Interesting Stuff, hmmmm

I'm getting back on the diet and exercise band wagon. Ryan wants to try to get me back in a bikini by the end of the summer!!! (ha, ha! not sure that will ever happen with the "birth marks" my girls gave me). Anyway, I was trying to figure out how many calories I need to have in a day to start dropping some pounds. Though personally, I'm more worried about appearance than weight, but I guess they go together. Well, searching around on the internet I found a couple of formulas to figure out a number. I just thought I would share my findings since it seems everyone is watching their weight these days.
These calculations are based on activity level. So if you don't like to exercise (but honestly you need to exercise to have a healthy heart at least!) you can figure out your daily calorie requirements even if you are 'sedentary'. Anyway, here are the formulas:

Sedentary: 13 x current weight = Average calories needed per day to maintain current weight.
(sedentary being no exercise)
Moderate: 16 x current weight = Average cal. needed per day to maintain current weight.
(moderate meaning you exercise 3-4 times per week)
Active: 19 x current weight = Average cal. needed per day to maintain current weight.
(active meaning strenuous exercise 5-7 times per week)

So, you find your maintenance number and subtract a number you are comfortable with...let's say 300 to 500 calories, and that's your daily calories needed to lose some weight.
Example....you weigh 180 lbs and you exercise 3-4 times per week.
16 x 180 = 2880 (your maintenance calories needed)
2880 - 500 = 2380 (calories needed per day to lose weight)

I guess the same formulas could work if you are trying to gain weight as well...just add 300 to 500 calories to your maintenance number. Not that I'll ever need to do that!

Well, today is my first day back on the wagon, so I'll post my results eventually to see if these formulas really work. I really think they should, you just have to be willing to tweak the calorie intake as needed to see results and also be willing to keep track of what you're eating throughout the day. I track mine on a spreadsheet...if anyone wants me to email that to them I will!