All about numbers

Last year, when I was trying (and not really succeeding) to lose weight on my own, I used various online calculators to determine my BMI, happy weight, ideal weight and ideal caloric intake.
(I know there's a blog post somewhere, I'm just too lazy to look it up. Sorry.)

Tonight I decided it was time to check these numbers again, minus the caloric intake since I'm using WW points.

Here's what I got:

BMI: 29.1 (which puts me at overweight)
Ideal weight: 118 - 159 lb
Happy weight: 148.1 lb

Well now.

It seems a bit obvious that I'd be happy weighing 148.1 lb but I don't feel like my body would look all that good at that weight. And 159 lb would put my BMI at 24.9, which happens to be the top end of my healthy BMI range. So that makes sense, but I still don't get the happy weight number.

Regardless, this also shines new light onto my goals. I wanted to hit 170 lb eventually; apparently I should be aiming 11 - 22 lb lower than that. And considering how hard it's been for me to get down to my current weight loss goal (10% of my body weight lost, or 181.8 lb) the idea of hitting these new weight loss targets is daunting.

I understand these are here for my health and to give me something to strive for. But I can't help feel a little discouraged by it all.

I was all ready to call 170 lb my happy weight, too.

(I used these calculators at self.com. Feel free to use them too, hopefully with more encouraging results!)

The numbers game

I've only been keeping my food journal for a few days but I was shocked at how many calories I calculated I was consuming each day - about 2,000!  This feels like a lot, but I wanted to know if it really is so I turned to the trusty internets and looked up various values associated with weight and eating.

First, my BMI, which is 30.5.  This puts me in the obese category.  My healthy BMI range is 18.5-24.9 and to hit this range, I need to hit...

My happy weight, which is 118 lb - 159 lb.  That's 11 lb less that my current target goal.

So this made me feel rather crappy.  I was all proud of my target weight and then my BMI measurement tells me it's still not healthy.  I know I have to lose some weight, so I decided to calculate my caloric needs for various weights - and suddenly things didn't seem so bad.  I calculated my daily needs at both a moderately active level and a slightly active level; even though I work out about five times a week, I don't know what the calculator considers "moderate" or "slight" activity so I wanted to err on the side of caution and have even more numbers for comparison.

So...

Current weight: 195 lb
Daily calories needed to maintain weight with moderate activity level: 2,880
Daily calories needed to maintain weight with slight activity level: 2,437

Target weight: 170 lb
Daily calories needed to maintain weight with moderate activity level: 2,511
Daily calories needed to maintain weight with slight activity level: 2,125

"Happy" weight: 159 lb
Daily calories needed to maintain weight with moderate activity level: 2,348

Daily calories needed to maintain weight with slight activity level:1,987

Suddenly, the 2,000 calories/day I've been calculating don't seem so bad.  In fact, according to this, it's not enough!  Now I'm not about to start eating a donut or three every day, but I don't feel so bad about myself now.  It's also interesting to note that 2,125 - 2,348 calories a day might put somewhere between my target weight and "happy" weight.  (This might be a bit of a rash conclusion.)

Anyhoo...after getting the numbers from the various calculators, I don't feel quite so bad about my goals, my eating or even my current weight.  Of course, the scale might tell a different story next week but at least that will help me know if I'm on the right track or not!

And if you're interested, all the calculators I used can be found here, through Self.com.

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Plank challenge update: 4/5 (still only missed the one day!)