3500 calories to lose a pound? - Interesting article

what do you think isn't adding up? Curious as to where you came up with that TDEE though, that sounds awfully low. Using the Generic calculation, your maintenance calories (assuming lightly active) are around 2350 to 2450.

I agree it sounds low but I am not lightly active. I work a desk job all day. I exercise an hour every morning to compensate (3 days lifting, 3 days cardio, 1 day martial arts).

what do you think isn't adding up? Curious as to where you came up with that TDEE though, that sounds awfully low. Using the Generic calculation, your maintenance calories (assuming lightly active) are around 2350 to 2450.

I agree it sounds low but I am not lightly active. I work a desk job all day. I exercise an hour every morning to compensate (3 days lifting, 3 days cardio, 1 day martial arts).

if you exercise an hour every morning you aren't sedentary. you are lightly active. People sometimes don't understand that aspect, sedentary is really sedentary, very few under 30 people are actually sedentary.

Unless this system is set up to differentiate between sitting on your butt all day (which IS sedentary) and adding an hour of exercise (manually added in on your otherwise sedentary burn rate), I would go with the sedentary rate and not the lightly active rate - which assumes you are moving around more throughout the day.

I too have a very sedentary job... wearing a calorie burn monitor, I burn less than 1.5 calories a minute while on the computer. My base rate for work is Sedentary (1800 calories a day). I add in my exercise calories and walking at 2.0 miles per hour for my other activities like food shopping, etc.

I understand your quoted science. However, I have had issues with various scientific studies that work for the general populace and don't work for me. General Studies do not take into account individual differentials - they normalize them. My diet, exercise and choices about my calorie intake or nutrition are based in many years of research and personal testing of what *feels* right combined with *results*. One must accompany the other.

However, I have a higher level of body awareness than most people. I knew I was pregnant the day after I conceived for both of my pregnancies (with no "false positives" even though the home test and the doctor's test both said I was not pregnant - and it turns out I was). I also have had excellent results with Biofeedback instead of medication to control a condition I was born with. Biofeedback requires a high degree of body awareness.

As such, I use general guidelines to a point and then I modify and test the methods to see what results change and how the process feels.

I put a lot of time and attention towards my body. I appreciate the general science as a starting point. And sometimes it even pairs well with my own testing an experience. However, it is surprising how often my own results deviate from what is "supposed" to happen.