I've done all the formulas that help you calculate your BMR and calories burned, etc. due to lifestyle factors (sedentary, lightly active, etc.) but I'm wondering what you all assume you burn on a daily basis (maybe those of you with those fit body monitors?)

Here are my stats:
-female
-26 years old
-5'5.5
-135 lbs

I work at a desk job, but I walk .6 miles to and from work (with hills) and walk 1 mile to my gym everyday. Also at work while I do sit at a computer, I do walk around quite a bit, to coworkers desks, etc. and I try and drink a lot of water so I'm constantly going to the office kitchen and of course to the bathroom!

I do work out everyday M-F (typically run about 5-6 miles and weights some days), but i'm curious in finding out my calories burned on days when I don't work out and then i'll add in the calories from my exercise.


I'd just like to determine a baseline. Right now i'm assuming 1800-1900. Is that too high??

Thanks everyone!!

it's a good start - seriously, don't worry about microcalculating each and every thing.

it makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Not much. I must have an extremely low metabolism. Even dropping my calories to 1200 a day, I haven't managed to lose anymore weight.

i was pretty confused when i did my bmr, it said around 3500+ calories are burned a day (my 3 mile a day walks included) but i am like 3 of you, so it makes sense.

This website is EXTREMELY informative in helping calculate calories in and calories out...it comes up with your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). start with the Military Body Fat Calculator to get that number then enter in everything else. i downloaded the app on my iphone and it's pretty cool because it tells you EXACTLY the number of calories you should eat to lose weight for your exercise level. you may be actually very surprised how much you REALLY burn in a day and the amount of calories that you really should be eating. The number may be a lot higher than you think! :-)

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/

I don't think that's too high - I think it sounds reasonable, possibly even slightly too low, given the fact that you do do some walking. I'm 25, 5'4, 142 or so at the moment, and I burned around 2900 calories today according to my GoWear Fit. That said, I have a job in which I'm standing for most of the day (street fundraiser) and I ran 7.5k or so in the evening.

For me, I just have to know. I am a calorie counter so it drives me nuts guessing all the time. I broke down and spent 60 bucks no a HRM. LOVE IT! It tells you about how many calories you burn based on your height, weight, sex, and heart rate. That way I know I burn at least "so" many calories a day. Whatever is extra is extra later..I count what I eat and go from there.

So if you are like me, that's the way to go to put your mind at ease. Otherwise there are calorie burning calculators all over the internet..but rule of thumb I underestimate my calories burned on those....and overestimate what I eat.

I use the Mifflin St Joer formula. Its very accurate for me. I plugged in the numbers for you
At sedentary I got 1634 cals for you.
At lightly active (walking 2 hours a day) I got 1873 cals for you.

Thanks everyone! I guess I'm on the right track assuming around 1800-1900 a day. But like Snaggly, I'm curious as to what two hours of walking a day means?

Thanks again!!

I got it from the website (calorie restriction site) For me, I don't do much other than go to work at a sedentary office job. I try to take time to do deliberate walking for at least 1+ hours, to avg at least 2 hrs per week and I count myself as lightly active, but thats just me-not sure how the site defines it. I try to look up other standards (since they are all based on lightly/moderately active etc) but they aren't much more detailed
EDIT-
Here is the link http://www.scientificpsychic.com/health/cron1.html

The calculator I use puts your average daily burn (without the dedicated exercise, but including your walking) at about 1980/day.

At my current weight, age and height, the same calculator tells me I'd burn (on average) about 1675/day without exercise, or 2175/day with moderate exercise (5 days/wk). And when I was wearing the BodyBugg, it was giving me even higher numbers. I think all those numbers are much too high given my long-term calorie restriction. I'm guessing that at this point I burn more like an average of 1700/day including the moderate exercise. Maintenance at that calorie level isn't going to be so great.