new to forum, need clarification on a topic posted by cathe

[lechat]

I am very confused by this posting from one of Cathe's articles-"In last week’s article I mentioned that the biggest mistake people make in calculating the extra calories burned from exercising is forgetting to subtract the calories they would have burned anyway if they had done absolutely nothing"

My question: why do I deduct BMR from total calories burned during workout? I thought that one adds total burned calories to the total bmr since it is calories being burned and then deduct my total food calories to figure out how much I really have as a deficit. What is the correct formula?
Please help clear up confusion...thanks.

 

[SNM Videos]

BMR and calories burned

Lets say you burned 700 calories doing a Cathe DVD today for 1 hour and lets say your BMR is 1800 calories. So the total calories you burned today is 1800 + 700 = 2500 calories right? Well, not really and heres why:

Though you burned 700 calories working out for 1 hour today you would have burned at least 75 calories during the same hour if you would have just done nothing. So you really didn't burn an extra 700 calories, instead you only burned an extra (700 - 75) = 625 calories. You will always have to subtract your BMR calories from your exercise calories to determine how many exercise calories you really burned.

 

[RapidBreath]

I never knew that. oops. Maybe that explains some things. . . like my middle.

 

[DirtDiva]

Oh man....why did I have to read this!

 

[lechat]

Thank you, it makes sense! I will make sure to count those calories.