Active and total calories are two essential metrics for anyone looking to manage their weight, whether the goal is to lose, maintain, or gain. Understanding the distinction between these two measurements is crucial for creating an effective and sustainable fitness plan. This article dives deep into the differences between active and total calories, explaining their importance, how to calculate them, and how to leverage this knowledge for a healthier lifestyle.
What are Active and Total Calories?
The number of calories a person burns daily represents the total energy expenditure, encompassing both active and inactive states. This comprehensive measure is referred to as "Total Calories." Active calories, on the other hand, specifically denote the calories your body burns during physical activity, such as workouts and fitness routines.
Total Calories = Natural Processes of Your Body + Active Calories## Active Calories = Calories burned during Physical Activity
Active Calories Explained
Active calories represent the energy expended during intentional physical activities. These are the calories burned while running, lifting weights, cycling, swimming, or engaging in any exercise that elevates your heart rate. Essentially, active calories are those you deliberately burn through workouts and other forms of physical exertion. Fitness trackers and exercise equipment often focus on measuring these active calories, utilizing biological data such as heart rate and steps taken to provide an estimate of energy expenditure.
Total Calories Explained
Total calories represent the comprehensive measure of energy your body expends throughout the entire day. This includes not only the calories burned during physical activity (active calories) but also the calories burned at rest. Resting calories, also known as your resting metabolic rate (RMR), are the calories your body uses to maintain essential bodily functions like breathing, digesting food, and maintaining body temperature. Even when you are not engaged in any physical activity, your body is still burning calories to sustain life.
Active Calories vs. Total Calories: Key Differences
Understanding the differences between active and total calories is essential for creating a comprehensive view of your caloric expenditure and intake. This understanding can significantly aid in managing your overall health and weight.
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Here's a table highlighting the differences between active calories and total calories:
| Criteria | Active Calories | Total Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Calories burned through physical activity and exercise | Sum of all calories burned in a day, including basal metabolic rate (BMR), digestion, and physical activity |
| Measurement Focus | Only considers calories burned during intentional movements and exercises | Includes calories burned through all bodily functions, daily activities, and exercise |
| Components | Exercise, sports, walking, running, cycling, etc. | BMR (calories burned at rest), thermic effect of food (TEF), and active calories |
| Tracking Devices | Fitness trackers, smartwatches, exercise equipment | Fitness trackers, smartwatches, health apps that calculate BMR and add active calories |
| Purpose | Helps in understanding the calories burned specifically from activities | Provides a comprehensive view of daily energy expenditure |
| Usefulness | Useful for tracking exercise intensity and workout effectiveness | Useful for managing overall energy balance and weight management |
| Calculation Example | Calories burned during a 30-minute run | BMR (resting calories) + calories burned during digestion + active calories |
| Typical Users | Athletes, fitness enthusiasts, individuals tracking workout performance | Individuals tracking overall caloric intake and expenditure for weight management or health reasons |
| Influence Factors | Type, intensity, and duration of physical activity | Age, weight, height, gender, muscle mass, activity level |
| Accuracy | Can be estimated but varies with device accuracy and activity type | More comprehensive but depends on accurate BMR and activity tracking |
Why Knowing Both Matters
Being aware of both active and total calories provides a more complete picture of your energy expenditure. This knowledge is valuable for several reasons:
- Weight Management: If your goal is weight loss, understanding the relationship between active and total calories is crucial. Creating a calorie deficit, where you burn more calories than you consume, is essential for losing weight. Tracking both active and total calories helps you determine how much you need to adjust your diet and exercise to achieve this deficit.
- Setting Realistic Fitness Goals: Knowing your active calorie burn allows you to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) fitness goals. For example, you might aim to burn a certain number of active calories each day through exercise.
- Optimizing Workouts: Tracking active calories helps you gauge the intensity and effectiveness of your workouts. By monitoring how many calories you burn during different activities, you can adjust your training to maximize calorie expenditure and achieve your fitness goals more efficiently.
- Understanding Your Body: Paying attention to both active and total calories can help you gain a better understanding of your body's energy needs and how it responds to different activities and dietary changes.
How Many Active Calories Should You Burn a Day?
The number of active calories you should aim to burn each day depends on several factors, including your weight, activity level, and fitness goals. A person who spends most of their time sitting at a desk would need to do some light exercise to get the same amount of active calorie burn that someone who is constantly on their feet would have.
Total Calorie Consumption for Weight Management
The average person should consume about 2000-2500 total calories per day for weight loss or maintenance. However, this is just a general guideline. If you want to lose weight quickly, you might need to consume fewer calories, while if you want to gain weight, you might need to consume more. Consulting with a registered dietitian can help you determine your ideal calorie range and develop a strategy that supports your long-term weight loss or gain goals.
The Importance of Healthy "Total Calories"
It is important to be aware of how many calories you are consuming and how much you are burning. The total calorie count is extremely important to consider when having a calorie target because it will take into account the total amount of energy you expend during your daily activities and even during sleep. Yes, you are burning calories even when you are sitting down or watching TV for long periods of time, though less than when you are doing a workout.
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How to Track Active Calories
Tracking active calories can be done in several ways:
- Fitness Trackers: Wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers use accelerometers to measure your movement throughout the day, providing an estimate of active calories burned. These devices can also track the type and intensity of your workouts, providing more accurate calorie burn data.
- Smartphone Apps: Many smartphone apps can track your activity levels and estimate calorie burn based on your height, weight, age, and activity level. Some apps also allow you to manually log your workouts and other physical activities.
- Exercise Equipment: Most modern exercise equipment, such as treadmills and stationary bikes, display an estimate of calories burned during your workout. Keep in mind that these estimates may not be entirely accurate, as they are based on general formulas and do not take into account individual factors like metabolism and fitness level.
How to Track Total Calories
Tracking total calories requires monitoring both your calorie intake and your active calorie burn. Here are some methods for tracking total calories:
- Food Logging: Keeping a food diary, either manually or using a smartphone app, can help you track your calorie intake. Be sure to accurately record the portion sizes and calorie content of all the foods and beverages you consume.
- Calculating Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): Your RMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest. You can estimate your RMR using online calculators or equations like the Mifflin-St Jeor equation.
- Combining RMR and Active Calories: Once you have estimated your RMR and tracked your active calorie burn, you can add these two values together to get an estimate of your total daily calorie expenditure.
The Mifflin-St Jeor Equation
If you're looking for a way to figure out how many calories you burn in a day, a reliable way to do this is by first finding out your resting metabolic rate. Your RMR is the basic number of calories your body needs to function and maintain your weight. This doesn't account for extra activities that you do during the day. There are a few methods to calculate your RMR, but the most reliable is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. It calculates the number of calories you need to eat daily based on your assigned gender at birth, height, age and weight. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation looks like this:
Males: (10 Ã weight in kilograms) + (6.25 Ã height in centimeters) - (5 Ã age in years) + 5
Females: (10 Ã weight in kilograms) + (6.25 Ã height in centimeters) - (5 Ã age in years) - 161
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If you're looking to see how many calories you'll need based on activity level, then you'll need to multiply your RMR results with your activity level based on the following chart:
1.2 - Sedentary (little to no exercise)
1.375 - Lightly active (work out 1-3 days a week)
1.55 - Moderately active (work out 3-5 days a week)
1.725 - Very active (work out 6-7 days a week)
1.9 - Extra active (two-a-day workouts, active job)
Example: 5-ft 4-in, 125 pounds, moderately active woman, 29 years old
RMR: (10 Ã 56.699) + (6.25 Ã 162.56) - (5 Ã 29) - 161 = 1,276.99 calories
RMR x Activity Level: 1,276.99 x 1.55 = 1,979.3345 calories
Caloric Deficit
A caloric deficit is when you burn more calories than you eat in a day. As Maitland mentioned, it's usually recommended to start a deficit by cutting back 500 calories a day from your diet. It's important to remember that this may vary per individual so it's best to consult with a professional before doing so.
Tips for Using Your Apple Watch to Track Calories
Do you own an Apple Watch? It could help you keep track of total calories vs. active calories based on your weight, height, age, activity level, heart rate, and gender. If you wish to choose the type of calories you track on your Apple Watch, youâll follow these steps:
Open the Watch App on your iPhone and tap the Workout tab.
Youâll be in the workout view area, which is where you choose your metrics based on the training type. Personalize it in whatever way you like. Youâll see your track total calories vs. active calories on the Apple Watch. The movement ring is red and shows the active calories youâve burned that day. Your goal is to reach the daily movement objective each day, so you can walk, run, jump, do online workouts, or visit the gym to close that ring. If you tap the ring, youâll see your active calories, total calories, and the movements youâve completed and when.
How to Burn More Calories at Work?
Most people think they must work out for longer periods to burn more calories. While this will definitely help, itâs often unsustainable for many because they donât like exercise or donât have enough time to do it. However, if youâve got the means and enjoy it, go for it! Overall, many people focus on HIIT (high-intensity interval training) to boost their calorie burn. With HIIT, youâll burn more calories in a shorter amount of time. Typically, it takes only 30 minutes of training. However, you will burn more calories after the workout! Studies show that it could be up to 38 hours. Called the after-burn effect, youâll notice that your body requires more energy to come back to its resting state after an intense workout. However, it also has to use the energy to repair muscles and re-oxygenate the system, allowing your body temperature to return to normal. Getting an L-shaped motorized desk could also be beneficial because you can stand and work instead of sitting in a chair all day. Youâll learn more about this later.
Factors that Contribute to How Many Calories You Burn
When you exercise, it's essential to track your progress, not only so you can see how far you've come but also to identify when you need a break. How many calories you burn will vary by the duration and intensity of your workout, so it's good practice to use a fitness tracker to simplify things. The top fitness trackers like Fitbit, Apple Watch and Whoop include your calorie burn throughout the day and during your tracked workouts.
Factors that contribute to how many calories you burn:
- Your heart rate zone: Smartwatches measure your heart rate zones, or how hard you're pushing and recovery periods. Heart rate zones will change so having a record will help you determine when you need to take your workout to the next level.
- Your natural resting heart rate: We all have a unique resting heart rate. The normal range falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Use your heart rate to inform how often you need to take breaks. For example, you may need to take more breaks if you have a naturally high heart rate.
- Your weight: How much you weigh will impact how many calories you burn while exercising. Someone who weighs less will burn less. It's important to note that muscle mass burns more calories than body fat, so your weight will burn more calories if you regularly strength train.
- The type of workout: Strength training may not burn as many calories as cardio, although it's important to include both sources to build muscle mass and avoid injury.
Quick Tips to Cut 500 Calories
- Choose healthy snacks like fruit or nuts
- Try to eliminate high-calorie treats each day
- Identify low-calorie swaps like using low-fat milk or plain yogurt instead of sour cream
- Cut out high-calorie drinks like sodas
- Use smaller bowls or plates
- Avoid fried foods as often as you can
Remember, calories don't tell you the quality of food you're eating. Focus on nutrient-rich foods that ensure your body and mind get what they need to function and flourish.
Healthy Weight Loss Goals
Losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way is essential for meeting your goals. According to Maitland, a healthy weight loss goal is between 2 and 5 pounds a week. That doesn't mean that if you're not losing within that range, you're doing it wrong. It's simply a guideline for what is healthy and sustainable. You should expect it to vary each week. "It's important to understand the difference between water weight loss and actual fat loss. Regardless of how much weight you would like to lose, it's imperative to set realistic goals and trust that even the smallest steps taken daily can make a difference. Consistency is the secret sauce," Maitland said.
Weight loss is a long-term lifestyle change. Maitland highlighted that your weight loss will plateau if you don't increase the deficit. So, your diet and exercise routines should be evaluated frequently to ensure they suit your goals. That said, if you achieve your goals and find a workout routine that works for you, it's OK to stick with it.