Buzzkill.... :(

Meh, don't worry about it. That's THEM. You do the best you can do. I'm lucky if I burn more than 200 cals in a day, but I'm not stressing about it. I'm doing what I can do right now. I can't go to the gym because we can't afford it, I can't go on a run for an hour because I can't exactly leave the kids in the house by themselves, etc. But I CAN take a walk with the kids when it's warm, and I CAN do my Wii Fit and Sports Active workouts every day. So I do what I can, and call it good.

Also, remember that two people can do the same amount of exercise and burn a different number of calories depending on weight and fitness level! Do what you can do and don't worry about everyonr else :happy:

I am one of the people doing the 3500 calorie challenge!! Yes I have a job and yes I have one child!! I feel like if I can find time to party, eat all day, shop,etc. I can sure find time to work out. I usually workout from 1-11/2 hours a day. I either do a 20-30 mile bike ride or hit the gym doing tredmill & bike. I do all of this right after my son gets out of school and I get off work ( we both are done at the same time). He is 12and I can take him to the gym with me because they have a child care area or if i ride my bike he stays with my mom. After all this then we go home and he does homework while I'm cooking supper. My husband comes in we eat supper, go over homework & study and then have some family time. Saturdays and Sundays I do longer rides 40-50 miles. My workout through the week burns about 600-800 calories and my weekend workouts 1200-1500 calories. Sunday is usually my off day. Thats how it works for me!!

I had to LOL at your Job question! Right now I'm sick (thanks to the friend who gave me the flu last month, BTW) and the doctor has told me no exercise for at least 2 weeks, so I'm going stir crazy having to sit at home in bed instead of going about my normal routine. But, when I'm in my normal routine, I can easily burn 1000 calories a day from planned exercise, plus what I don't count because it isn't planned exercise. Currently, I am a full time college student and run two home based businesses, one of which is personal training and teaching exercise classes. I don't count the calories burned from teaching classes or demonstrating exercises to clients because I've been doing it for almost 15 years now so I know my body is use to that activity so I just use the estimation of highly active for my calorie needs. I have a crazy schedule because of the three different directions I'm going, not counting the husband and kids at home that I have to coordinate things with (The kids are teenagers, so luckily I can rely on them to do a lot of the little things around the house, but I still have to be the "Manager" if you will). I sneak in my own workouts between my classes while I'm at school or while waiting on clients to get to the gym, park, or wherever we're meeting. For my workouts, I pick the highest intensity I can do that day. I'm asthmatic so I don't do as high intensity as I would love to do to prevent an attack, though. If I have the opportunity to get in the pool at school, for example, instead of aqua aerobics which only burns about 4 calories per kilogram of body weight per hour, I'll aqua jog which burns 8 calories per kilogram of body weight per hour. Same hour, same pool, twice the calories burned. For something like P90X, I go with as heavy a weight as I can and go as fast as I can safely move it with proper form, because that increases the intensity and the amount of energy needed to move the weight. It's basic physics, you can increase resistance, speed, or distance to increase energy needs.

Is that required for everyone, though? Nope! If all you have the energy to do is burn 200-300 calories a day, then that is a whole lot better then burning 0. If your calorie needs and your energy expenditure needs are even, then you will stay the same weight, but if you can get a 500 calorie deficit by exercising off 250 calories and cutting 250 calories from your intake, you will still get your 3500 calorie goal per week deficit. Do what works for you and don't worry about competing with others. If you want to steal some of their secrets though, so you can burn more too, by all means do!

I love your post!! I'm doing exactly what you're doing and exercise 5 to 6 times a week. I burn 300-400 calories with my exercises (usually running/Nike Training Club/or P90X) and I'm very happy with that. I'm seeing results, so I don't really care if I'm burning way less than some people...maybe if I wasn't seeing results I would care. Anyway, I wouldn't beat yourself up! You have to do what works for you and your lifestyle. Keep it up girl!

The Calories Burned is not a scoreboard.

Calories burned is different for every one. If you're seeing results from your program...go with it, and be proud of it.

I'm actually working on a blog post about the time spent working out.

Ditto.

Honestly? I don't even worry about what I burn in exercise. I do my 60 min. workout and then afterwards, I log my calories burned per my BodyMedia FIT. I know that regardless of my burn, I am improving my fitness/health and I AM getting a benefit from it. It's much less stressful to do your workout without worrying about calories, and then deal with them later to log & adjust your food plan for the day to match your activity level, if needed.