On line calorie calculators

[Veronica]

I googled "How many calories do you need?"

Wow the numbers are all over the board!

One site said I needed 2900/day, another said 2500 and that I needed 1315 just for regular bodily functions. The rest was for exercise. The last one I looked at said 1934. I got bored and didn't look at the remaining ten or so.

Now I know my HRM said I burnt 1800 calories yesterday on my 2 hour ten minute ride. But I don't for a minute believe that. Then I lifted weights with my trainer, burning another 500 or so according to my HRM. So if I burned 1315, just being alive plus another 2300 through exercise, but only took in 1500 and I do this level of exercise 5 days a week, how come I still weigh anything at all? It's not 'cause I pig out those other two days, 'cause I don't.

What I think it means is that each of us is an individual. "I'm not!" and what works for weight loss for one person will not necessarily work for someone else.

Veronica

[colby]

Yeah, I'm with you here. This is part of my problem... I just don't believe the numbers. The only way to know is really to work with someone one on one, it seems. Everything else is just a guess.

It's not so much of an issue for general weight loss - then "close enough" is close enough. But once you get down to that last 10 lbs or maintenance mode or whatever, "close enough" just doesn't seem to be good enough.

[lph]

That's one of the reasons I've never really understood the whole calorie-counting business. Fine if you know how much you burn, but how the heck do you get that far? Just staying alive is baseline, and exercise is measureable, but then there's daily activity like housework, or taking the stairs at work, or gardening, or playing with your kids, or just lying on the couch reading the paper. Do numbers exist for all of this and are you expected to feed them all in?

[Veronica]

The last one I looked at took into account your daily activities. It actually gave me the lowest number too. It's here. http://www.dietitian.com/calcbody.php

I think it's a good place to start, but even 1900 calories would probably be too much for me every day.

Veronica