One of the most common pieces of feedback I’ve received so far for my 1 Million Calories Challenge is that 2739 calories per day are too many!

Maybe everyone is right. I’ve definitely done more restrictive diets previously to lose weight and was able to feel fine for long periods at far fewer calories than I’m allowed in this challenge. Also, the tools I used to estimate my basal metabolic rate don’t take into account my body fat percentage and we know that fat isn’t as calorie active as muscle, so maybe how obese I am is skewing that number. Let’s look at the results I received and go from there.

Below are a few of the tools I used to calculate my BMR and the results I received. I’ve realized that the variance in the numbers may be in part due to the two different main equations being used. One is called Mifflin – St. Jeor and the other is the Harris – Benedict equation.

Site	BMR Result
Calculator.net	2288
Active	2599
IIFYM	2338
BMI Calculator	2598.85
ManyTools	2579
Ideal Protein	2634
BodyBuilding.com	2604
The Economic Times	2603
myDR	2526
The Calculator Site	2240
Healthy Mummy	2517
My Fitness Pal	2328
Omni Calculator	2238
Disabled World	2594.2
Exercise 4 Weight Loss	2729
Health Status	3095.61
Calculators.org	2634
Low Fat Low Carb	2634
MFit	2598.85

The average BMR of all of these tools ends up being 2,546 calories with a total daily energy expenditure of 3055 calories when using a 1.2x multiplier.

That means that I should be taking in around three hundred calories less per day than I expend, even being as sedentary as I am and with our puppy needing walks and attention, I am not as sedentary now as I was before we got her, so here’s hoping that my calorie deficit is actually around three hundred per day. If it is, I might lose around two to three pounds per month or as much as thirty-six pounds over the course of the year. That is weight I could afford to lose.

If the BMR calculators are all off because their calculation doesn’t take into account how obese I am, then maybe I am going to be eating as much or a bit more than my body needs if I used my calories every single day. However, my goal is to end up with a surplus amount of calories at the end of the year. I don’t necessarily want to use all of my one million calories. I just can’t go over that number. So if I do end the year with calories left over, I might not gain or lose any weight, which is fine by me.

The end goals of this challenge are to be more mindful of what I am eating, to reduce how often my gluttonous nature takes over, and potentially suffer through a period of fasting if I can’t control that aspect of my personality. It isn’t to lose weight, to get in better shape or become the pinnacle of fitness, hence why it isn’t more restrictive this year.