The medical, health, and fitness communities rely on data to determine a person’s peak health and optimal weight. To make things easier to find, we highlighted some of the most essential tools and formulas and pointed you to resources for digging deeper.

That said, anyone who’s spent time in health and fitness knows that trends come and go. Further, these tools and formulas focus on large populations, not always matching an individual’s goals. New theories, tools, and approaches constantly emerge, so we must continually revisit and refine what we know.

Disclaimer

Before diving in, here are the axioms that drive our statement that each tool is a single lens on where you are in meeting your goals, not who you are. 

• Each human being is a different living, breathing organism. 
• Every health organization and government must try to set standards that are the broadest for all people. 

Also, we aren’t here to judge these openly. We aim to discuss what each is attempting to ascertain, how it tracks it, and how it provides insight into your personal goals. Now on to the tools!

Body Mass and Composition

So, like us, you are curious and want to understand your body weight and makeup. These tools help answer questions like “Am I heavy for my size?” or “How much of my weight is muscle, fat, or bone?” They do this by measuring parts of your body and comparing them.

• BMI or Body Mass Index Calculator: A calculator for adults to gauge if they are over-/or underweight. 

• Skin Fold Test: This test uses calipers to measure specific skin folds to determine a person’s muscle-to-fat ratio.

• WHR or Waist to Hip Ratio Test: Another body composition test that relies on a difference in the circumference of someone’s waist relative to their hips. 

• Dunk or Hydrostatic Weighing Test: This test uses your buoyancy to determine your body composition. It uses Archimedes’ principle to make its determination.   

Calorie Intake and Consumption

• BMR or Base Metabolic Rate: A calculator that estimates the total number of calories your body burns daily at rest. Rest means eating, sleeping, and performing normal respiration and blood pumping. 

• TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure: This formula is roughly BMR with activity added. That being said, activity is also not a standard because it is based on you and your current state of conditioning or fitness. 

• DRI or Daily Required Intake: DRI is BMR calories broken down into fats, proteins, carbohydrates, macronutrients, etc., according to the USDA MyPlate.gov standard. 

But Wait, There’s More!

We didn’t get into activity calculations, such as the RPE (Rate or Perceived Energy) Scale for perceived exertion, nor Bone Density scans, such as DEXA (sometimes called DXA), to determine body composition. Why? We wanted to focus on those most available to the average person just looking for basic guidance, like we were. 

An Important Point To Note

Remember that post on serving size we wrote? Yes, take a look at your BMR and TDEE. You may find that you are not what the USDA terms the ‘average’ person who needs x calories daily. This is where most problems with weight management start for people. Once you have done some research, you will find your number.

Wrapping Up;

This post collects a variety of tools commonly used to guide weight and health management. Each can be helpful, but each has pros and cons. We aren’t here to decide what’s right for you, but if you choose to use them, remember to research them. None of these tools is an authority on you unless you fall into the exact ‘average’ they are targeting. Instead, see them as valuable tools, helping you shape and refine your approach to your goals.

The post The Truth About Fitness Calculators first appeared on Simplified Living Lab.

Many of us want control over our weight. Some people want to lose weight. Other people want to gain weight. When we reach our target weight all of us want to maintain that weight. In this post, we will explore one of the most simple concepts in weight management. What we want you to walk away with is an understanding of a couple of really easy concepts to keep in mind the next time you think about your weight goals and meal planning

Consider the Following Traditional Axioms

The formula to gain weight is (Ci > Cn) * t == Wg. If you continually ingest (Ci) more calories than your body needs (Cn), over time (t), your body will store some of those. That is how you gain weight (Wg).

The formula to lose weight is (Ci < Cn) * t == Wl. If you continually ingest (Ci) fewer calories than your body needs (Cn), over time (t), your body will use what it stores to supplement those calories. That is how you lose weight (Wl).

The formula to maintain your current weight is (Ci == Cn) * t == Wm. If you continually ingest (Ci) the same calories that your body needs (Cn), over time (t), your body will remain in balance. That is how you maintain your weight (Wm).

That’s a VERY Broad Generalization

Those statements are very broad and sweeping. In reality, there are many factors to calculate how and why we gain or lose weight. We can’t start with all the nuances though. It is the nuances that take time to understand as they are based on your body and goals, not anyone else’s. This is also why so many people struggle with weight management.

Also, these axioms do not hold 100% true when applied to single forms of nutrition. Getting all of your daily 2,000 calories from bread is not going to have the same outcomes as eating 2,000 calories from fish. Here we need to make some assumptions at the beginning of our journey. These calories come from balanced sources including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

We will revisit these nuances later in our journey because they are important. Right now there are so many they will become distractions.

Your Understanding of Yourself Is Key

Understanding what our bodies need in terms of calories to manage our weight is key. Everyone is so different with different lifestyles, body sizes, and genetics. You may be a male competitive gamer in your teens that incurs long periods of sitting. At the opposite end of the spectrum, may be competitive bodybuilding women over 50. You may drive a truck for a living. Someone else’s vocation may be a logger. Everyone requires something different calorie-wise.

Where to start then with the axioms? Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. BMR is a calculation based on height, weight, gender assigned at birth, and activity level. The calories it calculates are what your body needs to survive (pump blood, breathe, etc.) plus the calories you need for the amount of physical activity you do.

How to Use the BMR

You must decide how to manage your intake to get the gains you want. For me, and my timelines, to reduce my weight I started with reducing by 1000 calories a day from roughly 2700 to 1700 to drop a pound a week. That turned into a roller-coaster ride of false starts and stops. It wasn’t sustainable. I would find out later that this was more about not being truly honest with what my intake and exercise levels were.

In the spirit of honesty that we learned the hard way, here is a link to what activity is and isn’t.

The key is time and consistency. You should keep a daily log of what you eat calorie-wise. You should pick a realistic amount under/over your BMR + adjusted calorie needs for activity. Too little and you won’t see enough change. Too much and it won’t be sustainable. This also means weighing yourself regularly.

Learn to Experiment

One thing we feel is an important thing to make this work for you. Think of it as an experiment, not something that is one-and-done. You gather data and look at it. There is no failure. If something isn’t working, change one thing, and re-evaluate in a week. Did that change help? If not, that is simply more data, not a failure. Experiment, collect data, evaluate, learn, and experiment again until something changes. In that change, you will see what works for you.

At this point, you have the tools to understand how to gain, lose, or maintain your weight. These equations were the spark of a bigger journey and life change for us. They were the realization that some of the most complicated things could be simplified and distilled.

After many years of trial and error, we started making powerful connections to other parts of our lives we could simplify through some basic research, understanding, and taking actionable steps based on the outcomes we wanted.

The post Managing Weight Is Easy Math first appeared on Simplified Living Lab.