This post is the third in what I consider a three part series on basic calorie requirement and intake. It is meant to reinforce this one fact:

It’s the total number of calories you consume that has the largest impact on your weight increase or decrease.

Yes, the quality of the calories matter too and based on your fitness goals (like weight-loss or muscle-gain), the types of calories play an important role, but the total calories you consume are still key. A common misconception in people is that you can eat larger quantities of low-fat/non-fat foods but the reality is that while these foods are fat-free they are not calorie-free. Remember you can get fat eating celery (you will need truckloads, but it’s possible!). In future posts I will debunk certain fat myths, but this post primarily focuses on total calorie consumption.

In the first post I stated the Golden Rule of Fitness Mantra and showed you a way to find out approximately how many calories you need based on your specific situation and in the second post I explained how it’s possible to determine pretty accurately how many calories you actually are consuming.

Using these two techniques, you can easily determine what steps you need to take (either increase or decrease your intake) to achieve either increase/decrese of your weight. But the big question that we have not yet tackled is: what is my optimum weight? This quesion is important because it will help you determine what should be the actual number of calories you should consume (you can use the calculator outlined in the first post but use your goal weight instead!). I will describe the steps in the end of this post.

Coming back to the question of optimum weight, alas there is no fixed answer. No one can give you a magic number and tell you that is what you should weigh simply because it is impossible to be that precise. And weight alone is often a misleading number because in equal volumes muscle weighs more than fat and hence certian active, muscular athletes might show up as being obese although their bodies are mostly muscle. The two better indicators are Body Mass Index and Body Fat Percentage:

Body Mass Index (BMI)

BMI is a type of ratio of weight and height calculated by dividing your weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in square metres):

From Wikipedia:

BMIThe exact index values used to determine weight categories vary from authority to authority, but in general a BMI less than 18.5 is underweight and may indicate malnutrition, an eating disorder, or other health problems, while a BMI greater than 25 is overweight and above 30 is considered obese. These range boundaries apply to adults over 20 years of age.

You can use this calculator to find your BMI (it supports both English and Metric systems).

Body Fat Percentage:

Body Fat % is simply the ratio of your body’s fat weight to your total weight. This is a much better indicator of a person’s fitness levels than the BMI (which are often subjective depending on a person’s frame-size or how active his lifestyle is) but it is not in very common usage since accurate measurement requires the use of machines that are only usually found in medical centers or gyms. The “Fitness grade” values of Body Fat % are 21-24% for women and 14-17% for Men. Slightly more is generally considered acceptable.

There is an interesting article that describes the ideal-weight conundrum. The charts given on that page should give you a good idea about what constitutes an optimum weight based on your height and “frame”. End of the day, you will need to experiment to find the weight at which you look and feel the best - no that is not an escapist explanation, it’s simply a statement that understands that no two persons are the same and no one weight is perfect for a person. Also, as the article describes, the human body is quite adaptable and so you can hover about 5 pounds either way from your optimum weight with no consequence.

Steps to begin your calorie regime:

  1. First determine the ideal weight for your height and frame using the article I just linked above. This is your goal - something you are going to work towards.
  2. Find out how many calories a day will help you maintain that weight. To do that use the calculator in my first post in this 3-part series (remember to choose “Maintain Weight” for the first selection). Now you have the target number of calories you will need to consume.
  3. Now that you have your goals calculated, let’s focus on the present situation. This time plug-in you real current weight into the same calculator from step 2. Choose “Maintian Weight” and note down the number of calories.
  4. The difference between steps 2 and 3 will tell how many calories you need to reduce per day (or increase if you are underweight) to achieve your desired weight. Important! Do not directly increase/decrease by the number you find in this calculation. This is only to give you an idea of your goals and the change must be gradual! Instead of “Maintain” try finding out the calories to “Lose Weight” or “Build Muscle” in that calculator. That figure is probably more realistic as a daily calorie count.
  5. Finally figure out how many calories you are really consuming using the information available online at NutritionData and using the steps and information from my second post.

Using this information, you will be well on your way to figuring out what works best for you and modifying the foods you prepare and eat to reach your ideal weight.

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