One comment about Fitday - it tends to overestimate calories burned in activity - the usual hack is to set all activities to "sleeping".

You're splitting hairs over concern on the one day you have the longer run. It's more what you do over time, than any particular day. Find a target and stick with it. Then, the equations don't matter - they are likely to be high or low depending on the individual. Instead, gauge your success.

Obviously if you consume those calories and don't drop weight after a few weeks, you are overestimating calories burned and need to either burn more calories and/or restrict your caloric intake. If you are on target, great, if you lose faster than expected then up them.

The equations are just guidelines and starting points, they are not set in stone. If you notice, they compute based on your age, height, weight, gender, etc. However studies have shown that if you get a room full of 100 people who have the same age, height, weight, gender, general activity level, etc, their metabolism can still vary in either direction by as much as 500 calories. That's significant and means you need to keep diligent records and adjust based on your actual success and progress.

That's why I shy from FitDay (yes, it is great that is free) and go more for software like DietPower that does this automatically (i.e. it doesn't attempt to guess based on an equation, but after analyzing my activity, food, and actual weight change, gives a very realistic interpretation of what my real metabolism is).

Here's an example of my past several days:

http://jeremylikness.goldensummitinc.com/images/blog/dietpower20060114.gif[/URL" target="_blank">

As you can see, the blue line is my goal, the red is my actual weight - it definitely does a good job of keeping me on target.

Jeremy

I was roughly the same weight as you and lost thirty pounds with an average daily intake of 200g carbs, 200g protein and 80-90g fat.

As I increased by training mileage I upped the carbs keeping the fat and protein intake at roughly the same level to maintain a daily deficit of 500-600 calories.

It took over a year to lose the weight but its a sustainable diet.

Don't neglect dietary fats as they are a valuable nutrient that can help play a part in fat loss.

2,900 sounds way too high for BMR. It sounds more like a maintenance level that includes moderate activity.

I just downloaded the trial of Diet Power - this is great stuff! I had been trying to find this "calorie bank" equation myself using fitday, I like that it does this for me. Thanks!