How many calories do you burn at rest?

[speakeasy]

If I'm just sitting on my behind all day doing office type tasks, how many calories am I burning while inactive? I'm 5' 8" and 183lbs, not fat, or hugely muscular, but solid.

 

[blinkwatt101]

Eat healthy and calories don't matter.

I sit at desk all day, I work I.T. and am able to hold 5%-6% year round no problem...sometimes 4% if I need to for vacations.

 

[mikeyb]

4% body fat?? There are olympic sprinters with higher bf - most of them actually. Either you're a freak of nature or you're chronically malnourished. I'd start eating more if I were you, that low bf is unhealthy.

To answer the OP, the Harris-Benedict equation says 2094 (assuming you don't exercise), but that's obviously a rough estimate.

 

[blinkwatt101]

4% body fat?? There are olympic sprinters with higher bf - most of them actually. Either you're a freak of nature or you're chronically malnourished. I'd start eating more if I were you, that low bf is unhealthy.

To answer the OP, the Harris-Benedict equation says 2094 (assuming you don't exercise), but that's obviously a rough estimate.

Nope you can hold 6% year round and lose 1-2% bodyfat within 24-48 hours if need be. Just hold off on water,eat very small meals the night before. Only eat breakfast the next day. I don't recommend doing it often though.

It's all about how dedicated you are to it. You can do it,put your back into it.

 

[PeeGee]

According to this and the data you gave me, around 2600 cals per day.

 

[Quiksilver]

Nope you can hold 6% year round and lose 1-2% bodyfat within 24-48 hours if need be. Just hold off on water,eat very small meals the night before. Only eat breakfast the next day. I don't recommend doing it often though.

haha

dude just because you can do that doesn't mean everyone else can.

To OP:

There are too many variables for us to say accurately. Personally I know that if I don't do any activity in a day, I burn roughly 1800-2000 calories. On the other hand, there are ectomorphs that burn 3000-3500 calories a day without doing any exercise.

Chances are you're somewhere in the middle so 2000-3000 sounds about right.

 

[blinkwatt101]

haha

dude just because you can do that doesn't mean everyone else can.

Dude everyone can. Hell I've seen people gain more muscle then me while staying just as lean as me. It's just a matter of wanting it. I live by all the advice I post here,I've never advise on something I know doesn't work or don't like.

Think about it, I had to learn from someone right? The dude who advise me is in better shape and controls his bodyfat even better then I can. It's all about experience and wanting it more.

:rockon:

 

[blinkwatt101]

^ :crackup:

Dude you may laugh at it. But I PROMISE you that you've never gone to the gym 3 years straight,giving everything you have 6 days a week. **** I've been laughed at by some of my own friends for how freakin hard and intense I lift. I turn pure red and starting to develop a small grunt on some lifts. It's all about how bad you want it.

Hell yesterday I had sex with a neighbor twice....2 hours before my leg workout....one of the stupidest things you can do(thank God I''m still young and my libido comes back fast) and I was still able to push myself hard enough to have my legs give out after squating.

That's just without involving my eating habits.

But to each their own.

 

[blinkwatt101]

How much do you deadlift?

I don't risk deadlifting. I'm very much into squatting as my main source for punishing my legs. I do straight leg dead lifts occasionally though.

How much you lift on any exercise is irrelevant. It's all about your intensity and form.

 

[Quiksilver]

Listen, blinkwatt. You're advice is good and going to the gym 3 years straight with hardly a pause is commendable.

However, telling others:

"Dude everyone can. Hell I've seen people gain more muscle then me while staying just as lean as me. It's just a matter of wanting it. I live by all the advice I post here,I've never advise on something I know doesn't work or don't like.

Think about it, I had to learn from someone right? The dude who advise me is in better shape and controls his bodyfat even better then I can. It's all about experience and wanting it more."

Is just silly. I know for a fact(I've been there/done that) that personally I cannot hold a bodyfat percentage of under 8% and continue to put on good muscle. Just to get down to 8'ish% from 12% took me 6 months of serious dedication. And by serious I mean almost a neurotic obsession.

It takes me 4-5 weeks to drop 2% bodyfat going balls out, never missing a meal, never cheating, 6x cardio a week, 3x heavy lifting a week, etc etc etc. This I KNOW because I've done it before.

You telling me that I can drop 2% bodyfat in 48 hours is just straight-up false. Any losses in a 48 hour period would be mostly water weight and muscle glycogen, with a small portion of bodyfat in there as well.

Dude everyone can. Hell I've seen people gain more muscle then me while staying just as lean as me. It's just a matter of wanting it. I live by all the advice I post here,I've never advise on something I know doesn't work or don't like.

You're advising us to take advice from people who are exceptions to the rule. For every person like you described above, there are ten who put in just as much dedication and effort and get half the results.

What you're telling us will work quite well for you and your friend, but here's a little tip: different things work for different people with different levels of success. I don't advise people to do what I do, because it doesn't work for most.

Holding 5% bodyfat year round is lol'able for someone with my genetics, my body makes its best gains and feels strongest at 10-12%.

I don't know why you would neglect deadlifts, probably the single best movement for developing full body power.

 

[blinkwatt101]

Dude I recommend you trying to take another perspective on it but I promise you. If you find people who have statuesque physiques in the gym there are ALWAYS 3 common fundamentals...eat clean. Lift intensely. Never miss day.

Dude be honest though,how long have you tried to eat raw,natural foods for? I mean consistently without bending a bit? I went 8 whole freakin months flawless and my mentor told me to stop it. I was doing more harm then good eating that clean and I should enjoy a pizza once a month or so,the body appreciates a change of pace. During that time I got down to 7-8% and I don't even eat a whole pizza as a cheat meal anymore. I eat whole wheat grilled cheese with olive oil coated to toast it and tillamook cheddar cheese as a cheat meal. It's the small things like that,that make the difference in bodyfat in the long run. Heck dude even when I was eating a whole pizza I called the franchise who made them and asked for all the ingredients in their pizzas to ensure that there wasn't any trans fat.

Dude if it took you that long to lose 4% bodyfat something is wrong. My Mom,who basically lived off tuna and veggies lost 30 lbs in 4 months without any exercise.

Dude trust me,learn to dehydrate your system and I bet your bodyfat is a lot lower then you'd think.

Deadlifts have been a love hate thing for me. I did them when I first started lifting and did that whole strength none sense. The most I ever did was 3 plates on each side for 2 reps and I'm not gonna lie,it felt amazing because I was smaller and most people in the were like 'wtf' when they saw my old lifting partners trying to hype me up to do it and made a big scene...I will never forget it. But when I was switching lifting strictly for my physique,they never seemed like they were worth the risk,as strength is something I care less about. Since then one of my old weight lifting partners snapped a vertebrae which stabbed a nerve...lost 30% feeling in his foot. He knows it was from his lower rep dead lifts.

Dude aren't you the one who does MMA seriously? No offense dude but MMA and other sport physiques will always be different then those of power lifters and bodybuilderesque fellows. I've trained with a cat who fights for Versus, his training is more for conditioning and stuff,he doesn't lift anything like I do,but we just have different styles different goals.

I like having a civil debate with educated persons,keep it going.

 

[mikeyb]

Dude trust me,learn to dehydrate your system and I bet your bodyfat is a lot lower then you'd think.

You keep saying this about being dehydrated to lose body fat. What's the science behind this? Seems to me that you'd just lose water.

 

[Wynston]

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ - Job done

 

[speakeasy]

I feel like I probably burn less than most people. Maybe I'm going about things the wrong way and I should make sure I count my calories and eat to get bulk, but instead I tend to just listen to my body. If I'm feeling hungry, I eat. If I don't, then I don't. Today I only ate one major meal. That was around 1pm. I got up from bed late. Ran and did some errands. Had a pretty big lunch of grilled chicken breast, saffron rice, pita and salad and probably too much lemonade. I went to the gym a few hours ago, came back feeling a bit hungry. Had a protein drink and some light snacks like peanuts and snap peas. I'm a bit hungry still so I'll probably have a bowl of wheat cereal and a banana and maybe yogurt. I rarely eat 3 full meals a day. It's usually breakfast which for me is turkey sausage, eggs, waffles, yogurt often some fruit(either strawberries or a banana) with either tea or orange juice to drink. And for dinner, I often eat out, or it at home, something like a thick turkey sandwich, fruit, carrots and a snack.

Anyway, is it good enough to just "listen to my body" and eat when I'm hungry, or do I have to really pound found even when I'm not feeling hungry?

 

[mikeyb]

You should always have your meals at set times, not when you're feeling hungry. As for "really pounding food", it depends what kind of food you mean and what your fitness goals are.

If you want to gain muscle you will need to eat a lot, especially lean protein, or just any protein, and even any food if you don't mind getting fatter in the process too (look in the vault threads on diet). But if that's not your goal and unless you do a lot of cardio I wouldn't advise "pounding" food. For example, I cycle most days for up to 4 hours so some days I eat over 4000 calories for maintenance. But if I don't do anything for a few days, I'll cut back to around 1900-2000.

 

[blinkwatt101]

You keep saying this about being dehydrated to lose body fat. What's the science behind this? Seems to me that you'd just lose water.

No no I'm just saying that people's bodyfat tends to be lower then they assume...you can't truly see a difference between 10-6% until you dehydrated. To most it may just seem that abs looks better from that 4% but when dehydrated at 10% you just look slimmer but at 6% and below it's a whole new world,veins,muscle lacerations and separation,the muscles develop a more matured look and I think they drop some. At which point every little bit you eat shows and everything is either against or on your side.

 

[blinkwatt101]

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ - Job done

I've never found a more misleading concept,except for maybe calorie counting.

According to the BMI index stuff I'm overweight for my height. That's why I believe the mirror is a better judge that can't be fooled or tricked when you use it.