a question about calorie burning

[Kreeli]

i'm asking for a friend, i swear!

she wants to know if there are recommendations for what percentage of your daily calorie burning should be from your basal metabolic rate, focused exercise (working out), and your daily activties (walking to and from work/school, housework, playing with kids, etc.) she says that according to some chart she calculates every day, she's burning 50% of her calories from her BMR, 10% from working out, and 40% from her daily activities. does that sound about right to all of you? i know we've got some knowledgeable people here on this stuff.

i TRY to not be calorie-focused when i'm exercising but damn! when you have friends who are all into it, you get sucked in!

[Jinga]

Was your friend using a site like fitday? It will tell you approximately how much you need to live, how much you burn each day, etc. The amount of calories people need are far higher than most 'diet' numbers. When I don't exercise my little calories used pie chart lists 60% of my calories going towards basic body needs and 40% being used in normal daily lifestyle. When I do exercise its more like 50% BMR, 30-40% lifestyle, and 10-20% exercise. The numbers you listed seem right on.

[Kreeli]

thanks, jinga!

i don't think she's using fitday...she's computerless. i think she got the chart she uses to calculate all this from a book. she's acting shocked that she isn't burning more calories from her exercise (which she spends about an hour a day doing). i wanted to reassure her that it's normal and that to overdo can be bad. she's trying to lose weight rapidly. (too rapidly, if you ask me.) but anyway...thanks again!

[Formerbaboon]

I just signed up with fitday. Seems really neat, but its so confusing!

[clickman]

It is neat, but I didn't like the "go downstairs to check nutritional value of items X,Y, and Z" part. It seems to be a great 'keep yourself in check" tool, though.

[rabid_child]

i've been using fitday, and i've found it easy enough to use, and easy to enter in foods and things that aren't listed, and they save, so especially with things you eat every day (i.e. breakfast cereal) you just choose them off the list later on. Through it I found out I eat about 3X the RDA of Bvitamins and iron every day.

it says about 10% of my calories are burned through exercise as well, so that seems about average.

[shinyredapple]

kreeli, as far as i know the counts you get from a chart could be way off. i don't know about the online calculator, it could be more accurate if you are entering in bodyfat percentage as well as height, weight and age. it is really hard to put into a chart because metobolic rate can only really be accurately tested with a fasting blood test. for instance, someone who has a higher lean muscle mass to fat ratio will have a higher metobolic rate, as well as someone who has been exersizing more consistantly over more years. thay can burn the same amount of calories in a shorter period of time than someone newer to working out. i could go into a super detailed formula if you want me too.

i'd like to know more about fitday... any comments?

[Kreeli]

hmmm...more detail sounds scary, shinyredapple, and would probably go right over my numerically-challenged brain! i think what she was really wondering was...is burning 10% of your calories from a focused workout each day enough for weight loss, or should she be aiming for more?

[shinyredapple]

honestly i don't know. it depends on how many calories she is taking in. is she doing cardio or weight training? all my education says that this is inaccurate. it goes like this... you need to create a deficeit(sp?)of 3500 calories a week to lose one pound, through exersize or diet. more than two lbs a week will cause her to lose muscle mass thereby slowing her metobolic rate. the best thing to do is to 1. get a heart rate monitor and calculate her resting heart rate and max heart rate. all cardio she does should remain in the 70% to 80% of max range. 2. track normal calories for 2 weeks or more, then eating 200-300 calories less on the days she is not working out.

sorry i gave you the math anyway! i hope i don't sound like a know it all!!!

[Kreeli]

ahhh! math!

i'm of the mindset that she can be totally healthy without paying so much attention to numbers and just eating right and getting a good amount of activity. but she's got a dress to fit into for a formal function later this summer and is completely obsessed with inches and pounds and calories and blah! and she's sucking me in! blah! i have to be really careful because i go nuts when i start paying too much attention to this stuff.

she eats between 1500 and 1700 cals a day (or so she says) and does this hour long workout 7 days a week! (40 minutes cardio and 20 weight training).

thank you, though...you don't sound like a know-it-all. you sound like someone who knows their stuff backwards and forwards.