So last night I posted "The Math" at the end of my post to spell out my calorie deficit for the day. As I posted it, they were:
Calories in: 1544
- my daily calorie needs (not taking into account exercise): 2208 *using Polar Personal Trainer
- the 472 burned through exercise
= 1136 calorie deficit for the day.
Now, there are a ton of BMR calculators out there if you google them and they are all likely going to be slightly different in their calculation, but all in the same ballpark. Last night after uploading my HRM stats to the Polar Personal Trainer site, I went to the "calculators" section to calculate my "daily caloritic needs" which is one step further from calculating your Basal Metabolic Rate. For those of you who are just learning this stuff, your BMR is the basic amount of calories your body needs to live if you did absolutely nothing but sleep all day long. To determine you're "Active Metabolic Rate" or "daily caloritic needs" you have to take it one step further.
From your BMR number, you multiply it by another number depending on how active you are to determine your "daily caloritic needs." Most calculators will just have you choose from a list of varying activity and will do the calculation for you and spit out a number.
The Polar Personal Trainor calculator did give me a higher daily caloritic needs than the others which I am now going to be aware of because on the PPT one, it had all my same information only I chose "I do not train" versus "I train to improve my fitness" or "I am an athlete" and it spit out a daily caloritic needs to be 2208. So I took that to be before exercise (i.e. sedentary) since I chose "I do not train."
This calculator will calculate your BMR and have you then multiply that number by another number:
According to that calculator, my BMR is 1581.1. Then to calculate my daily caloritic needs, you do the math:
1)If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie-Calculation is 1581 x 1.2 = 1897.32
2)If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation is 1581 x 1.375 = 2174
3)If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = 1581 x 1.55 = 2450.70
4)If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation = 1581 x 1.725 = 2727
5)If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): Calorie-Calculation = 1581 x 1.9 = 3004
Another example, with my stats on this calculator:
Female, age 28, 174lbs, 5'4" at a sedentary desk job sets my BMR to be 1506 and my daily caloritic needs to maintain my current weight to be 1807 (1446 for fat loss). If set it at exercise 3 times per week, it tells me my daily caloritic needs are 2071 (1657 for fat loss).
But the Polar Personal Trainor calculator did give me a higher daily caloritic needs than the others which I am now going to be aware of because on the PPT one - thanks Randi for pointing that out! I don't understand why it was higher though because it had all my same information only I chose "I do not train" versus "I train to improve my fitness" or "I am an athlete" and it spit out a daily caloritic needs to be 2208. So I took that to be before exercise (i.e. sedentary) since I chose "I do not train."
Anyway the long of the short of it is that my BMR is around 1500 and my daily caloritic needs are around 1800, so if I want to lose 2 lbs per week, I have to create a calorie deficit of 7000 calories which means a deficit of
Phewwwwwwwwwww!
Confused?
You are all right about the strength training being beneficial and I love Squishy's comment about the strength training being a longer term investment. I totally agree. I think I went off on such a long tangent last night that I didn't get that part across. It would be dumb to trade in the strength training for pure cardio for the immediate calorie burn as opposed to the longer term metabolism booster of lotsa lean muscle, right!
After all of this time, I am still amazed how many many "full circles" I have made in this process of losing weight and acheiving the healthiest me. All of these lessons are all stepping stones. It is about the journey and not the destination, at the risk of sounding cheesy. There is serious value to slip ups or "falling off the wagon" if you learn from them or are reminded of something that you have forgotten.
9 comments:
Yep - it's definitely a constant learning/growing process!
I went back to using SparkPeople yesterday. Turns out that I was already eating right within my calorie range - and since I've been losing weight, that's no shocker! It's fun to have tools :)
The most accurate BMR you can get is done my a machine available at some doctor's offices and hospitals. It is a fancy smancy $2000 dolar scale that does a lot of col things is is "supposedly" the most accurate. I know this because Tim had to get all his stuff done as part of one of his classes a couple weeks ago. If I recall correctly, his daily calorie needs are quite low - something like 1600 or 1700. But he is a lean mean fitness machine :)
I love all your posts on what you are thinking about in the whole points, exercise, weight-loss area - you rock smarty-pants!
It IS tricky huh? Especially when you consider if you select "lightly active" or whatever, then basically you have to workout lightly for those calories, or else you'd be in excess right? so you don't get to subtract your exercies calories.
I generally think it's all a crapshoot. You can't accurately determine the calories in food anyway so ballpark numbers are best. (you heard that study that showed labels to over or underestimate calories by like 20% right? not to mention, just how big is a "medium apple" or whatever, and if you eat closer to the core or not matters etc etc.)
That the problem I think I have.
I did my BMR x 1.1 (desk job) and then I minus my food calorie deficit and my exercise deficit but I don't think it's totally accurate (just due to me not wearing a heart rate monitor)
I do believe this is the way to go over points though. For me the math/science behind it all just makes sense. Calories in verus calories out is daily results of slowing losing a pound or two.
I'm going to pick up a HR Monitor now though. I found a cool pink one at CT :)
All this talk about BMR was so interesting. I went to the site you linked to, and it is making me wonder....
It looks like I could eat up to 2500 cal a day, WITHOUT exercising, and be in "extreme weight loss mode". I KNOW that is not true, because that is about what I ate each day last week, and how I gained 6 lbs.
I think there are so many factors involved, including previous diets, yo yo factor, etc. I don't know. My fitness coach has me at 1700 cal/day, and maybe that is way too low?? It makes me want to pull my hair out, overall. :)
You are amazing with all your number crunching and such! I am going to figure this out for myself and see what it says!
Holy moly that can get confusing!! Definitely a learning process!
Post a Comment