Hi! I'm a frequent lurker with a question about Fitday, for those of you who use it.
In the activities section of Fitday it gives an estimated calories burned for the day, based on your basal metabolic rate and lifestyle. (I think it's based on your age, weight and height.)
How does this number compare to the number of calories that you're actually eating to maintain your current weight?

Hi Ginny! Glad you de-lurked and stopped by!

To answer your question -- I use Fitday for food tracking but have never done it for activities. I suppose I'm kind of skeptical of those numbers, the same way that I am of the cardio machines that tell you that you burn X calories per hour (it always seems so high).

I've had the metabolic testing done at my gym (BodyGem) and supposedly my RMR is beteween 1500 and 1600 calories a day, so I should be able to eat well over 2000 and maintain my weight. In my experience, it doesn't work that way. So, after much frustration, I've given up on all those numbers and formulas and just go by things like the scale and BF% and clothes to see what works for me.

For me, if I stay around 1400 - 1500 calories a day, I can maintain or lose a bit, so that's where I am right now. I'd like to get my body fat % a little lower so I'm not quite at the maintenance point yet.

Hope that helps!

When I first started using Fitday, I did the Activities tracking. However, I discovered that if those numbers were true, I'd have a calorie deficit so HIGH, I would have disappearred in 6 months. Same as Meg, I keep working and re-working what works, with a tune up every now and then.

dip

edited because when I went back and read this, it didn't make sense.

oh i'm so glad to see you ladies saying this!!!!! my RMR was measured at 1900!!!!! and add in 45-60 minutes of hiking daily plus 2 hours of weights 3 times a week, plus the roughly 1200 calories i'm eating, i should have melted away a long time ago!!!! but i haven't and i'm not. in fact, i have to bump up the cardio with an extra 30 minute walk a few times a week in order to drop a pound!!!

why WHY WHY doesn't this work the way THEY say it should??????

Cuz they don't know what they're talking about?

Cuz we're all individuals and are going to respond differently to diet and exercise?

For better or worse, there's no one in the world exactly like you and only YOU can figure out what's going to work for you. Read, learn, suck up ideas, experiment, and monitor your progress -- and, like Dip said, give it a tune-up every now and then.

Well - ya get whatcha pay for...

I personally haven't held much stock in 'calories burned' type of thingamabobs, including the ones on cardio machines at the gym, for a looooong time. Even the manufacturers say they're not all that accurate!

Even accounting correctly for weight, height, age, and the endless other factors...it is impossible for those figures to be accurate. When I do use fitday (just for a few days in a row to get myself 'on track' with eating) I just use the food part, and skip the exercise portion altogether.

My Two Centavos...

I've never used the Fitday maintenance calories... I just figured, how the heck would they know, 'cause they don't know MOI personally!! Everyone is different... Same with the machines... How does the machine know if you are muscular or skinny fat? At the weight of 150 or whatever...
As Karen said, my "My Two Centavos..."

Thanks for your replies, ladies! I guess that does lead to the next obvious question- how are you supposed to figure out what your maintenance calories should be?
I'm assuming that once I reach goal I should increase my calories a bit, particularly if I continue to do the same amount of cardio and weightlifting. Another false assumption?

Hi, this really doesn't have much to do with the actual question but I just wanted to add that I do use Fitday's activities section but I just ignore their idea of calories burned (since it is quite obviously out of whack for me, else like everyone else I would be melted away! ) I just use it because it's an easy way of keeping track of the time I've spent doing various things (walking, lifting weights, etc) and how many days I did it and when. I tend to think I did things just yesterday when in fact it might have really been five days ago.

Hi - new to the site and I found a discussion on exactly my question! (hence the lag between the first posting and this response) I seem to be having the same problem as everyone else - not knowing how many calories I burn each day, and hence not knowing how many to eat to maintain my weight. Has anyone tried using a heart rate monitor or pedometer to figure out how many calories they burn each day? I get the adjust, readjust strategy, but a lot of times if I have an especially active day (e.g., walking in a mall for hours in addition to my scheduled workout) I end up hungrier but have no idea how many extra calories I actually need to compensate for. I had thought a heart rate monitor might do the trick, but most seem targeted to the intense scheduled workout period and not so much daily calories burned.

Thanks for the help!

Stacie

Fitday is a free website (www.fitday.com) that lets you track your food, and, as we are discussing in this thread, your exercise. Most people I know only use the food part. It also contains a journal area and can generate reports and graphs of how you're doing. I highly recommend it.

Srabino745, I’m so glad you bumped up this thread as this question has been on my mind too as I near maintenance (10 lbs. to go). In fact, I posted this question on another website forum I visit. However, I may have some useful information:

I used the program in a book called DIETING FOR DUMMIES to lose my weight (approx. 35 lbs.). Basically, I eat 1500 calories a day and try to follow the food pyramid as well. When I’m on program, I lose 1 lb. a week following this plan. I aim for exercising 6 days a week, but I usually end up getting in only 5 (I’m hoping warmer weather will change that!). The DFD book has a great formula for calculating how many calories you need to maintain; it factors in things like age and activity level. It’s the formula I used to calculate my losing calories (i.e., daily maintenance calories – 500= 1 lb. loss per week), so I’m hopeful that it will be correct as far as maintenance calories. I’m 35, 5 ft. 3, and my goal weight is 135. Even though I exercise regularly, I have a very sedentary job (at a desk all day), so I used the lowest number when figuring my activity level. With all this in mind, DIETING FOR DUMMIES indicates that I can eat approx. 1750 calories per day to maintain 135.

When I posted a similar question about maintenance calories on that other web site, one person responded that when she had reached her weight goal, she added 100 calories to her total daily caloric intake every few weeks. So, the first 2-3 weeks she may have added 100 calories; after that time period, she’d add another 100 calories for 2-3 weeks, and so on. She said that that really worked well for her, so I’m thinking about trying that when I get to maintenance.