Daily Cals

Your BMR is the amount of calories you would burn if you were "at rest" all day. But nobody stays in bed all day! We do things like walking, housework, driving, etc., all of which burn calories.

If your BMR is 1600, then 2000 sounds about right for what a typical person would burn in a typical day of walking around, driving, standing, etc.

When you set up your goals, the site asks you about your lifestyle, i.e. how sedentary or active you are during a normal day, and it calculates your actual daily caloric need.

Then it gives you a daily calorie "goal" based on your weight loss goal. For example, if you told the site you wanted to lose 1 pound per week (recommended), it would calculate a daily "deficit" of 500 calories per day.

So if your BMR is 1600, and you burn 400 more doing your normal daily activities, that = 2,000 calories per day that you could eat and maintain your current weight. To lose a pound per week, you would need to eat 1500 calories (2000 minus 500).

Note: the site "adds" any calories that you burn during exercise (and enter in the cardio section under the exercise tab) back in to your daily caloric goal in order to maintain that 500 calorie deficit. So if you enter 200 calories of cardio, then your daily goal would be raised to 1700 in order to maintain your daily deficit at 500 and your weekly weight loss at one pound.

Hope that helps!

I walk at least 5 miles a day and my daily food allowance is 1720. I find it kind of difficult to stay within this.