ontd_f_i_t (original) (raw)
I'm not going to lie, I love food. I love cooking and tasting new things until I find a delicious combination, and lately, I've been trying to make foods healthy/healthier.
So now it's time for all of us to share yummy recipes that aren't so bad for your tummy :)
( I'll show you mine if you show me yoursCollapse )
Now it's your turn! What are your favourite healthy recipes?
The arithmetics of weight loss
April 9th, 2011
Here is some basic information about using online calculators to decide what a healthy weight range is and to choose a weight loss goal. This is probably not new information for you all so feel free to skip this.
I've been worrying about my weight for the last two years, and I started getting into unhealthy thinking patterns about it. My goals were vague and not clearly defined: "look like I did in college", "fit back into my favorite no-longer-comfy jeans"*, "be healthier", and "lose 40 pounds". Now "lose 40 pounds" doesn't sound undefined; it's a nice round number and it easily trackable. The problem is that it's not a realistic goal for me.
I'm a statistician. I love playing around with numbers. Yes, it's true: I make excel spreadsheets for fun. One day I woke up and realized that I hadn't done any real number crunching for my weight loss goals. I picked "lose 40 pounds" as my goal because that's how much I need to lose what to get back to what I weighed when I was in college. But I'm also 4 inches taller than when I was in college (my family has some... strange genetics). So clearly this was not a well thought out goal.
There are a couple of easy, quick ways to calculate what your healthy weight range is. Once you know your healthy weight range, you can choose a weight loss goal that is both realistic and good for you. I was surprised to discover that my healthy weight range was quite a bit higher than I thought it was. You may be in the same position as me, or you may be much more informed than I was and a more responsible, mature, competent person than I am. Hopefully you are. :)
Here's how you can calculate what your healthy weight range is and decide on a weight loss goal. ( Body fat percentage and basal metabolic rateCollapse )
Calculators
Online calculators make it easy to get the numbers you need. It's a good idea to check a couple of online calculators because they're estimates. When you use more than one, you're making sure that you haven't accidentally used a wonky calculator. Here are the online calculators I've used:
Basal metabolic rate 1
Basal metabolic rate 2
Body fat percentage
Body fat percentage table
Waist to hip ratio
Waist to hip ratio chart
Wikipedia articles
People make fun of wikipedia but it is actually very accurate, even compared to published encyclopedias. Its percentage of error is close to the Encyclopædia Britannica's (IIRC).
Basal metabolic rate
Body fat percentage
Waist to hip ratio
( And a couple of pictures for referenceCollapse )
One last note: do not use BMI to determine what your healthy weight range should be! Even the adjusted BMI tables fall short of the preciseness you want when dealing with your health. Just remember that BMI was cutting-edge health care when it was invented, around 1840.
* Why does Levi's insist on discontinuing all the styles I like?!
** I have low blood pressure naturally. It doesn't sound like a big problem at all but trust me when I tell you that randomly passing out/falling over is not something you want to deal with.