Weight loss mistake #4

Using "average person" calorie estimations

There are all kinds of calorie tables on the Internet showing the calorie expenditure of different physical activities. But these tables don't show your calorie expenditure! They really give you the calorie expenditure for an "average person".

These tables assume that you're an average person who burns one calorie per minute while at rest. Yes, we covered this in the first part of the article but it deserves repeating: Most men burn more than one calorie per minute and most smaller women burn less than one calorie per minute while at rest.

In reality, these standard calorie tables overestimate the calories burned by smaller people and underestimate the calories expended by bigger than average people. Combine this error with the common mistake of counting all burned calories as "extra calories" and you have a wide range of possible miscalculations.