Losing Calories While Sleeping?

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KittiePerry
KittiePerry Posts: 133 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How many people out there calculate how many calories they burn while asleep? Suppose you take a nap during the day, do you count it? Do you count sex? How do you know what calories to count and which ones to not count? I haven't been counting them myself, just very curious as to if I should or not. If so I'm severely under my calories every day.

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    That's what your BMR is for...everything your body burns to run. You should only count intentional exercise, as anything else is already accounted for.
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    I've been counting cleaning because I've been scrubbing the house from top to bottom, boxing things up, etc. But I don't count normal cleaning. I wouldn't count sex or sleeping or walking to the mailbox.

    I'm not sure what you set as your activity level, but MFP said that I burn 1920 calories a day just living, and eating 1200 calories leaves me at a 720-calorie deficit so I can lose.
  • firefoxxie
    firefoxxie Posts: 381 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    That's what your BMR is for...everything your body burns to run. You should only count intentional exercise, as anything else is already accounted for.
    +1

  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    KittiePerry wrote: »
    How many people out there calculate how many calories they burn while asleep? Suppose you take a nap during the day, do you count it? Do you count sex? How do you know what calories to count and which ones to not count? I haven't been counting them myself, just very curious as to if I should or not. If so I'm severely under my calories every day.

    Nope. Don't count them. The only exercise I count as far as calorie burns is cardio. Everything else is included in my activity level.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    obscuremusicreference wrote: »
    I've been counting cleaning because I've been scrubbing the house from top to bottom, boxing things up, etc. But I don't count normal cleaning. I wouldn't count sex or sleeping or walking to the mailbox.

    I'm not sure what you set as your activity level, but MFP said that I burn 1920 calories a day just living, and eating 1200 calories leaves me at a 720-calorie deficit so I can lose.

    I'm not sure if you know this, but when you set your goals up in MFP, the calorie deficit is already built in so you don't need to eat less than that to lose weight.

    If MFP says you can eat 1920 calories a day to lose weight, then you should aim for that goal instead of eating just 1200 calories a day.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    KittiePerry wrote: »
    How many people out there calculate how many calories they burn while asleep? Suppose you take a nap during the day, do you count it? Do you count sex? How do you know what calories to count and which ones to not count? I haven't been counting them myself, just very curious as to if I should or not. If so I'm severely under my calories every day.

    That's a bit obsessive

    Although I did notice that my fitbit flex counts sex :grinning:
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    That's what your BMR is for...everything your body burns to run. You should only count intentional exercise, as anything else is already accounted for.

    This is how I understand things too.

  • Cryptonomnomicon
    Cryptonomnomicon Posts: 848 Member
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    BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
    EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
    NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
    TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
    TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    Shoot. I haven't had sex for a while, but I'd bet my activity tracker would log it. I call out anything that spikes on my activity tracker, otherwise I just let it ride.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,995 Member
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    No OP, things like sleeping and sex are included in your base activity rate - obviously everybody sleeps so this is included in even sedentary.

    Unless your sex life is,ummm, particularly energetic, then I'm sure it is covered in your base activity level too.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    This is like cleaning to me, already included in daily activity.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    I only count workouts as exercise.

    If it is something I'd do if I were trying to gain weight, I don't count it.

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