RDI calculator

Just started on this site today. The RDI calculatior has me at 3800 per day - another website has it at 2800.

I've tracked my intake all day and at this point I'll feel like a pig if I hit the 3800 total. I'm going to ignore it and go with the lower one.

does anyone else think their calculated RDI is too high?

Yes I think mine is too high too...but I am not sure why it calculates it that way. I hope someone can help you! If they do...let me know!!

3800 is very high, depending on your size and if you are trying to gain or maintain weight that could be accurate depending on how much you work out. I'm assuming the discrepancy is in how your are defining your activity class in comparison to another web site. I would look for a site that allows you to really go into detail about your activity for the day, that might give you a more accurate reading.

Mine is really high as well on this site. I had an app on my iPod that I was using prior to this and it had it calculated a lot lower. I went with that one and changed it on here.

One way to calculate the RDI yourself for starting weight loss is figure out how much you eat regularly over a few days then subtract about 200 to start with. That way you are feeling you are starving and then lower it by 100 - 200 every week or so.

Are you sure you aren't comparing RDI to Basil Metabolic Rate? My RDI on FatSecret is about 2250 calories (8 hours sleep, 8 hours desk work, 8 hours resting), but my BMR is only ~1800 calories. I put in all sleep/work/resting as my default RDI activity because I have a desk job. Then on days I workout or do some other physical activity, I replace resting with that activity to see what I burned each day.

I checking my daily caloric needs (similar to RDI) on 4 other websites using a sedentary lifestyle, and found the following:

2091
2491
2563
2200

Average of 2336, about the same (a little higher) than what Fat Secret tells me. For a discrepancy as large as what you've reported, I'm thinking that's either your BMR, or you need to find another website.

Well after a few days I'm going with the lower
rdi number....I guess everyone's metabolism is different so that must account for some of the difference....at any rate I feel better using the lower number which also provides time to do other stuff besides eating all day trying to get to 3800!