorie intake, number of calories burned through lifestyle and exercise, and the deficit. I then divide the total deficit by 3500 once a week (3500 being the number of calories which need to be burned to lose 1 pound of fat).

I thought my lifestyle calorie needs (the 2040 calories) was set too high because it seemed like I wasn't losing anything..though in each week there was a deficit (which never amounted to 3500 in one week though). But now I'm starting to see that the daily and weekly fluctuations made the chart seem wrong, because when I just added up the totals for each week, I was astounded to see that I was EXACTLY on point. I lost 4 pounds in 5 1/2 weeks (yes, very slow I agree!) and sure enough that's what the chart said.

A lot of people seem to have fitday set to "bedridden" to make the daily calories needed more accurate. Maybe because I live in NYC, where we walk a lot just to get to our daily appointments and to get to places such as the store or the subway to work (up and down all those subway stairs and then a few blocks to get to the subway and then walk from the station to work..UGH ).

I'm starting to think you really CAN get this weightloss stuff down to an exact science.

Hey Mami,

Here is a post that I submitted yesterday about my calories/day. I hope this helps you

"I eat 1800 calories per day on the days that I exercise (my workouts burn 450-500) calories. On the one day/week that I don't work out, I only have 1500. I also do strength/core training 3 days/week.

Like a previous poster, I had gone to my local gym (Lifetime Fitness) and had a O2 test done that measures how many calories my body needs each day to maintain the weight that I am at. It was pretty accurate.

I would highly recommend doing this if you belong to a gym that offers these tests and also getting a Heart Rate Monitor has been key to figuring out how many calories I am burning during my workouts and making sure that I am working out in my correct zone.

I am on my 2nd month of maintaining a 65 pound weight loss."

Mami, I don't even bother with the activity portion of Fitday. Now granted I am A LOT heavier then you, so at this point I'm not into all the science of it all. I started my journey 25 weeks ago on Monday and have seen a weightloss every single week. All I can tell you is that it varies GREATLY from week to week even though I have been extremely consitient with my food and my exercise. Of course now that I am lighter then when I began I am increasing my exercise to compensate for it. Less weight on me, less calories I burn then I used to. I am seeing nothing scientific in my weightloss. There is really no rhyme, no reason as to why I vary so much from week to week. Nothing at all I can pinpoint. I believe it's just not in my control. The body will do what the body will do. At least that's how it's been for me up to this point.

I really have never sat down and tried to figure out my exact calorie needs. I have been very fortunate that I am full and satisfied on under 1400 calories. I do try and keep it a bit below that on most days. As long as I'm steadily losing, am feeling well and energetic and feeling satiated and know that I am getting all my required nutrients, I think I may have just "found" what is right for me. For now anyway.

mami - I found that "seated work" was too high of a range for me. The "bedridden" one works - but I try to plug in everything I do, whether it's grocery shopping or cleaning the house, as an 'actvitity'. That seems to get me the most results. I also don't use fitday's exercise calorie-burning count. They tell me I burn like 200 calories during a 45 min workout and my heart rate monitor says 700 based on my age, weight, etc. So I just keep upping the time on the activity until it matches the calories my Polar said.

And yes, it's odd what an exact count I seem to be getting that way. Each time I've come up with 3500 calories in deficit, the scale reads a pound down. Although sometimes I have to get to a 7000 calorie deficit for it to read 2 lbs down (it skips over the 1st one). *shrug*

Thanks ladies. Now I'm really confused about how much I'm burning when exercising. The RMR test said I burn 169 calories per 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise. I asked the dietician what is meant by "moderate intensity" and she said a heart rate of 130 - 140 beats per minute. The strange thing is that the elliptical machine says I'm burning around 330 calories per 30 minutes rather than the 169 calculated by the RMR (going by my oxygen read out), and I am keeping my heartrate in the "moderate intensity" zone so I dont understand the huge (almost double) difference. I know I need my own heart rate monitor to see how closely that works with the RMR number..I'm waiting the delivery of my elliptical which comes with a chest strap kind.

How many calories are you all burning per 30 minutes when you do moderate intensity? Thanks

My sister is a personal trainer at a major health club and she has always told me that the calorie readouts on the exercise equipment is totally inaccurate.

Your best bet is to wear a HRM that is programmed with your height/weight/birthdate, etc. - that will give you an accurate calorie count.

I typically burn 375-450 calories in a 60 minute cardio session.

Best wishes !!

I have no "moderate intensity" workouts. Not because I'm a super-star, but quite the opposite. My heart is so out of shape that it has to work it's little heart-butt off whenever I do anything. For instance, today's jogging-and-speed-walking intervals were ranging my heart rate from 150-175 bpm. I think 176 bpm means I'd be in the back of an ambulance, so I try to be careful when it gets that high. Anyway, that's just a sad reflection of my lack of fitness. The good news is, it means I burned 477 calories in 46 minutes!

I am a big believer in heart rate monitors that allow you to plug in age and weight. Those calculations seem a lot more accurate to me.

I work at a gym and it is true that the about of calories the equipment says you burned isn't that accurate, but neither are some of the heart rate monitors. The good ones are quite expensive, there are also these thing call body bugs that are amazing and it hooks up to your computer and keeps track of EVERYTHING! They are a few hundred dollars though... I was talking to trainers and they all say your best bet is to get a heart rate monitor and make sure you stay in your recommended zone for a certain amount of time depending on your fitness level. I'm supposed to stay between 160 and 170 BPM for 45-60 minutes.

As for the calorie intake right now I'm trying to eat about 1500 calories a day and if I'm good all week I get one cheat meal. Today I had my cheat meal, it was very yummy! Makes me want to have another good week for another one!

Jilly, do they have the Resting Metabolic Rate test in your area? I found one at a dietician's office, and the visit was covered by my Oxford insurance. I had put a thread in Support but I'm thinking its really more pertinent to calorie counters. At any rate..this test should help you figure out exactly how many calories you burn at rest and during normal lifestyle activities. It also told me how many calories I burn during a 1/2 hour moderate intensity workout. Thanks to the ladies who responded, I can no longer hide my head in the sand and pretend I burned 700 calories in an hour on the elliptical when the truth is more like 350. Oh well, you live and learn. Reality checks are most important to weightloss. So anyway, my calorie deficit chart is a bit off from what I learned from the RMR test, yet the chart coordinates with my weightloss (4 pounds in 5 weeks). I know and I agree..I sound like a total geek but the actual numbers really do motivate me more than anything else.

The funny part of all of this is that we take such careful measures to make sure we "level off our tablespoon of peanut butter" (hehe sorry had to bring that back up), we buy heart rate monitors, we go get tested to figure out our RMRs, we plug every bite into FitDay...

And yet, none of these things are exact sciences. They test food all the time and find out the calories are totally different than what the labels say. They come up with new theories about how we actually burn these calories. Nobody has the 100% correct answer. We concentrate so hard on getting everything down to the last calorie, as if the numbers truly mean something.

These are our bodies, not calculators. Just like jillybean was saying about the fast-food binge and losing a pound. That's happened to me before, too. Your body is going to do what it wants to do, despite all of our best efforts to make it fit into a pretty little calculate-able box.

*shrug* Not that I'm giving up calorie counting, just sometimes I find it funny and ironic. Anyone else ever stop and truly think about this?

Ummm, yup. I know I sound like a broken record. But all the sciencetific studies, and not so scientific studies, all the websites, calculators, other people's experiences, doctors, nutritionist, dieticians, personal trainers, psychics and the what not don't really mean a darn thing when it comes to each and every individual. We are all individuals and EVEN being individuals we all change week to week, our bodies are NOT consistient, EVEN if what we are doing IS. And that's why I don't bother with any of that stuff. But of course we all have to do what we think is necessary. We all have different ways of dealing with our food/activity levels. We all gain comfort and knowledge in different ways. And that's perfectly okay.

Nothing, IMO takes the place of trial and error. And even then we can not expect the same results week to week. I have had good weeks and seen a small loss, lousy weeks and had a nice loss. All we can do is try to consistiently eat right and exercise. The scale and our bodies will do what they will do.

I think about it all the time. I don't make spreadsheets, or use Fitday, or enter in my basal this to figure that...because honestly....WHY??????

I exercise each day, and I count my calories. That is IT. I make healthy choices-whole grains, lean meat, fruits, veggies...I eat generally well, so I don't need to spend 20 minutes figuring my estimated calorie deficit or what percentage or carbs versus fat I had this week.

I simply count my calories, exercise, make healthy choices...and go on. I agree-these are our bodies...and in my experience, they don't work like mathmatical equations. I can do the same thing, and lose 1/2 a pound one week, none the next, and two the week after that. I deal with it.

If this took me 20 minutes, I'm not sure I'd have the time for it either. But it takes me about 1 minute or less. At the end of the day, when baby finally goes to sleep and I get on the computer usually to go to 3FC lately, I'll enter in my total daily calories, plus look into fitday's report for the number of calories burned, and throw it into my spreadsheet. Takes seconds and to me this is FUN. I'm not kidding! I love all this tracking, but agree that this is definitely not for everyone. Especially if you have more than 1 kid..LOL.

The numbers just help to motivate me to eat less and to exercise more. When I'm operating in a "black whole", I just dont feel the same control nor do I feel as motivated over each calorie eaten or burned. Since I generally eat more than 1700 calories per day, it doesnt have me being restrictive, but just gives me something to think about when I want to keep eating (like I did yesterday). The spreadsheet adds up the total calories in a week and it was only 400 calories higher than my goal of 12,000 (average of 1700 per day), so totally in my weightloss zone. This helped me feel better about the candy I had just munched on (DH and niece went to the store for munchies and guess who got tempted?).