Can someone explain the burn meter to me please?

I joined 4 days ago now and am counting calories,the calorie tool is extremely usefull and  am adding everything as and when I eat or exercise so I dont miss anything out.I find the tools very usefull but cannot understand the burn meter for calories expended.

It goes up during the day and I guess this is it estimating the calories I burn just by being awake and doing normal stuff.I add all my exercise to it too and the total is way above that though.If I give you the figures as they are right now can someone please explain them to me.

Total estimate 3,050

       &nb sp;                2,831

my calories burned through exercise that I have done today is just 998 so why does it say 2,831 and estimate 3,050?

I am keeping extremely close watch on my calorie intake and just need to be sure I understand the calories burned too.

I was going to ask this question too.  I just joined yesterday and I don't quite understand what it's doing :\

3050 is the estimated amount you will burn by midnight tonight.

2831 is what you've burned so far.

If you've added any activities, the burn meter will adjust accordingly.

edit:  2831 is what you've burned so far, today.

This post was written by clairelaine.

To everyone who is asking about the Burn Meter

I hope that it helps you.

Thats what I hoped it meant but I thought I must have it wrong because I have restricted my calorie intake to 1200 upped my activity a bit and my calorie burn is about 3,000 a day but I have gained weight each day since I started calorie counting.

I think I need to buy a new set of scales.

If you are burning 3000 calories a day, you need to be consuming a least 2000-2500 calories a day.

Your body will hold onto the 1200 calories it is getting and will not budge because it is not getting enough food.

Your weight gain could be due to water retaining (sore muscles retain quite a bit of water), muscle mass etc., but I think the main reason is your body conserving energy, as it's not getting enough. If your deficit (the difference between what you burn daily and what you eat), is over a 1000 or you are severly limiting your cals, you're not getting enough fuel.

A sedentary, short, slight woman needs 1200 cals to keep her brain going and her heart beating. As your bmr is probably much higher (what are your stats?), you're going to need more anyway. Add into that your exercise, and you'll find that your deficit is much too large. Try calculating your bmr and daily calorie needs here :)

A deficit of 500 cals is recommended if you want to lose a pound a week, so if your daily burn is say, 2500, then you get to eat 2000 cals and no less than 1500 :D

The burn meter acts as an estimate for how many calories you're burning in a day.  Yes, it will take into account calories you burn even just living (eating, breathing, driving, typing, cooking, etc.)  It will be different depending on what you set your initial activity level at. 

It sounds like when you woke up this morning, your burn meter total was probably somewhere in the low 2000nds, with maybe a couple hundred calories "burned so far" today into that-- this is an estimate of what you would have burned sleeping since the meter reset at midnight.  Then you added 998 calories in because of exercise... this will then make your total estimate for the day as well as your estimated burned so far number jump.
** Keep in mind that the number it jumps to will not be a difference of exactly 998 (or whatever number you add in).  For example, If you spend 1 hour exercising and burn 600 calories, your burn meter may only go up by a difference of 552... the missing 48 calories being what you would have burned anyway just sitting in a chair.  (Otherwise it's double-counting those calories. Make sense?)

You can orient with your burn meter in 2 ways... either set it at sedentary and add your exercise in as separate activities, or if you are regularly active you can set it for a higher level to take that into account.  (Most on here, including myself, set it for sedentary.)
- SEDENTARY-- On this setting the burn meter will estimate your calorie expenditure at the bare minimum, based on your weight, age, and other scientific stuff that I don't entirely grasp :).  You can then add in each activity as you do it and for exactly the amount you burned (or CC can estimate it for you, if you used the search function).  On day's you exercise, you know exactly how far that raised your Burn meter.  (This can be helpful because if you want to eat more on those days you can just subtract 500- or whatever deficit you're keeping- from that number).  On days you don't exercise, you know it's more accurate to your in-activity.
- LIGHT, MODERATE, HEAVY, etc..-- Some who are more active and/or who follow a strict exercise regimine and never miss a day prefer this option.  Often these people will not add in their exercises as regularly, since they are already accounted for within the setting.  Whatever your normal exercise is wouldn't get added in, since that's already absorbed into the daily estimate.   If someone on this option goes for an extra long hike, bike ride, etc. maybe they might add it in because it's above and beyond what their normal routine is.  But otherwise, it's just assumed that they're getting some base level of activity a day.   (I personally don't exercise regularly enough for this to make sense, which is why I chose sedentary.)

Hopefully this helps?

Best of luck and welcome to CC!

 I changed my base level to sedentary as I am inputting all of my exercise manually so that will have made the figures wrong for me.

I checked my BMR on the link given and its 1740.3 x 1.2 for a sedentary exercise level =2088.36 but thats to maintain current weight and I need to lose weight.

I am female 36,5ft 7 and weigh 216lbs.I want to lose weight before my wedding in November,target weight is 143lbs

My new daily burn meter estimate with the level as sedentary is 2790cals so how do I work out what I need to intake to lose weight.This is how I am working it out-

I want to lose 2lbs a week so I need a weekly deficit of 7000calories or 1000calories a day.Going by the burn meter that means I have to eat 1790 calories a day.I cant eat that much,thats tons!!!Thats more than I ever eat and I have been getting gradually fatter every year.The only explanation is that my metabolic rate is different to what it ought to be,does that mean I have a slow metabolism?

Am I doing this right?The last thing I want to do is start a diet,calorie count and exercise and put weight ON!!!

You can expect a weight loss of about 0.5 - 2 lbs. a week if you're sticking to a 500 - 700 deficit (this seems to be the most efficient deficit), so it should be doable by November :) Losing up to 1% of your body weight a week is definitely possible.

I'd try not to go for a deficit that's too steep (even though it might not be over a 1000), slow but steady weight loss is the key to efficient weight loss. If the weight comes off slowly, it's more likely to stay off. You can't rush weight loss.

And don't worry, there might be weeks where you see the weight go up (TTOM, water retention, even something as silly as not going to the toilet before you weigh yourself etc.) or stall, but don't give up, you're making a lifestyle change after all :) Try to weigh yourself in the mornings, and don't weigh yourself again a couple of hours later as your weight can fluctuate immensely in a day.

So if you're burning 3000 cals a day, shoot for 2300 - 2500 and see how you fare. Good luck!

Original Post by scottishrainbows:

 I changed my base level to sedentary as I am inputting all of my exercise manually so that will have made the figures wrong for me.

I checked my BMR on the link given and its 1740.3 x 1.2 for a sedentary exercise level =2088.36 but thats to maintain current weight and I need to lose weight.

I am female 36,5ft 7 and weigh 216lbs.I want to lose weight before my wedding in November,target weight is 143lbs

 

My new daily burn meter estimate with the level as sedentary is 2790cals so how do I work out what I need to intake to lose weight.This is how I am working it out-

I want to lose 2lbs a week so I need a weekly deficit of 7000calories or 1000calories a day.Going by the burn meter that means I have to eat 1790 calories a day.I cant eat that much,thats tons!!!Thats more than I ever eat and I have been getting gradually fatter every year.The only explanation is that my metabolic rate is different to what it ought to be,does that mean I have a slow metabolism?

Am I doing this right?The last thing I want to do is start a diet,calorie count and exercise and put weight ON!!!

BMR= 1740
w/ Sedentary setting= 2088
subtract 1000 for a 2lb/week loss= 1088 cal intake allowance per day
** This is less than the daily reccommended minimum for women, which is 1200.  So I'd eat at 1200/day with a 800 cal/day deficit, which will get you close to your -2lb/week goal.

All of that is not taking into account exercise.  Especially since your deficit is already set for 1000, on days you're exercising you need to eat more.  Your deficit should not go over 1000 cal/day. (I don't know exactly why, but that's what all the experts and experienced CCers say, so I trust it.) So, if you're burning close to 1000 calories a day with exercise alone this bumps your Expenditure to 3088, which means you'd need to eat around 2000 calories to be safe. Sounds like a lot, but it's what the math says... 

You'd be surprised at how many easy and healthy ways there are to get those extra calories in.  Drink juice or milk with your breakfast.  Add an extra tbsp. of peanut butter to your toast.  Add avocado to your next soup or salad. etc.  There are lots of resources for healthy meal plans of any range if you search through CC.

If you lost 2lbs a week between now and Nov 1 that's 80lbs- just over your 73lb goal.  So sounds like it's do-able, you'll just need lots of fuel, determination, and a very strict regimine!

By the way-- what are you doing that's burning 998 calories!?  Or am I misreading your original post?  (If yes, disregard my cautionary paragraph above.)  :)

I found the burn meter on this site cumbersome and not worth the effort.

Instead, here's a nifty little burn rate calculator that in spite of the funny cartoon seems to be reasonably accurate.  I keep it bookmarked. 

www dot fattyweightloss dot com/calculators/burnrate

Find your basic calorie burn for the day (it obviously changes with your weight that particular day) then add in extra calories you've burned - here's an accurate site:

www dot bodybuilding dot com/fun/calories.htm    - Scroll down to get to whichever calculation you'd like. 

Anyway, the most important thing is you're evidently counting calories carefully which is great -  and with simple information from the above two sites you can quickly and easily calculate how you've done for the day - or week, whatever. 

Every negative 3500 calories is losing a pound, very simple math and for myself it's worked out mathematically exactly to the scale.

Here's a great tool to plot your walks or runs:

www dot freemaptools dot com/measure-distance.htm

type in your town and zoom on in.  Turn auto pan off, it's a pain.  Click as many times as you'd like and and plot your routes, this tool is extremely accurate.  Use hybrid view and get out there walking or running an hour a day.

I burn lots of calories walking my dogs.My daily regime has lots of walking anyway and I didn,t realise it burned so much.

Walk quickly(as we are always running late)to school 2 miles in the morning with daughter and walk quickly via the hilly park home.Same again when I collect her in the afternoon so I walk 8 miles a day to and from school alone.

I have 2 labrador retrievers who are too strong for me too manage walking bothe together so they both get a 45 minute walk each in the park during the day then I they get walked together in the evening for 1 hour,hubby comes with me and takes a dog so I only have to do one walk in the evening but its longer.

I also use a step machine while I am online,I try to use it for 45 minutes but my legs are sometimes aching from walking so much I dont always keep going for that time.I am getting a sit up aid as I have a very slight twist in my spine and cannot do sit ups on my own as my back isnt strong enough and may replace the stepper exercises with that.

My usual day is quite busy and I dont drive so theres my calorie burn.

That's great Rainbow, sounds like your walking and activities burn at least -1,000 calories a day.  Add that to what your body would need at rest, let's say it's -1,800 (don't know, use the web calculator above) and you're burning -2,800 a day.

From that point it's very simple to add calories you've eaten that day, let's say it was 1,800, which gives a deficit of -1,000 calories for that day.  Keep a log each day of the deficit either by hand or make a spread sheet, and you'll notice for every -3,500 calorie deficit, you will lose a pound off the scale.  You will see ups and downs on the scale, but over the course of days (I break my spread sheet into 1 week blocks) the mathematical calculations will be very accurate for that week.  Calorie counting is so simple.  - And I'm sure you know all this stuff, just going over it for someone that may read this that's considering counting calories. 

Actually, my own actual weight loss is doing better than my calorie counting math - probably due to the fact I eat very little carbs (don't like sweats) and I walk about 4 miles a day.  From 183 on Jan 1, to 172 this morning.  Counting calories is easy and it works.