Quote:
Originally Posted by TALO
I know this is a stupid question, but I ask because; lets say a person burns 500 calories during a bike ride or on the treadmill. If they are eating 3500 cals, then that must mean that during the day they are burning over 3000 calories by doing nothing....Is this right??
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It's sometimes helpful to think about all the elements that contribute to total energy expenditure. They can typically be bucketed into four main categories and expressed by the following formula:
Total Energy Expenditure = BMR + TEA + TEF + NEAT
1. BMR = basal metabolic rate
2. TEA = thermic effect of activity
3. TEF = thermic effect of food
4. NEAT = non-exercise activity thermogenisis
1 is calories burned at rest (just living)
2 is calories burned during exercise
3 is calories burned in processing the food that you eat
4 is calories burned through all daily activity that is NOT exercise
The reason that's important is that many people think that anything "non-exercise" is their BMR, but that's not true, although the thermic effect of food is quite small, just walking around "awake", doing a deskjob, etc, does add up over the course of the day.
But theoretically, if a person is eating 3500 cals per day and MAINTAINING weight, and exercise contributes to 500 calories burned, then BMR + TEF + NEAT has to be equal to 3000, else they'd either be losing or gaining weight.