Battle of the Bulge check-in

Goal:
- Exercise 20 minutes per day
- Stay within calorie range per day

Pennies earned:
10

Yay! I am now at a whole dime! Can't buy anything with a mere dime these days, but I do feel like I'm doing okay so far. Unfortunately for me today, I might not be able to stay within my calorie range today. We'll see!

Something else I wanted to bring up in this post was something I had stumbled upon recently. It's a different way of calculating your "normal" weight range. Most places will calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index) to gauge if you are underweight or overweight. This other method is a bit more complicated and is just another gauge, like the BMI. So anyways, here's the method:

1. Women: For every 60 inches of your height, allow for 100 pounds, and then 5 pounds for each additional inch. Men: For every 60 inches of your height, allow for 106 pounds and then 6 pounds for each additional inch.
2. Subtract 10 percent of the above number from the above number to get the low end of the range and add 10 percent of the above number to the above number to get the high end of the range.
3. To determine where in the above range you should be near, with your non-dominant hand, using the thumb and middle finger, circle the wrist of your dominant hand where the bones protrude. If you fingers overlap, you are small-framed and should be closer to the lower end of the range. If your fingers barely touch, then you are average-framed and should be around the midpoint of the range. If your fingers don't touch, then you are large-framed and should be at the higher end of the range.

Note: This method, like BMI, does not account for a person who may be very muscular. Muscles weigh more than fat, so if your body fat percentage is low and your muscle mass percentage is high, then you might be considered overweight by these calculations when you are clearly not.

So now that I have an idea of where my weight probably should be, I think that my current weight is higher than where I want it to be. To lose weight, in the simplest terms, you must burn more calories than you take in. To calculate how many calories you tend to burn in a day, you calculate your RMR (resting metabolic rate) and add that to the number of calories you burn doing a physical activity, such as gardening or step aerobics. I found a formula that helps calculate your RMR:

RMR = 9.99(weight in kilograms) + 6.25(height in centimeters) - 4.92(age in years) +166(gender) - 161

Note: For "gender," put 0 if you're female and 1 if you're male.

If you track your caloric intake, you can see if you're running enough of a deficit to lose weight over time. One pound is 3,500 calories. To lose one pound in a week, you must create a 3,500 caloric deficit over the course of 7 days. Most healthy weight-loss sites recommend that you do not lose more than one to two pounds per week, even less if you don't have that much weight to lose, like if you're only trying to lose 10 pounds. Crash dieting will only cause you to gain the weight back later. The best way for weight to be lost and stay lost, is to make changes in your lifestyle.

Anyways, I just thought I'd offer the formulas I've found because I thought they were helpful to me in judging whether my weight-loss goals are healthy. Of course, I'm not just working out and dieting to lose weight - I also want to look and feel attractive! My fiance thinks I'm the most lovely person in the world, but most people I know, including myself, don't go through this for their significant other. Most people do this for themselves. I fully acknowledge that I struggle with my body image more than I'd like to and that it's a mental thing rather than a physical health thing. I like to think that I'm a pretty grounded person, but it's nice to have something outside of yourself validate that your goals aren't unhealthy for you.

Well then! May I continue forward farther than I fall backwards!