How many calories do you burn per day?

[JenFZ09]

It's a rare day when I burn 2000 calories or more, even when active, which is typically daily. I'm 5'5" and am 118-120 lbs and run and lift heavy. If I run for six miles and get close to 20,000 steps, I might cross the 2000 calorie mark for that day. I'm in very good shape, if that makes a difference.

So, how many calories do you burn and what are your stats?

[awood08]

I"m 5' 3", 180 pounds and I typically burn just over 2000 calories a day on non active days. On my high cardio days, I can burn anywhere from 2500 to 3000. I have more body weight for my height so I burn more. The leaner you are the less you burn.

[josephz2va]

Activity Calories: 1,503 with my cellphone on my waist.

Total Burn: 2,984 with my cellphone on my waist.

I ordered a replacement fitbit to start using after Monday, but my last average total burn was 3,500.

[SebringDon]

I'm 5'10", 212 pounds and 63 years old. According to Fitbit's Premium Activity Report, I burned an average of 1,474 calories through exercise each day, and another 1,571 at rest or sedentary, for a total of 3,045 per day. My BMR is 1,763, which means my exercise time amounts to around 2 hrs 40 minutes each day.

That leaves me with a net eating budget of around 2,500 calories a day with a 500 calorie deficit.

[Slydog]

I get hit 2100-2300 calories/day on average.

I burn around 100 calories/hour, so if I can get 700 by 5 pm, then I am usually on target. This also gives me a good indication of if my calorie load is good, and if I can have a little more to eat.....

[LevAris]

It depends on heart rate, not steps. You can walk 20000 steps each day relaxed and somebody who climbed 1000 steps upstairs will burn more calories. So for calories burning intensity of exercises is more important then quantity.

[josephz2va]

With this, I burned 389 calories and gained 3,171 steps in the run. 30 active minutes maintaining a 130 to 160 HR Interval of 20 minutes each.

[Archangel76]

Personally, my goal is 3500. I am trying to lose quite a bit of weight, though.

I use Fitbit in conjuction with: MyFitnesspal, RunKeeper and Exercise.com. All of these feed into my Fitbit dashboard which allows me to keep track of virtually everything. Since I am one of those people who spend up to 16 hours per day in front of a computer for work and play, it's quite difficult to get steps in - which is why I center more around calorie burn than walking.

Burning calories will be different depending on your physique. Since I am obese, it's quite easy for me to melt away quite a few during various activities. Someone who is in far better shape than I won't burn as many per activity - but that's a good thing. Your body doesn't have to compensate for the extra mass and physical deficiencies. If I tried to run six miles per day, I'd drop from a stroke - lol. I'll get there though...

[MattyW]

Fitbit automatically gave me the goal of 3224 calories to burn a day.  Presumably it took my height and weight into consideration - 6'4", 245lb - and I always hit the target by doing 10,000 steps a day.  Since I've had the device I've lost weight, now down to 187lb, but fitbit hasn't adjusted the goal of 3224 accordingly, I still always hit it, but I need to do more than 10,000 steps in order to do so.  If I have a very active day I might burn 5000 calories, according to my Surge, and an hour's run can be 1000 calories for me.  Now, this all seems quite a lot, and I suspect that fitbit might be overestimating a bit, but I have been losing the weight accordingly - I count the calories in what I eat very diligently - so it can't be overestimating by too much.  I imagine the calorie calculation could possibly be thrown by the fact that I have a low resting heart rate, around 40, but when I run it goes quite high, it might stay around 170 for the whole hour.  I'm 50, and I know that's quite unusual heart rate behaviour, but I went to the doctor and he said I was OK.

[A_Lurker]

I'm 50, 5'4" and still over 300lbs.  Over the last 28 days I've burned 3786 calories per day, and even though I'm around 10 lbs lighter than I was it is an 8% increase from the 28 days before that.  326 mins a day in 'the zones' and even though I was kind of a slug today (afternoon nap) I still got in 82 active minutes today. I adjust my food based on my activity most days, so just a little less today.

Based on food, calories burned, and weight loss, I would say that my Charge HR is fairly accurate.  I assume it's maybe 5-10% off.  I'm reasonably diligent about tracking, although at times I do wing it.  I will over-estimate on bought food (rare) but I make a point on higher calorie density items to put them on the food scale.

[Dominique]

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@MattyW wrote:

Since I've had the device I've lost weight, now down to 187lb, but fitbit hasn't adjusted the goal of 3224 accordingly.

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Same here: when I started with Fitbit three years ago, I was 52/75kg/174cm, so my calculated BMR (as per the Mifflin St Jeor formula) would have been 1583. The calories goal assigned to be by Fitbit was 2566, i.e. 983 calories / 62% over BMR. Now I’m 55/64kg, so my current calculated BMR would be 1458, but my Fitbit goal is still the same 2566, which is now 1108 calories / 76% over BMR.

I guess the thinking of Fitbit is that most people start overweight/sedentary and end up lighter/more active (or at least it’s the intention!), so the increase in activity level compensates both the decrease caused by age and by lower weight.  Of course, this may not be the case if the weight loss is huge (like 50 kg or more). If so, the user can always adjust their calorie goal according to their lighter self.

[Xakka]

weighing in around 275lb at 6'5" I tend to average around a 3800 calorie burn per day. I have increased my activity by alot since i began losing weight 2 and a half years ago, now down almost 105lbs. I definately need to work harder to keep the calorie burn higher as i become healthier. The more you perform an activity the more efficient your body will get that that particular activity, causing less calorie demand (and shorter recover times for the same workout which I really enjoy).

[sirilaks]

I'm 5'2'', I am currently in the house most of the time but recently(around a month ago), I started running and all I could manage to burn with 45 minutes of running and 10 minutes of light exercise(I ran around 2.5 miles in 45 minutes) was 2100 calories. Now I am doing aerobics HIIT for 25 minutes followed by light exercise for 10 minutes and all I can lose is 2000 calories. I eat oatmeal with non-fat milk(around 1.5 cup of boiled oatmeal with nuts - 6 almonds, 2 walnuts and 3 dates) for breakfast, rice with veggies for lunch(1.5 cup of boiled brown rice) and 2 rotis(Indian equivalent of tortillas) with veggies again. Maybe sometimes I consume a fuit inbetween when I really am hungry. I have my breakfast at 9 am and from 8 pm to 9 am I eat nothing most of the days during that time. Now a days I am ending up sleeping for around 45 minutes before lunch and have lunch at 1 pm. Is the sleep the reason for my not burning enough calories? I was a regular exercise person, but the exercise video I was following is no longer tiring for me. Now I switched to another video with which I sweat but I burn 250 calories at most for 30 minutes. I don't understand why I can't cross the 2000 mark. I want to lose weight very badly. Sadly I have not so good knees and running just irritates the knees. It is frustrating as I want to lose 25 lbs and right now I am not losing a single pound.

[Dominique]

@sirilaks: there are only so many calories you can burn in 30-60 minutes, no matter how intense your workouts are, especially if you are a 5’2" female (as I assume). Maybe Beachbody is to blame for people expecting too much from their workouts, implying in their commercials a few months of Insanity, Cize etc. will transform your average overweight, sedentary person into a Shaun T -look-alike. There are 24 hours in a day: in the end, what you burn during 30-60 minutes doesn’t have that much of an impact on your total expenditure for the day. You may find that walking 1.5 hours (something gentle for your knees that you could safely do everyday) will burn more than your current regimen of HIIT. You also need to realize calories burned according to your Fitbit are just an estimate: even if it says you burned 2100 calories, that could just as well be 1700 or 2200.

As to the nutrition side: there’s obviously very little fat in fat-free milk (though even fat-free milk contains quite a few calories), but nuts, almonds and dates are all very calorie dense. If you’re eating an Indian diet, try to focus on veggies (Indian cuisine has so many delicious ways to prepare them!).

Sleep is good for you (and for weight loss), so don’t be afraid of burning too few calories because you’re sleeping too much.

[misula]

Me too, i hate It. I have to walk over 25thousand Steps a day to reach 2000kcal 🙈

[Dominique]

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@misula wrote:

Me too, i hate It. I have to walk over 25thousand Steps a day to reach 2000kcal 🙈

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What are your personal stats (height, weight, age)? You can’t really increase your height once you’ve reached adulthood, and aging will only make things "worse", but added body mass (especially if it’s muscle) will increase energy expenditure (though not by that much).

[JimC_99]

Stats height 6ft, 3in age 62 weight 260lbs.  BMR is 2050 cal currently.  Calories out is 3000 to 3500 cals out per day depending on activity.

[misula]

I am just 158cm and 25y/o. I was trying to gain muscles in thy gym  but now i cant push myself to do anything except walking. I am 38kg ....when I used to go to the gym i was 40-42kg..

[Dominique]

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@misula wrote:

I am just 158cm and 25y/o. I was trying to gain muscles in thy gym  but now i cant push myself to do anything except walking. I am 38kg ....when I used to go to the gym i was 40-42kg..

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You would need to be 46.4 kg to barely reach the lower limit (18.5) of the normal weight range as per BMI. At 38 kg, your BMI is just 15.2, which is very low. You’re facing the opposite problem of most people: you should gain weight (at least about 10 kg) in order to be at a healthy weight. You should probably reduce your average step count and eat more.

[misula]

I know I should  gain to be healthy but to be honest I feel happy and energized. Hovewer, I am trying to gain… I eat 2000kcal and want to increase again but I really dont know how to set my macros. Aprox 130g protein 230g carbs and 70g fat seems too much for my small body construction 😄 and I really dont know where should I add more? thank you