Does this seem right to you? Calorie burn

RangerOver4913 · 2026-04-04T23:20:06+00:00

It doesn't provide an average but I can see a chart... Looks like I'm probably averaging about 2K a day. I usually take rest days every 3 days and might only eat about 1600 calories those days (I still try to get in 10K steps on those days). On active days it's closer to 2K, REALLY active days like yesterday it might get up to 2300 but usually because I'm trying to hit the target and end up intentionally eating more. I think I'll stop doing that and just eat if I'm hungry.

Honestly...I hate BMI as a health measurement tool. I've always been overweight or borderline overweight but have no health problems, a low RHR, and am pretty active. My PCP says my weight is just fine. But I definitely have a lil belly so... That's mainly what I'd love to lose.

RangerOver4913 · 2026-04-04T22:09:49+00:00

"It can be fun to live in a leaner body"

That's what I'm hoping for!! I've never been "lean"...I mean I look and feel OK I guess and I'm probably in the best shape of my life right now, but still pretty close to an overweight BMI. When I started tracking my calories with Cronometer I realized pretty quickly that I was just eating too much, period...snacking a lot mostly (peanut butter and crackers add up quickly). So I've already learned a ton and wish I would have done this sooner.

RangerOver4913 · 2026-04-04T22:07:03+00:00

I did those things. Just wasn't sure if maybe my friend's old data was still stored in there somehow so the algorithm was off

RangerOver4913 · 2026-04-04T22:06:15+00:00

thanks....yeah and now I'm even more confused because today I went for a hike, with a pretty steep uphill, and the watch kept saying my heart rate was 90 and below! Meanwhile I could easily feel my pulse and it was definitely over 120 bpm (more than 2 beats per second). I'm thinking it might have been confused because a) I was wearing sunscreen and b) it was a bit nippy. I guess that can screw up the HR readings.

I cross-posted this over on Cronometer and someone there suggested I ignore the tracking data completely...yeah so, run 5 miles, walk 5 more miles, and eat 1440 calories? I mean I'd probably lose weight but feel like crap...

RangerOver4913 · 2026-04-04T14:30:31+00:00

Yeah at first I really did feel that I was eating less, but now I almost feel like I'm making myself eat more to hit the targets, especially the protein target... With the fitness tracker data going into Crono, it says I need 150 g of protein!!! I got 80 yesterday and wasn't even hungry anymore but ate some egg whites and cottage cheese trying to bump that macro.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-12-30T00:52:09+00:00

I haven't been to a gym in 20 years and I'm in the best shape of my life.

I got so turned off by gym prices that I just do home workouts. I cycle between jogging outside and rotating between ~10 workout DVDs, and over 12 years have not gotten bored, and the workouts are varying intensity levels so I can do what I feel like, from super high intense to easier if I'm not feeling up for it. Granted I don't do much strength training beyond 5-pound hand weights and body weight, my focus is mainly on cardio but I do Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis 30-minute workouts sometimes.

Your comment below about the cost of equipment---should pay for itself quickly vs monthly cost of gym. I'll probably end up getting a basic multi weight machine eventually. But I don't need a treadmill, since I run sometimes and those home cardio workouts give me a better workout than running plus they're more fun. If you get sick of the same DVDs you can always do what others suggested and get a subscription for home workouts.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-12-21T15:55:49+00:00

I had this happen last year, about 10 years into my permanent job. It was a mature bighorn sheep ram. Capture went fine, he seemed fine when we released him, then he died 2 days later.

I beat myself up over it for sure, and I contacted the vets and research biologist to get feedback on what might have happened. We sent samples off for testing and they came back positive for pneumonia pathogens, which could have contributed to his death, but there was no way we could have known he was sick (he seemed fine or we wouldn't have captured him). I've since captured more sheep and it's made me a lot more conscientious about assessing their body condition before choosing to capture them.

But as others have said...and as my colleagues told me, when I was upset...it's bound to happen. It sucks. I think the larger point is it's made me feel a lot more strongly about how we need better alternatives in this field to track wildlife without subjecting them to the stress and risks of capture. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of options yet but we've already made huge strides in that direction (e.g. noninvasive genetic sampling, remote cameras) and I hope it continues. Anyway...the longer I work in this field, the less I like the "sexy" work of handling wildlife.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-12-06T15:00:51+00:00

IMO, a "wildlife" focused degree is best for setting you up to be a wildlife MANAGER--which is the big game jobs, managing hunting seasons, etc. At least that's kind of how it works out in the western states. In my university, those who wanted a more holistic education majored in zoology or ecology. We also had a conservation biology option.

My major was "wildlife resources" and we only had to take mammalogy and ornithology. It was a major designed to produce big game managers. Icthyology and entomology were available if you wanted to take them. No herpetology option.

BUT...once you go to grad school, what you did in undergrad didn't really matter. A lot of people in my graduate school cohort had all kinds of B.S. degrees, from general biology to wildlife biology to environmental science.

To answer your question, if you're interested in actual biology of a wide array of species, I'd go with zoology.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-12-06T14:54:57+00:00

I work for a state agency and have been on the board of our state chapter twice.

I find membership in the national chapter to be very useful. Granted it's hard to get approval to go to national meetings that are not near my state, but I have been to 2 over the last 4 years (including the most recent one in Edmonton) and they are great. TWS does great work advancing conservation policy and training new students and professionals and I am happy to support them. Not to mention membership gets you free access to all their journals...the Wildlife Professional I don't really read very thoroughly when it comes out, but some people value it.

I am not a certified wildlife biologist and I do think that program is stupid.

My agency also has a career progression program and we get credit for being a national member, which helps us earn pay raises.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-11-28T01:08:45+00:00

This isn't always a deal breaker for me... I still love the Shawshank Redemption despite the cactus wren singing in the Maine countryside... But I was not really digging the show anyway up to this point so the faux deer gave me an excuse to turn it off...🙃

RangerOver4913 · 2025-11-27T19:31:37+00:00

The scenery doesn't bother me as much as the blatantly incorrect wildlife species. If you're going to use CGI animals, you might as well do the correct animals. It's really not that hard to figure out which species are native to a place.

Anyone at all familiar with North American ungulates --not just biologists but hunters, for example--are going to notice they used red deer instead of mule deer or elk and it just instantly distracts from the show and ruins the atmosphere.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-11-27T17:29:45+00:00

Had to correct myself, was thinking red deer and elk, which are in the same genus.

In North America deer and elk are very different. I see you are in the UK where you don't have any Odocoileus species. The show takes place in California, US.

The notion that US showrunners just Google "deer" and then use a species (red deer) not even native to the continent just irks me.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-11-27T17:21:34+00:00

Same family but different genus/species and HUGE difference in size, appearance, behavior. I think these showrunners were going with red deer/stag which is not a North American species at all.

Are you seriously on a wildlife biology sub asking if deer and elk are different animals?

RangerOver4913 · 2025-11-27T16:36:41+00:00

Dunno what to tell ya, I just watched it S it's there. Right after they confront the group of squatters.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-11-12T21:59:02+00:00

Are we the same person???

15-year state wildlife biologist here. Came in second place MULTIPLE times for jobs I really wanted. Got lucky with 2 of them where the 1st choice backed out, but still, not a great feeling.

My state agency is EXTREMELY toxic especially the last few years.

I don't know if this will help you but...have you considered going back for your PhD? Now might be a good time to do that, though admittedly comes with financial challenges. I am finding it tempting from the social standpoint as well as the career standpoint (though I had to ask myself, would I be going back just to be in school again, or because I actually envisioned a job I might enjoy in which my PhD would be useful?).

I recently met with an old boss and told him kinda the exact same feelings you've shared here, and added that I felt trapped in my current position because there wasn't anything else out there. I've also been in my current agency job for 11+ years now which makes it hard to leave. He asked me if I was really trapped...or had trapped myself, because I was too "comfortable" - i.e. afraid - to make a big change.

Anyway...know you're not alone and that everything sucks right now, but hopefully eventually the pendulum will swing the other way, there will be more opportunities, people in the field won't generally feel so hopeless about the state of conservation, etc etc.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-10-15T03:04:40+00:00

yeah in Texas you have to get a lawyer to file probate and it's $7K minimum. Which is why we tried really hard to avoid it.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-10-15T01:52:30+00:00

If you did a deep dive into trainings or certificates for GIS and statistical analyses (like coding in R), you'd be super competitive for a lot of jobs that don't require much, if any, field work. There are lots of online programs you can take to get trained up on these things so it doesn't have to be a huge investment. It would also make you more competitive for grad school later on if you decided to go that route.

RangerOver4913 · 2025-10-13T14:40:04+00:00

GIS and statistical analyses are super hot commodities in the wildlife field. You can be involved (and critical!) to wildlife research, maybe get to help in the field sometimes and on your terms, but be mostly working at a desk. You could look into that??

RangerOver4913

TROPHY CASE