Help From a Fitness Guru

It bothers me to no end that I keep finding conflicting information when it comes to trying to find out what my BMR is and how many calories I should be consuming on a daily basis in order to lose weight. It feels like everyone has an agenda, an opinion, or some wild hair up their ass. I just want to know how much I need to eat so that my physical efforts aren’t for naught!

In my quest to find answers, I purchased Jillian Michaels ‘ book, Winning By Losing. Even though I haven’t watched the Biggest Loser since season one, and even though I know that these people are losing insane amounts of weight because they are isolated on some Fat Ranch, I for some reason, feel like I can look to Jillian for answers. I mean, have you seen this girl’s arms?

My newest purchase was waiting for me when I got home from work last night. I skipped the ’self section’ (love yourself, harness your chi, etc, etc, etc) and went right to the science portion where I encountered answers about my BMR using this handy equation:

Female:
655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x ages in years) = 1,968.4 calories

FINALLY. An answer I feel like I can trust!

But it didn’t stop there. Next came figuring in my ‘daily activity level’ score using five options:

Sedentary Physical Activity Level (desk job, other work that entails sitting down for most of the day). If yes, your score is 1.1

Light Physical Activity Level (on feet/walking around for 1/2 the day or more, e.g. stay at home mothers, salespeople, doctors). If yes, your score is 1.2

Moderate Physical Activity Level (on the move all day with a few limited periods of being sedentary, e.g. gardeners, carpenters, mail carriers). If yes, your score is 1.3.

High Physical Activity Level (constantly on the move with significant amounts of physical labor, e.g. construction worker, farm workers, movers). If yes, your score is 1.4

I scored a 1.1.

In addition to my BMR and ‘daily activity level’, I lastly had to figure in my exercise expenditure using a chart on the next page. Unfortunately, her chart doesn’t include an elliptical workout (not surprising, no one seems to count this as a legitimate exercise). Thinking back to the Glamour Fitness calculator I found a few weeks ago, I’m going to say I burn 400 calories using that seemingly fake piece of equipment.

Let’s do the math:

BMR (1,968) x Daily Activity Level (1.1) + Exercise Expenditure (400) = 2,564

After all this number crunching, my official AMR (active metabolic rate) is 2,564 calories! This number differs greatly from the number FitDay gave me by a whopping 545 calories (sadness in a hand basket). Those shameless bastards.

I know by now that a pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories (universally speaking). Using my AMR, I can now calculate with great precision how many calories I need to consume in order to create a deficit large enough to lose weight.

2,564 calories (daily AMR) x 7 days = 17,948 calories per week.

My goal is to lose two pounds a week, thus, I will need to create a 7,000 calorie deficit per week.

17,948 calories (weekly AMR) – 7,000 calories (equivalent to 2 lbs) = 10,948 calories per week.

If I were to divide my weekly allowance by seven, my daily caloric allowance would be 1,564 calories per day. However, Jillian’s book gives great advice how you can lose the weight while minimizing your chances of plateauing. She suggests tackling the deficit on a weekly basis rather than a daily basis so that you may vary your caloric intake day to day. Doing this will keep your metabolism from adapting to a fixed reduction. Yay!

I totally suggest picking up this book if you have a few bucks to spare this holiday season. In addition to learning about your AMR and BMR, Jillian explores something called Metabolic Typing. I’ve never heard of this until last night. After a answering a short questionnaire, I learned that I am a balanced oxidizer.

Oxidizer, oxidizer, I’m a balanced oxidizer, baby.

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Male BMR equation:

66 + (6.3 x body weight in lbs) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)