1-16 calories per Minute (60-1,000 calories an Hour)

It's funny we think about wearing a heart rate monitor when exercising but not the rest of the day to understand how our body works the rest of the day.

It's interesting to know as a 185 pound man I burn about 2 calories a minute or 120 calories an hour when I'm sitting at my desk working.

This is in contrast to burning 8-16 calories a minute when I'm exercising. 500 calories an hour is a typical workout. At 1,000 calories an hour I'm at my threshold heart rate of 185-190 beats per minute at the end of an hour of hard work. Remember I would have burned 120 calories an hour sitting at my desk so the calorie burn due to exercise is only 380-880 calories.

When I'm sleeping I may be only burning 1 calorie a minute or 60 calories an hour.

So if I'm awake 16 hours and sleep 8 hours my daily calorie budget is roughly 2,440 calories. If I eat this amount of calories I stay at my current weight. I take this 2,440 and divide it by 5 meals a day and I should eat about 488 calories every 3 hours to keep my metabolism ON and have steady energy throughout the day.

If I exercise I can either eat 500-1,000 calories more and stay the same weight or create a calorie deficit. If I create a 500 a day calories deficit I lose 1 pound a week.