To calculate your own personal daily caloric needs, the Harris Benedict Equation is the most accurate way of doing so.

Women

Multiply your weight in pounds times 4.3

Multiply your height in inches times 4.7

Add these two numbers together and add 655 to them.

Multiply your age in years by 4.7 and subtract them from number you got above. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate.

MEN

Multiply your weight in pounds by 6.3

Multiply your height in inches by 12.9

Add these two numbers together and add 66 to that.

Multiply your age in years by 4.7 and subtract from the number you got above. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate.

WOMEN & MEN

Multiply your basal metabolic rate by the number that corresponds with your activity level.

• Sedentary: Do not exercise at all and sit at your job all day, multiply times 1.2
  
• Somewhat active: Exercise 2-3 times a week or walk while on your job, multiply times 1.375
  
• Moderately active: Exercise 5-6 days a week, multiply times 1.55
  
• Active: Exercise every day and are active at your job, multiply times 1.725
  
• Strenuous: Exercise every day and are extremely active all day, multiply times 1.9
  

This is the number of calories you need per day to maintain that weight.

So, if you know the weight you *want* to maintain, use that weight in your original calculations.

I found it interesting that to maintain the weight I want to be (140) vs the weight I am (232), there is only a difference of about 500 calories per day...if my activity level remains the same.

The problem for me is that I only need 2033 calories to maintain my 'current' weight, given my height, age and activity level. Good grief...that's like one McDonald's meal. No wonder I've struggled with my weight!

Crud. Now I have to decide whether I want to starve myself the rest of my life...or become a lot more active than I want to be.

.

Thank You. Very helpful.

To calculate your own personal daily caloric needs, the Harris Benedict Equation is the most accurate way of doing so.

Women

Multiply your weight in pounds times 4.3

Multiply your height in inches times 4.7

Add these two numbers together and add 655 to them.

Multiply your age in years by 4.7 and subtract them from number you got above. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate.

MEN

Multiply your weight in pounds by 6.3

Multiply your height in inches by 12.9

Add these two numbers together and add 66 to that.

Multiply your age in years by 4.7 and subtract from the number you got above. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate.

Or you can just go to this page and enter a couple of numbers: Basal Metabolic Rate : Calculators : Discovery Health

Then do the stuff below.

WOMEN & MEN

Multiply your basal metabolic rate by the number that corresponds with your activity level.

• Sedentary: Do not exercise at all and sit at your job all day, multiply times 1.2
  
• Somewhat active: Exercise 2-3 times a week or walk while on your job, multiply times 1.375
  
• Moderately active: Exercise 5-6 days a week, multiply times 1.55
  
• Active: Exercise every day and are active at your job, multiply times 1.725
  
• Strenuous: Exercise every day and are extremely active all day, multiply times 1.9
  

This is the number of calories you need per day to maintain that weight.

So, if you know the weight you *want* to maintain, use that weight in your original calculations.

Or you can invest in a Bodybugg or Go Fit Wear and it will do all of this for you giving you more time to exercise.

No matter how you get your final number. Here is how to use it:

A pound of fat takes 3,500 calories to burn. So, every time you burn 3,500 calories more than you consume, you lose a pound. That's 1 pound a week if you burn 500 cal a day more than you eat.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true as well. You gain a pound every time you consume 3,500 calories that aren't burned.

I was just sitting here thinking about that. I have been tracking my calories pretty well and am getting 900 - 1100 a day. Even if I missed something and round it up to 1200, for my weight and no activity level (even though I excercise 3 times a week) I should have lost at least 6 lbs in the 18 days between my most recent doctor visits. But I only lost 1.7lbs...what gives?!?!?!? Do I have the metabolism of a corpse!?!?

Liz,

You've lost quite a bit of weight. Did you do it sticking to the same old routine and diet?

If so, your body probably optimized itself around that routine. You have to change things up and shock it a little. Exercise more; eat more or both.

Liz,

You've lost quite a bit of weight. Did you do it sticking to the same old routine and diet?

If so, your body probably optimized itself around that routine. You have to change things up and shock it a little. Exercise more; eat more or both.

The majority of my weight loss to date was before I even thought about getting the band. When I started seeing my surgeon and modified my diet (again) in Sept, I lost about a total of 12lbs over 3 months, which I had cut calories to around 1500-1800 a day and continued with my exercise 2-3 times a week that I was doing before. I lost another 11 on my 2 week liquid diet, and only 9lbs since surgery 12/22, most of which was during the first two weeks after surgery when I could hardly eat! My clothes keep getting more lose, but I am not dropping lbs, so I am hoping that it's that whole I'm building muscle at the same time as losing fat. I did have this problem when I initially started my weight loss journey 3 1/2 years ago...lost a lot of inches but hardly any pounds. So, I mean over all I'm ok, it's just being an accountant I can't help but look at the numbers and trying to make sense of why this all isn't adding up like it typically should...which is making me frustrated and making me want to give up like I did when I stopped losing in 2008.

I did kick it up a notch with my workout today and I had my first fill yesterday so hopefully things will start looking up, rather the scale will start moving down.

Edited January 23, 201016 yr by DizzyLizzy
typo

bumping for those interested