if im 175 lbs (im actually bigger than that), and i watch TV for 10 min, I burn 14 calories. Thats 84 calories an hour. Okay, lets say Im awake 17 hours. Does that mean if i watch TV ALL DAY, that I'll burn 1428 calories, which comes out to a caloric need of about 3438 (my BMR is 2010) per day? This seems impossible, or not? Someone please clear some things up for me, thanks.

Eric

No. I think you have picked up the wrong end of this stick.

Assuming your arithmetic is correct, the 84 calories per hour from your vigorous couch potatoing, plus the more modest calorie burn while you sleep, add up to the daily total need of around 2,000 or so calories. The BMR calories you are adding in are not to be added. They are the calories your body is burning--say 84 an hour or so--to keep you alive, your heart pumping, your brain churning (this burns a heck of a lot of calories, actually), to keep your body at 98.6 degrees, and to digest your food, and so on, while lying on the couch watching tv.
Why would you think they are additional?

If you get up off the couch, hit the treadmill for 2 or 3 of those 17 hours, and do it quite intensely, your total calorie need might start to approach 3,000. To get up to a need for 3,400 calories per day you are gonna need to be doing a LOT of really intensive exercise.


sean