Nutrition...continued...again...

Ok, so we have asked our new questions and at this point you can clearly understand how complicated this whole "Fitness" thing is. Confusing? Yes. Daunting? Absolutely. But try not to get discouraged, it's not as difficult as you may think (even though we skipped a few questions but we will come back to them later).

Let's start at the beginning.

1. How many calories a day do I require to maintain what I currently have (Daily Caloric Need(DCN))?

3. What is my resting metabolism (Basal Metabolic Rate) and how do I calculate it?

If you look over to your right you will see a calculator that will figure out both of these things. This will make your life OH so much easier. Be as honest as possible on the questionnaire portion and the choose your level of activity from the drop down then hit the button.

This is what the formula for calculating all this stuff looks like.

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

I used to have this nonsense math garbage stored in my head until I discovered calculators for figuring this stuff out. Fun times.

This is going to give everyone an EXCELLENT start on figuring out nutrition. BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. This is basic resting metabolism. Respiration, cardiac function, eye blinking, shoe tying, all of these things burn fat as an energy source. BMR is the measure of that fat burn.

Daily Caloric Need (DCN for short) is the measure of how many calories you need to maintain the exact shape, size, weight, etc you currently have right now.

Subtract DCN from BMR and you will most likely get a negative number. This number is what you have to get rid of. This is where diet and cardio happen.

More later.

Feel free to post comments or questions.

Calvin