These are the settings Cronometer uses to calculate how much energy you burn. You can also manually adjust your energy targets to meet your personal goals.
The amount of energy you burn on a daily basis is determined by your:
- Basal Metabolic Rate - energy burned at rest.
- Activity Level - energy burned through activities of daily living and exercise.
- Exercise - energy burned during workouts and structured physical activity logged manually or imported from linked devices.
- Thermic Effect of Food - energy burned digesting your food.
Cronometer will calculate your energy needs automatically based on these factors. You can set a weight goal, or override these settings and use a Custom Energy Target instead.
Use the Reset buttons if you'd like to return to Cronometer's default settings at any time.
Energy Burned
These settings estimate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), in other words, all the Calories (or kilojoules) you burn in a day. Cronometer starts your day with an estimate of your total daily energy burned through BMR and your Activity Level to make planning your food intake for the day a bit easier.
Adjusting these settings will update the Total Energy Burned calculation, so you can see how the settings you select will impact your energy burned.
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 using the Mifflin St. Jeor Equation.
Edit your BMR by choosing Custom from the drop-down menu and entering 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.
Activity Level
Your activity level is an estimate of the calories you burn throughout the day beyond your BMR, including activities of daily living and exercise. We recommend leaving the setting on the default Sedentary and logging your exercise separately by adding an exercise on the diary page. Another option is to set your activity level to None and sync your account to a wearable activity tracker that counts general movement throughout the day.
Consider the following descriptions when choosing the activity level that is right for you:
None
Comatose or using an activity tracker which includes general activity.
Sedentary (BMR x 0.2)
Little or no exercise. You will burn some additional calories over and above BMR even for light activity such as watching TV, working at a desk, etc. Use this setting if you are synced to a device that tracks workouts only (not tracking general activity).
Lightly Active (BMR x 0.375)
Basic daily living (sitting, eating, walking around the office or house). Light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week
Moderately Active (BMR x 0.5)
Moving frequently through the day (construction work, stocking shelves, cleaning, etc.) and/or moderate exercise 3-5 days/week
Very Active (BMR x 0.9)
Intense activity through the day such as manual agricultural work or competitive athletic training.
Custom
Set your own fixed daily value for calories burned due to general exercise.
Variable Calories Burned
These options affect your calories burned dynamically. This means they vary day-to-day based on the exercises and foods that you log in your diary.
Include Exercise
When you log exercises in your diary, the energy burned will be added to your energy target. Un-tick this box to log exercises without adding them to your energy target.
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. Select this option to include an estimate of the energy you burn digesting your food.
Weight Goal or Custom Energy Target
Scroll down to the Weight Goal/Custom Energy Target section to modify your energy target to meet your goals. Choose between these two options to set up your energy target:
- Weight Goal - These settings dynamically calculate your energy needs based on your profile, energy burned and weight goals (maintain, gain or lose).
- Custom Energy Target - Enter a fixed energy target.
Weight Goal
Enter in your goal weight value, if you'd like. Please note, this does not affect your settings.
Rate
Cronometer will default your account settings to maintain weight. This will estimate your energy needs from the information you've entered in your profile and energy burned sections in the Profile and Targets settings to achieve energy balance, in other words energy in = energy out.
Choose a rate of weight loss or gain to add (weight gain) or subtract (weight loss) Calories (or kJ) to your Energy Budget and Energy Target. Use the slider to select a rate of weight gain or loss in increments of 0.25 lbs/week (0.11 kg/week). Each increment adds or subtracts about 125 kcal (522 kJ) to/from your energy target.
The text below displays how much energy is added or subtracted from your Energy Budget.
The Daily Energy Surplus/Deficit is the number of Calories (or kJ) that are added/subtracted from your Energy Target.
Custom Energy Target
If you would prefer to set your own custom fixed energy target this is the place to do it! Select this option and enter in the custom value you would like to use. This is applied to your energy target in the Macronutrient Targets section of your diary. Your Energy Summary will display your Energy Balance which is equal to Energy Burned minus Energy Consumed.
Reset Defaults
If you would like to restore the defaults used in Cronometer click the orange Reset Defaults button in the top right corner of the Weight Goal or Custom Energy Target section. This will return your settings to Weight Goal settings with a goal to maintain weight.