Ive been watching my calories pretty closely but not really being strict so I decided I really need to find out my basal metabolic rate which is how many calories my body expends in a day. Then I need to stay below that number to lose weight. Im losing slowly, I was down to 157.4lbs the other day but Id like to lose faster.

So how do I calculate that? Well I found this handy formula:

Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

here is mine:

655 + (4.3×157.4)+(4.7×56)-(4.7×25)

655+676.82+263.2-117.5

1477.52

Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

Activity-step two

sedentary : BMR x 20 percent

lightly active: BMR x 30 percent

Id say I am lightly active. I dont exercise on MOST days to be moderately active.

BMR (1477)X30%~=443 Now adding those together I come up with 1920. That seems way too high. I dont think I would classift myself as sedentary, running 3-4 days a week.

moderately active (exercise on most  days): BMR x 40 percent

active (Intense exercise on a daily basis or for prolonged periods.): BMR x 50 percent  

Now seriously whats intense? whats prolonged? I havent been able to find that out. Is intense running? prolonged- more than 30 minutes? more than an hour? 2 hours? That sort of thing drives me crazy! I need examples!

The resulting number is the calories your body uses in a day, you will need to stay below that to lose.

According to this calculation if I am eating 1600 calories a day, which is generally pretty comfortable for me to do so I should have a 320 calorie a day deficit, which means I should be losing one pound about every eleven days. (one pound equals 3500 calories) Thats about the rate I need to lose to get below 140lbs before my marathon in December. Unfortunatly I dont think Im actually losing at that rate. I will have to consult my trusty wieght loss calender and report back.

Posted by Shelley in Whatever on April 28th, 2007 |