There are two types of sedentary with this one equation that I am working with. One is basically bed or chair ridden individual. I find that the value of maintenance calories obtained this way equals to about 2060 for me. This is 30 under which I was originally using a while back. This is an extreme version of “sedentary”. Realistically, I can choose a sedentary occupation without daily movement. Now there may be room for a few errands. This amounts to about 2400 calories. Next, if I add in the effect of the nutrient makeup of my average (too) low of protien day, this adds an additional about 90 calories. So we are up to about 2500 calories. If I went on a high protien diet, then my maintenance calories for a “sedentary” lifestyle would be about 2,650 calories. I do think these results are a bit high, but still provides a more realistic combination of variables to consider.

Allot of this depends on how ones RMR is calculated. This approach uses the more accurate percentage body fat. This assumes my guess for my own body is correct. Another is what one means by “sedentary”. This part I find interesting and can yield a noticeably different result. Then the nutrient makeup, specifically the grams of protien per pound of body weight, fine tunes this figure. This amount can be significant for a high protien diet. I find this part also interesting.

So if there is any truth to this, this means that the calculators found online work only if “sedentary” means virtually “immobile”, and there is a low protien diet involved. We are talking about a “bare bones” minimal interpretation of maintenance calories. I think this is a bit unrealistic. No wonder some online calculators can provide values noticeably above the average calculator. They are interpreting “sedentary” differently. This actually now makes sense to me.

So I will use the 2500 figure as my new amount for maintenance calories just to see what happens. Then I will adjust accordingly.