One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to lose weight & get in better shape.  With alot of help from Laura, I’m starting to do alot better.  My biggest problem has always been in simply figuring out if what you’re doing is helping.  Sure, everyone says "Eat less, exercise more" but never how much less or more.  I can run on the treadmill until my knees give out, but I feel like I never lose any weight.  I can fast for 3 days and again, feel like I’m not losing any weight.  So how does one know?

Given that I’m an engineer by training and geek by trade, numbers make everything make sense.  To that means, I discovered the Harris-Benedict equations and the Basal Metabolic Rate formula.  It’s a simple formula that computes the number of calories you burn in a day doing nothing based on your age, weight, and height.  That number can be used as a maximum for daily calorie intake.  When I run those numbers, I come up with roughly 3000 calories a day so when I look and see something is 100 calories or 500 calories, I know how much of my "daily allotment" I’m using up.  It makes things alot easier to keep straight in  your head, and gives you a target to aim for.

Also, I decided to go ahead and script it up and throw it up on my website.  If you look up top you’ll see a new "Scripts" link with a link to the "BMR & Caloric Intake Calculator".  Hope you like it :) [tag:exercise][tag:health][tag:bmr][tag:calorie][tag:diet]

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