New user and have question regarding "CALORIES BURNED"

beckibell

Downloaded the free version of Chronometer few days ago. Before I enter any food or exercise into Chronometer, the ":calories burned" shows as 1625 calories. I am female, 5 ft 2, 133 pounds, 68, moderately active and want to lose 2 pounds a week (high fat/ketogenic plan) I know 1625 calories a day is too high. Does anyone know how the "calories burned" field gets calculated?

Vickie

1625 calories burned suggests what you need to eat to maintain weight, and for a moderately active person this isn't much at all. If you have "lose 2 pounds a week" set up in your profile it would suggest a huge deficit (way too huge for my liking especially for your stats!). You would eat to the number on the right hand side of the Energy bar under Macronutrient Targets, not 1625.

Susan_RD_101

@beckibell

The BMR is the number of calories your body needs to stay alive at rest (purple portion of the wheel of "calories burned"). The greatest thing that influences our BMR is our body mass - the more or less of you there is, the more or less calories you need. Your total calories burned will also reflect the activity level you set (teal portion of the wheel of "calories burned"). Here is where I find most people overestimate their activity level. If you plan to log all of your activity, I recommend setting your activity setting to low or sedentary (in order to reflect your activities of daily living).

Kind regards,

Lisa_Wood230

Why does it say I burned calories even though I just started the app and haven’t logged my activity in yet. It should be 0 and start calculating when I log.. That way I know the true amount burned..right?

Hilary

@lisa_Wood230 This number will automatically populate in order for you to plan your food diary. The Calories you are seeing are as a result of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and activity level settings. While these Calories are a total of those burned throughout the day, we add them as a lump sum at the beginning of the day so it is easier to plan your meals and activity in relation to your general calories burned!
Your BMR is the rate of energy expenditure of your body at rest and the number of Calories burned is the result of a calculation from the BMR. Check out this section of our user manual to learn more about basal metabolic rate and your activity settings: https://cronometer.com/help/profile/#vitals.

bracconiere

just as a addition, it surprised me to find out the liver is actually the biggest calorie consumer in the body....

all it does is sit there doing chemistry though!