Crazy Calorie Calculator Confusion

Big D

Big D

New member
This is more becuase it makes me wonder than anything else.

On the web, you can find all kinds of calorie calculators for BMR, and they're all pretty close to each other, depending on the formula they use.

Now, I've hit a number of ones that were rather interesting in that they were also asking for body fat percentage. These gave a much lower calorie allotment than the rest. Seems they were just going on energy required for actual lean mass.

Is there anything behind this, or is that geared for a different type of person (low body fat percentage, high percentage, etc) or is it completely whacked out. If it was a one off, I'd figure someone was crazy, but I've seen a number of them.

find some for fun, and throw in lets say 34yo male 315 43%. between the calcs you find everywhere and the body fat ones, you'll get about an 8-900 cal difference.

Any info? I've done some searches and came up short. I'm mostly looking into it for my own info and curiosity.
 
I think you'll find that the ones that take body fat into account have a wider variation, the heavier you are.

If you put in stats for, say a 25 year old man at 170 and 18% bodyfat, it'll come a lot closer to a standard Harris-Benedict calorie calculation.

The concept here is that people who have a lot more fat, can, in fact, sustain a higher calorie deficit w/out jeopardizing lean muscle as much. Someone who has less fat is going to lose a higher percentage of lean muscle right off the bat.
 
I've too notice many online calorie calculator? Each one gave me different answers. SO I am not sure whether to rely on those answers
 
Fat weight burns less calories per pound than muscle. It's why your body stores fat instead of muscle - it's more efficient.
 
Thank you Kara, your answer makes the most sense so far.

I see it as "I'm looking to burn this off, why am I feeding it?" in concept. Also, it appears on its surface that if you add in the standard (TDEE) multipliers for activity level, it gets much closer overall to the standard Harris-Benedict numbers. I'll have to research these now and see if one includes the other in its own way.

For the most part, I'm just curious as to where and how these equations came about. Yes, I'm the type that likes to know how the electricity for to my light switch that makes my lamp glow. :p
 
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