You can find your Energy Expenditure settings by going to the More tab > Targets > Energy Expenditure.
These are the settings Cronometer uses to estimate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), in other words, the energy (calories/kilojoules) you burn in a day.
Your TDEE is made up of:
- Basal Metabolic Rate - energy burned at rest.
- Activity Level - energy burned through activities of daily living and exercise.
- Tracker Activity - energy burned from activity (outside of logged workouts) imported from linked devices.
- Exercise - energy burned from workouts logged manually or imported from linked devices.
- Thermic Effect of Food - energy burned from digesting your food.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
BMR is the amount of energy that a person needs to keep the body functioning when at rest.
Cronometer calculates your BMR by using the Mifflin St. Jeor Equation, which is based on age, sex, height, and weight. If you select pregnant or breastfeeding in your profile, this will also affect your BMR.
If you'd like to set a Custom BMR, select Custom from the drop-down menu > Enter a custom value in the box below.
This will be a fixed value, unlike using the Mifflin St. Jeor Equation which will fluctuate with changes in your age, sex, height, and weight.
Baseline Activity Level
Your Baseline Activity is an estimate of the energy you burn throughout the day beyond your BMR. We recommend setting a baseline activity level that best describes your everyday life, and then logging exercise manually or syncing an activity tracker for the most accurate results.
If you'd like to adjust your Baseline Activity, consider the following descriptions when choosing the activity level that is right for you:
Sedentary (BMR x 0.2)
The Default Activity Setting. Little or no physical activity, typically a desk job or minimal movement throughout the day.
Example: Office work, watching TV, and minimal walking.
Lightly Active (BMR x 0.375)
A job that involves some physical activity or light intensity exercise 1-3 days/week.
Example: Light walking, casual biking, or household chores.
Moderately Active (BMR x 0.5)
Jobs that keep you on your feet most of the day, or moderate intensity exercise 3-5 days/week.
Example: Gym sessions, running, or active jobs like retail.
Very Active (BMR x 0.9)
A very physical job, very hard exercise, or physical training.
Example: Pro athletes, military training, or jobs with continuous high physical activity.
No Activity
Health professionals monitoring comatose patients should select this activity level.
Custom
Set your own fixed daily value for calories burned due to exercise.
Tracker Activity & Exercise
If you are synced with a device that tracks general activity, as the general activity from your device (= Tracker Activity) increases throughout the day, the Baseline Activity will be replaced by this imported activity to ensure that you are not overestimating your burned calories. This will now appear as Adjusted Baseline Activity in your Energy Expenditure circle.
Exercise (either logged or imported from a device) will also adjust your Baseline Activity based on the time spent exercising.
Learn more about how we adjust Baseline Activity here.
Thermic Effect of Food
The thermic effect of food (TEF), also called diet-induced thermogenesis, is the rise in your metabolic rate after eating a meal. It takes energy to digest protein, carbs, fat and alcohol and this contributes a small amount to the total energy you burn in a day.
By default, this option is toggled OFF. Toggle ON this option to include an estimate of the energy burned from digesting your food.