ChristyLA's Journal, 20 April 2014

This is a friendly warning to everyone who tracks their activities on FatSecret. Your BMR (the amount of calories you burn from just sleeping and resting) appears to be high on FatSecret and so does the amount of calories burned through certain activities, namely "desk work" and "sitting." I used to think FatSecret's numbers were accurate, but then I checked a different website that bases their computations on well-known, valid formulas (FatSecret does not say how they compute their numbers) and found that FatSecret says I'm burning almost 600 calories more a day than the other website, which includes a BMR that is 300 calories higher. If you want to get a second opinion on your BMR and TDEE (how many calories you burn a day with activities), you should go to this website: http://iifym.com/ (go to the "calculators" tab). This website seems to be very accurate. Every website gives slightly different numbers, but FatSecret's numbers seem to be much higher than the others. If you would like to continue to track your burned calories on FatSecret, which I plan on doing, to get a more accurate TDEE only enter in substantial activities and exercise, not "sitting" or "desk work." I hope this information is helpful.

Diet Calendar Entries for 20 April 2014:
1713 kcal Fat: 77.24g | Prot: 128.25g | Carb: 134.70g.   Breakfast: Trader Joe's Roasted & Unsalted Whole Cashews, Bananas, Coffee (Brewed From Grounds, Decaffeinated), Garelick Farms Fat Free Half & Half, It Works Greens. Lunch: Beef Pastrami (Cured), Tomatoes, Kraft Light Mayonnaise, Golden Pita Original Middle Eastern Bread, Baby Spinach, Muenster Cheese. Dinner: Asparagus, Hatfield Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin, Sour Cream, Kroger Idaho Russet Potatoes, Hormel Real Bacon Bits 50% Less Fat, Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Milk. Snacks/Other: Bananas, Trader Joe's Creamy Unsalted Peanut Butter, Strawberries, Fred Meyer Nonfat Greek Yogurt - Plain (Container), Blueberries. more...
2000 kcal Activities & Exercise: Housework - 55 minutes, Standing - 40 minutes, Resting - 12 hours and 25 minutes, Sleeping - 10 hours. more...

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Comments 
Concur. I track my food and activites here on FS, but rely on iifym.com for calculations and help determining what to do next! Thanks, Christy (and Puhpine) for keeping us all informed! 
20 Apr 14 by member: LuC2
FS gives us an invaluable service by helping us log our calories, but it's a diet site, not an exercise site. I love this site for its community and the way everyone pitches in, but, yes, second opinions... third and fourths too, are invaluable in getting a truer picture.  
20 Apr 14 by member: northernmusician
Thank you for the info.  
20 Apr 14 by member: Deb_N
Yep. I did set my settings to include desk work a while back and never changed it. Thing is, most of the calculations I find to be flawed on this site. I notice it with RDI calculations as well as activity. 
20 Apr 14 by member: JeanineDS
Actually the only way to accurately gauge how many calories you burn is to wear a heart monitor. No sight is super accurate. You have to use each one as a guideline. 
20 Apr 14 by member: Suzi161
I agree Suzi, and each thing you eat will likewise be off from any calorie that you count. Depending on the food, fat could be higher or lower, sugar could have been used internally to attempt to remain 'alive'... there are all kinds of little tweeks, and all you can do is try it all for yourself. It's worth the effort. 
20 Apr 14 by member: northernmusician
I typically enter my 24 hours as sleeping and figure anything else I do is a bonus. But now I've joined a challenge and began tracking activities and know it's not accurate because I'd have lost weight. Yeah it's all just numbers and suggestions and I second, third and fourth NM... this site isn't 100% spot on but I love it and am glad it's here for the 'more or less reality check' of what's going on day to day on this healthy journey. 
20 Apr 14 by member: FullaBella
I totally agree! FatSecret's numbers seem to be too high!  
20 Apr 14 by member: euheide
I went to my doctor to perform a metabolic test and he helped me with the calculations. I recommend that before going on any "diet" or exercise routine just consult with your doctor. There are several websites that give you the calculator for bmr, body fat, bmi and so forth. Just remember that the online tools are for reference purposes only. I used for an year an Up band and that helped me a lot as well. 
20 Apr 14 by member: MARANGELITZA
If you have an underlying medical condition, I agree you should see a doctor. When I REALLY should have seen my doctor was when I was planning on going on my nachos, coke, and pizza diet. :) 
20 Apr 14 by member: northernmusician
ChristyLA, I'm SOOOOOO glad you said this! When I first started here, I thought, "Oh, this will be a breeze, with all the desk work and driving I do!" WRONG! Even at 225 pounds, I only burn about 1720 calories doing nothing. With driving and sitting at my desk, that goes up to about 1850. To lose 2 pounds a week, I'd have to eat 900 calories a day. This was a huge wake up call for me. So I started going to the gym and walking about 4000-6000 calories a day so that I could eat closer to 1300 calories a day. It's working - I'm losing 1.5-2 pounds a week, but it's ONLY working because I never cheat, ever, ever, ever. If I cheated, as several here enjoy doing sometimes because that works for them, I'd be at 1 pound a week. For me, it's the total commitment that works for me. My secret is no excuses and no exceptions. This is a priority for me. I have goals and I don't want to be taking 2-3 years to get there. It sucks to do this, and I want it to sucks for the least amount of time possible. Thank you again for posting this because even though it wouldn't take much for FS to make their BMR accurate by including a calculator here, they don't and it's a bummer. Good job getting this out in the open!! 
20 Apr 14 by member: mrsmole
I noticed that (plus FS's calc's on macro % are way off), and use the number that FS calcs for calories in their exercise calculator as my maintenance level) works pretty good for a rough estimate. I don't worry about calories anyway, but it's interesting to see what different foods add up to. 
20 Apr 14 by member: cpmodem
This is why a heart monitor is such a good investment ...you never have to second guess..mine haschanged my fitness for life... 
23 Apr 14 by member: NicoDay
Agreed, I noticed this problem with the calculation when they told me I needed 2800 calories a day to lose two lbs a week, having entered factually that I sit on my backside all day every day, and almost never engage in any physical activity. I got smart after a couple weeks and manually entered a 1500 calorie limit for myself every day, like the doctor told me I should be eating and after sticking to that number, I started seeing tremendous progress. 
23 Apr 14 by member: psychron
I have to start using my heart monitor Nico. I didn't know they made such a difference :) 
23 Apr 14 by member: euheide
A heart rate monitor is great to make sure the heart rate stays in an acceptable range, especially to make sure it doesn't get too high. I don't go running without one, because my heart rate gets high easily. 
23 Apr 14 by member: ChristyLA
I agree. I just manually tweak the numbers where needed. For instance, biking actually comes up really close on here to what my bike says (with heart rate tracking and weight impute), but like you said my suggested rdi on here is much higher as is my bmr. So I just tweaked my activity level until my bmr lined up with more logical numbers and manually entered my rdi. Once I did that my numbers for any given day are going to be pretty accurate, since it's starting from a base bmr that is pretty close to accurate. Even if my activity level according the site is not. Nor do I enter any activities besides the base ones the day starts with and then exercises. Like you I've noticed that if I enter things like desk work it gets really skewed really quick. I also tweak the numbers if I'm entering exercise. Biking for 10mpr is pretty accurate so I can enter correct times there. But stretching/yoga for instance is not. So I just tweak what time I'm entering until it lines up with a more accurate number. I like the concept of the site but the equations could use some work. Mainly I settled here because of the people though =) 
24 Apr 14 by member: FitOKay
Thanks for the info! 
24 Apr 14 by member: Chickturu
Thanks Christy! I got mine and it was one of those things you get and end up not using lol... I'm definitely going to learn how it works now! lol 
25 Apr 14 by member: euheide

     
 

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