Fitday question about burning calories

[shari_dawn]

I'm loving fit day but I'm not sure about the pie chart regarding burning calories... one section says activities, the other says lifestyle, the last one says basal. What does that mean? I have no idea what basal is except it should have somehting to do with the way we burn calories. Can anyone help? I think it is something I should know I just don't

[kate58]

Basal is the calories your body needs just to tick over and keep your organs functioning.

[shari_dawn]

okay thanks so what is lifestlye?? this is all new to me I hope I don't sound ignorant.

[Brook]

Shari- Don't apologize for asking questions! You can bet if you're asking there were 10 others who didn't but wondered too - at least!

Lifestyle is exactly that. If you are someone who is pretty sendentary you're going to burn fewer calories than someone who is more active every day.

Think working in an office all day at a desk vs being a mail carrier downtown where you walk all day. You'll burn more as a mail carrier than you would behind the desk.

However- (there's always one of those, eh?) - Exercise is to be *above and beyond* lifestyle. If you're a mail carrier that doesn't mean you get a free pass on exercise because you walked all day. Your body is used to you walking all day and exercise is above and beyond that.

Fitday PC will allow you to figure in how much time you spend sleeping/sitting/light activity/standing activity/moderate/heavy, etc to help you figure out about what you burn a day. Personally? I find the numbers to be a pretty big stretch - but then I'm not a huge believer in eating to BMR anyway.

Want a better idea of how many calories you burn in a day? Strap on a heart rate moniter that will track that for a day and figure it out based on your height/weight/age/sex/and heart rate. It'll be closer than a random average number. Just my