cheebahmunkey

and it's a whopping 1680 calories! I feel like crap now. I'm gonna have to be on a life long diet at this rate just to keep my weight stable. ****

pacesetter

Ride more so you can eat more.

pfknob

How tall are you? What is your current weight? Body fat %? My RMR is ~1,700 and I am 6' at 167 lbs so your RMR appears to be right on.

Peter

cheebahmunkey

5'8 155 pounds. Body Fat% is around 17%. I'm not saying it's not accurate I'm just pissed because this means my max caloric intake is gonna be around 2150-2200 calories a day to simply maintain my weight.

alison_in_oh

Don't you mean minimum? You take your BMR, add 800-1000 calories even for a sedentary job, and add cycling on top of that, and honey you can go hog-wild!

My BMR is ~1400 calories, I eat 2200-2500 calories and bike ~8 hours per week and I can't KEEP the weight on. Which is a totally new experience for me I might add.

BeTheChange

How do you get your RMR checked?

cheebahmunkey

well since I haven't been able to ride (school) since January all I do is treadmill and weights. When the guy who conducted the "test" asked me about my lifestyle he said I was actually at "Moderately Active" if not in between that and sedentary. It still doesn't add up though. 1680 + 380 (half an hour on treadmill) + 120 (maybe?) for half an hour of weights = 2180 and that's just from RMR and one hour of exercise. I think he did my lifestyle description wrong.

alison_in_oh

Try not to get too worked up about it. Are you having trouble maintaining your weight now? Who is this guy who tested you?

FYI cptips.com has some great energy expenditure equations. If you're 155 lbs. and 17% bodyfat, that site would say your BMR is about 1790. Then you add activities (~700 cal for a job where you drive to work, sit all day, drive home) and exercise. Then tack on a further 10% for thermic effect (energy needed for digestion, etc.)

I say eat healthy food in moderation and if you find yourself gaining pudge and not muscle, increase your activity and try to find the weakest points in your diet (perhaps situations or times of day when you hit the ice cream or the candy jar? Daily trips to McDonald's that could be replaced with healthier, cheaper food from home?) You shouldn't find it too difficult to maintain.

cheebahmunkey

you're absolutely right. I just need to maintain my current eating habits and maybe increase my caloric intake. I already try to eat healthy but I find myself hungry often. That's the only thing I worry about, overeating. I swore off regular ice cream and McDonalds a long time ago

More on the test though. It can't be right can it? It only allows me 500 extra calories per day! I go to school so I wake up early and am usually up and about most of the day. Also, that 500 calories took into account exercise. WTF? That's impossible isn't it?

Guest

If you go to a place where they have an instrument that measures RMR, or you go to a nutritionist that has this instrument, you will get a very accurate readout. The bonus of going to a nutritionist is that they can assess what you're doing currently for fitness and how you're eating and make a recommendation on food choices based on your fitness goals.

Or you could go to Bally Total Fitness and pay to take the test. I believe it costs about $25 for members to take the test and about $40 for non-members.

Koffee

cheebahmunkey

this is exactly what I did. It cost $50 and I don't think it was worth it. The guy had me hold one of those hand held body fat analyzers instead of using the more accurate method (something with measuring fat with some sort of instrument). Hell I could've told him my body fat based on the electromagnetic method. I have a body fat analyzer in my scale!

Guest

Hmmmmmm....

So he had you hold onto an electric bodyfat reader? It's not what I was thinking about. The RMR machine has you breathe through a tube connected to a little machine you can hold with your hand. It gives a readout of your RMR.

Koffee

cheebahmunkey

oh no I did breath into the RMR machine but the body fat calculator was really cheap. I could go out and buy one of those handheld things. I didn't need him to do that, I needed him to take measurements of my fat %. So I don't doubt that my RMR is 1680 but the calorie expenditure he gave me seems very low. It only allows me 500 extra calories per day. That seems quite low in that in one hour I could burn off that 500 calories if I exercise. Then I have the rest of the day to burn off however many calories I can burn. I think alison_in_oh is right. 2150-2200 should be my minimum but again I'm not an expert and he apparently was.

cheebahmunkey

lol, I was curious so I went to this site to check on how many calories I could really expect to burn based on my RMR. Well, RMR+Class+Jogging+Weights (this is just 5 hours out of my day mind you) = 2563 The question is who do I trust? Guy at Bally? Or online calculator?

https://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html

oops forgot to include part of my treadmill workout
The new calorie total for 5 hours and 5 minutes = 2641

Guest

Ok, well the good news is that the number given is at REST. If you are doing more exercise, you should be able to burn more calories. Plus, you burn more calories over the day if you do exercise. It's not like you burn extra calories during the ride, then you stop burning those extra calories afterwards.

That RMR machine is very accurate. It's one of the best in the industry, so I would believe it over an online calculator anyday.

All is not lost. Build up some extra muscles and up your cardio by about 20 minutes a day, and you'll be on track to increasing your RMR.

Koffee