I found this website helpful in planning how much I should be eating:
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
This is the first place that actually suggested I burn more than just the base basal metabolic value…
You can test that, by setting your sleeping time to 24 hours… then the total=basal. Even being awake and just sitting doing nothing, you burn more – and thus need to eat more.