Fun and Fitness for the 40-Something

How much food can we eat without gaining weight? Many nutritionists use the following equation to calculate women’s daily caloric needs:

1) Multiply your current weight (or goal weight) by 4.5

2) Multiply your height in inches by 15.88

3) Add the results from #1 and #2

4) Multiply your age by 5

5) Subtract the answer in #4 from the answer in #3

6) Subtract 161 from the answer in #5

7) Multiply the answer in #6 by your activity factor (see below)

Your activity factor reflects your level of physical activity (as defined below by the American Cancer Society):

Sedentary (activity factor, 1.2): Activities of daily living only (dressing, cooking, walking to and from the car, etc.). No purposeful exercise.

Light Activity (1.375): Activities of daily living, plus the equivalent of walking 2 miles (or about 4,000 steps) per day.

Moderate Activity (1.55): Activities of daily living, plus activities like brisk walking (15-20 minutes per mile), dancing, skating, leisurely bicycling, golfing, doubles tennis, mowing the lawn or yoga 3-5 days per week.

Heavy Activity (1.725): Activities of daily living, plus moderate exercise or vigorous exercise (jogging, running, swimming, singles tennis, soccer, basketball, digging, carpentry) most days of the week.

Exceptional Activity (1.9): Activities of daily living, plus intensive training for an exercise event like a marathon, triathlon, century bike ride, etc.

Once you’ve established your daily needs, you can cut 300-500 calories per day to lose weight at a healthy rate—by consuming fewer calories, burning more or a combination. You can find many tools online to calculate your calorie burn from different activities, including here, here, here, and here. Remember that the figures are merely estimates; the calculators don’t necessarily take into account factors such as your age (your metabolism begins to slow in your 40s, which affects the number of calories burned), BMI and the intensity of the activity.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 7:37 am and is filed under General Fitness, Health and Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.