Am I right?

1,500 is a very high rate for calories burnt at work. What kind of job do you have?

I'd say half right. I guess it depends on your job - I'm not burning anywhere near that much extra at work.

jemhh wrote: »

Jayj180894 wrote: »

Am I right in thinking, you burn around 1800kcal just generally doing nothing threw out the day? Then when you're at work you burn on top of that. So you burn 1800 generally, burn 1500 working, so in total 2800 then you eat around 1500kcal so in essence youre burning around half a pound a day as one pound is around 3 500 kcal. .. if that made any sense at all

No,absolutely none of that made any sense at all. None of the math, none of the words. None of it.

It sure why this is flagged, but I agree. The math doesn't really add up....

As others have said, it's highly dependent on the person's age, height, weight and activity level.

You need to calculate your own TDEE to figure out what kind of deficit to use. I like this TDEE calculator: http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

I'm sedentary, so my TDEE is only around 1800. If I were more active or had an active job, I could choose a higher activity category and I'd have a higher TDEE.

To lose weight, you just need to consume fewer calories than your TDEE. To lose about a pound a week, you'll need to eat [TDEE - 500] per day.

So in my case, I'd need to consume 1300 calories (or earn more calories through exercise to eat more).

Jayj180894 wrote: »

I find it very confusing. I know it's al individual and everyone is different I'm just using examples. Say Your body burns 1800 kcal doing absolutely nothing Eg laying down all day, is the kcal you burn at work extra burnt calories or is it just a few hundred on top of your maintenance? So are you burning 1800 and an additional 1500? I work as a waitress I do 10 hour shifts half an hour break. Walking all day fast paced, cleaning on top. And it worked out to be around 1500 kcal.

How did you arrive at your job using up 1500 additional calories?

When you set your goals here it asks you what you do for a living. Choose the one that says, "On feet all day, walking," or whatever it says.

Then that activity is already figured into your daily calorie goal.

Any additional purposeful exercise can be counted as "extra" calorie burn. If you were given 1800 calories then that is what you eat on days you don't do EXTRA exercise. You don't get to count your 10 hours of walking/lifting/cleaning as additional calories on top of your *activity* setting.

If you have an extremely active job, you might burn 1500 calories per day, but I don't think most of us have jobs that require that much physical activity. For reference, when I run a half marathon, I burn roughly 1100 calories over that distance. I'm pretty short and close to my goal weight, so my calorie burn isn't as much as it used to be, but I'm not burning anywhere near the equivalent of a half marathon beyond my BMR while spending the day at my mostly sedentary job. You would need to be doing a lot of physical labor to burn so many calories at work.

I have MFP set to sedentary because I prefer to add my exercise calories in separately. That's how I can count a run as exercise.

Jayj180894 wrote: »

I'm not asking about numbers I know my RDA is 1200. MFP is set to to active. I was just giving numbers as an example. The 1500 comes from MFP exercises slow walking 2.5mph for 480 mins and its estimate is 1500 kcal. All I'm trying g to ask is that are the kcal you doing from extra moving on top of the kcals you need to keep you alive?? And if not why if you did f all, all day but went for a walk would that be classed as exercise but not work

Huh?

Ok I have no idea what RDA is... but 480 minutes of walking means just that... WALKING non stop for 480 minutes. I don't think anyone does that... even the average fast food worker might walk maybe 10,000 steps in a 8 hour shift as they stand a lot too. I could walk those 10,000 steps walking at a comfortable space for 90 minutes if I didn't have to serve people and pour drinks, to compare. So you'll burn much less working.

Also, whatever walking you do in your job is ALREADY accounted for in your MFP activity level. So if you set yourself as active, it means pretty much that already - a job when you're on your feet and moving most of the time 40 hours a week. Also you don't stop living while you're at work, so if your BMR is 1200 and you're at work 8 hours a day, you'd be burning 400 of those calories while at work anyway... and logging your job on top of that would be adding those calories twice.

Honestly... buy a fitbit. It will tell you how much you're burning. I reckon you're up for a (bad) surprise.

Jayj180894 wrote: »

I'm not asking about numbers I know my RDA is 1200. MFP is set to to active. I was just giving numbers as an example. The 1500 comes from MFP exercises slow walking 2.5mph for 480 mins and its estimate is 1500 kcal. All I'm trying g to ask is that are the kcal you doing from extra moving on top of the kcals you need to keep you alive?? And if not why if you did f all, all day but went for a walk would that be classed as exercise but not work

No idea what "RDA" is.

If you are set at "Active" already, you don't get to double dip and use work calories as exercise. No one walks for 480 minutes a day (for one thing). YOU don't walk for 480 minutes a day at 2.5. I was a waitress for 15 years, and it is a lot of stop/go/lift/carry/clean, sure. It doesn't burn an additional 1500, though.

If you had set your goal to "Sedentary" you still wouldn't get to add on 480 minutes of walking at 2.5. That would be six straight hours of walking.

Jayj180894 wrote: »

RDA is the English version of TDEE

Your RDA should be higher than 1200 then. That's awfully low unless you're extremely tiny or elderly. Doesn't sound like they are the same or you're not calculating correctly.

She must mean BMR.

Jayj180894 wrote: »

Honestly it's non stop walking. My job is cafe. So getting food taking it out clearing tables dish washer taking clean plates to BOH. It's not actually waitressing just thought it would be easier to decide. I don't deal with the till. When I put food on it takes 1 min to cook and we are not allowed to wait so have to go get clean plates or clean tables. It's mainly jogging tbh!!! RDA is the English version of TDEE

Think you are meaning "Recommended Daily Amount"?

A frequently stated average maintenance for women is 2000 cals, for men 2500. That's TDEE.

But that number is hugely variable (size, activity, exercise....)

There's loads of sticky threads pinned to the various forums explaining how this sites work. Reading them would ease your confusion.

If you set your MFP activity level to "active", then I believe it will automatically include your "work-walking" calories in the calorie count. Whereas if you had selected "sedentary", your daily calorie amount would be much closer to "the amount of calories you expend just by existing and not doing anything else."

At any rate, you are clearly doing something right if you've lost that much so far. Congratulations.