confused :S please help?

BMR is what your body needs to function while doing absolutely nothing -no moving, nothing. Everyone moves around during the day to get something to eat, get dressed etc, even if you are sedentary. If you have a more active lifestyle, like you are on your feet a lot during the day or your job means you move around a lot, then the number of calories you need to maintain your weight will be even higher. Your daily calorie goal is based on all of this - your BMR and how much you move around on a typical day.

Now, if you then go and do some extra exercise like going to the gym or for a walk, you need to add these calories onto your daily amount (MFP does it for you when you enter it in your exercise diary). This means that your deficit will go up unless you eat these exercise calories. It's a good idea to eat some of them or you may not have the energy you need to get through the day effectively.

For example; My BMR is around 1600 calories but if I was sedentary I would probably burn a couple hundred calories just doing day to day stuff like getting dressed, eating, going from one room to another. I also burn another couple hundred calories because I am actually more active than that with the things I do during the day; I'd say "lightly active". So the amount of calories I burn on a typical day ON TOP OF what my body needs to function when doing nothing is another 400-500 calories. I.e. my body needs around 2100 to maintain weight doing the things I do on a typical day. To lose a pound a day I therefore only need to eat around 1600 calories - a 500 calorie deficit. I exercise everyday too but I add this into my exercise diary because it varies how much exercise I do. This adds calories to my daily amount which I mostly eat.

I hope that helps clear things up a little :happy: