Calories offer a helpful metric for understanding how much energy you put into your body and expend through physical activity. However, not all calories are equal when it comes to exercise. You may have heard of terms like "active" and "total" when referring to caloric burn.

What are active calories, and how are they different from total calories? Learn more from ZOZOFIT about the distinction between the two to better understand your diet and exercise routine.

What Does Active Calories Mean?

The term "active" refers to the number of calories you burn while doing any kind of physical activity. For example, you may know that the average person burns 80-140 calories per mile of jogging. That activity contributes to your overall active calorie count for the day.

Note that active calories include everything you actively do, including non-workout activities. Completing chores or physical tasks at work all factor into the metric.

What Does Total Calories Mean?

Even when resting or abstaining from physical activities, your body is still burning energy. "Total calories" is a count of the total caloric burn you undergo in a 24-hour period. It includes both active calories and those the body uses to carry out its normal functions, such as digestion and circulation. Put differently, total calories measure both "active" and "inactive" forms of energy use.

What Do Active Calories Mean for Your Fitness Goals?

Understanding the distinction between total and active calories is an excellent place to start measuring your progress and set attainable goals. Here are helpful ways to use this information to your advantage, especially when paired with the ZOZOFIT app.

Set Goals

Learning how your body burns calories can help you assess your lifestyle and make realistic goals. You may choose to embrace a more traditional approach based on a caloric deficit or incorporate your knowledge of total calories vs active calories into a program, like ZOZOFIT, that prioritizes measurements over weight. Think about calorie counts as a tool to help you stay on track rather than a hard-and-fast rule.

Increase Activity

Broadly speaking, movement is good for the body, and active calories give you information about movement. They measure the amount of activity you fit into each day, more than an indication of food intake. A solid approach is to find ways to increase your active calories throughout the day, even if just a little per week. That could mean fitting in an extra walk during your lunch break, a short yoga session in the morning, or a quick evening jog.

Consult a Professional

As with all decisions about your health, consult a professional if you have questions about your specific needs. Consider meeting with a nutritionist for more information about caloric intake and its relationship to exercise. They will provide you with detailed information about how to match your diet choices to appropriate exercise goals.

Advance Your Fitness Goals

With a clear understanding of the total calories vs active calories, you can make more informed choices about your health and wellness routine. Download the ZOZOFIT app and see how it can help you track and meet your fitness goals today.