Calories Burned Question

[flab2fab0406]

Hello Everyone,

Hopefully someone can give me some advice.

I have been counting calories in and calories out for a while. I write it all down in a fitness journal, where they ask for cal in/cal out/BMR etc to work out your deficit. They even show you a formula to work out your BMR and explain that this is the amount of calories your body burns just to keep functioning - even if you stayed in bed all day. So, I add the number to calories burned in a workout according to my heart rate monitor to then work out my deficit. That's all well and good, so my question is: If I had a very active day and kept my heart rate monitor on the entire time - would I still add my BMR number to the number burned on the monitor - or would they lead to me over estimating total calories burned?

Any ideas/advice appreciated.

 

[great things]

i would say in my opinion that you should only wear your heart rate monitor when exercising. therefore you get a more accurate read out of your cal deficit between your BMR and your cals burnt.

an active day would make things more complicated. there are options for adding into your BMR a higher active day. if you google BMR you can sometimes add on there what your cals would be for a more active day.

an example is...

my BMR is 1479 cals

yesterday i did some exercise and according to my polar HRM watch i burn 649 cals. i ate all of my BMR cals so my decifit for the day was 649 cals. i excluded everything else i did that day though.

wednesday i was very active and was painting, shopping, doing housework etc but i still kept my BMR cals at 1479 and i did a zumba class and burnt 467 cals. i didn't eat all my BMR cals either so created a large deficit of almost 1000 cals when adding to my cals burnt.

today i am doing no exercise so will need to keep within my BMR cals even though i've cleaned the car, the house and i've painted the hall.

i don't ever add on anything to my BMR cals unless i am doing exercise at the gym or running outside etc. it's easier to focus this way.

 

[AOGG]

i just eat around 1500/1600cals a day regardless. I go to the gym for an hour a time 2of the times with personal trainer, i think this works too eating a set amount and splitting it into 6 mini meals