Question about calorie burn...Confused.

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bronnyd
bronnyd Posts: 278 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello :smile:

I have a question about calories burned throughout the day. My BMR is about 1500 calories; however, do I burn MORE than that by doing things like doing my dishes, walking to and from the store, cleaning the house, and just generally moving around or is that stuff included? MFP has calculated that I should be eating 1500 calories a day...so am I burning more than my BMR just doing normal every day things? How many calories does the average person burn just by doing every day tasks (not including exercise).

Thanks so much!

Replies

  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    The answer is that there is no "average person" in terms of calorie burn - it varies from person to person according to height, weight, age, level of activity (your "normal everyday things" may be vastly different from somebody else's), etc.

    Read this thread (I think you'll find it very helpful/educational) and do Dan's calculations that he lays out for you:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Yes, you are burning more than your BMR by just moving around and doing regular daily activities. This is why MFP asks you to choose an activity level. If you are at home and not very active you would choose "sedentary".
    MFP then multiplies your BMR by 1.2 to allow extra cals for everyday activity (not including exercise).

    If you are more active (walking to the store probably means you aren't sedentary) then you could choose "lightly active" and this provides more cals to cover these activities.

    Really, calculating calories is trial and error - all you can do is to choose a setting and try these numbers out for a month or so. I started out at "sedentary" but found that I was losing weight quite a lot faster than I expected (good, I know!) and changed to "lightly active" which seemed a better fit for me.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
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    Yep. Everyone is different based on their own body and the type of moving around they do each day. For me, I am 5'7" and 160-ish lbs and I burn about 700-800 calories/day over and above my BMR. Then if I work out, that's more again. So, just as an example, if I aim to eat at my BMR net i.e. eat my BMR plus all workout calories, I'll have a 700-800 calorie deficit daily... which will translate to about 1.5 lbs/week weight loss.
  • bronnyd
    bronnyd Posts: 278 Member
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    Great info, thanks guys!

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