Help with "activities" and calories burned

[CarbMonster]

Hello!

So under "Activities" I selected "Seated All Day" and the default metabolism calculator, which says my baseline number of calories burned in a day is 1302.

However, I think there is a glich or something? Because I appear to burn way more than that in a day, even if I don't add any activities at all. It's 10:46 AM and it says I already burned 1856. When I go to my "Activities" tab, the only thing listed is "Lifestyle" and the time is 24 hours (that's another question--can you change the time? Because I'm not seated for 24 hours.. I do sleep 8 hours a night). And next to that the number of calories is 1856. So if my baseline number of calories due to my lifestyle burned is 1302, where do the other 554 calories burned come from?

Thanks!

[DecemberBlue]

I know! I've been posting a similar question under other categories on here to clarify this...because it appears that people are successful using this however I have no idea how to obtain that success....but from the info I'm getting from my posting perhaps the extra calories is from sleep? drop me a line if you figure it out and I'll do the same. for me there's too much gray area. even with the BMR calculation...like who is suppose to select the mifflin and who is suppose to select the harris equation...or which one is more accurate. I initially went with the Harris as I've read somewhere that if you wanted an estimate of your BMR take your weight and multiply by 10, some people follow this and eat this to lose weight...because they then know that they are not eating below their BMR (which is recommended by some fitness experts)

[RunbikeSki]

Hi Folks,
Yeah, this does get really confusing. Hear's how it works: Your "baseline metabolism" is the amount of calories you need to just keep your body functioning. In other words if you were in a coma, you would need somewhere around 1300 calories.

Now assuming that you are not in a coma, but that you move around, take a shower, fix a meal, take out the trash, etc. The additional 554 calories that you see in the "activities" section takes into account how many calories you need to accomplish your daily activities (without exercise).

This is where a little experience can be very helpful. For many women the activities calcualtor tends to over estimate the number of calories we burn. Therefore using the lower of the mifflin vs. harris calculations helps as does choosing an activity level that is a little more seditary. Some people do, indeed, add in sleep which helps lower the calorie requirements.

Once you get an lifestyle/activity level that seems about right for you, then you can add in your exercises, including things like mowing the lawn or picking up after the kids.

I hope that helps a little. There is a little more art than science to these calculations since everyone is quite different, but after a while you learn at what calorie load you lose weight, and when you begin to pack the pounds back on.

[PeregrineV]

Since I'm a cynic, I tend to pick the baseline that says I burn the fewest calories. And since I work in front of a computer all day, I select the "Seated" lifestyle. Then, any normal activity is put under activities. Aside from exercising, it mostly falls under child care, driving, walking from car to house, showering (I use for normal daily hygiene), and sleeping. On the weekends it's different, as I am rarely sitting, so my totals go way up, and lifestyle time is just a few hours.
For exercising, when I use the machines that track it, I try to make sure my fitday number is pretty close to the machine's number for calories burned.
Hope this helps.