Un Vie Magnifique

First thing I did today was recalculate my BMR to help determine my caloric needs to lose some of the weight that I gained over in Italia. 


Here is the formula that I used:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
**This is specific for women**
This just tells you your basil metabolic rate, which is the amount of calories that your body needs to function properly. This does not take into account the amount of exercise you do each day. So in order to determine your caloric intake with exercise you can use this as a guide (found this online: it's just a guideline). 

• If you are sedentary : BMR x 20 percent

• If you are lightly active: BMR x 30 percent

• If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 40 percent

• If you are very active (You exercise intensely on a daily basis or for prolonged periods.): BMR x 50 percent

• If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 60 percent

Next step is deciding if you want to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain weight. If you want to maintain weight then you leave that previous number as what your caloric intake should be. If you want to lose weight (one pound a week) then subtract 500 calories from the previous number. If you want to gain weight (one pound a week) then add 500 calories from the previous number.
This is get your final caloric intake number. Yay! But it's not over yet! 
REMEMBER: this is the number before working out at all. So if you burn 250 calories a day, than perhaps you should only cut 250 calories from your diet each day to lose one pound a week. You should always take into account how much you are working out and add that back into this formula! 
 I decided to calculate my macros as well. I mean I've came this far! This is easy.

• Proteins: This should make up about 15% of your diet. So multiply your final caloric number by .15 to determine the amount of calories that should come from proteins. To get this down to grams divide the numbers of calories from proteins required by 4.

• Fats: This should make up about 30% of your diet. Multiply your caloric intake by .30 to determine the number of calories that should come from fats. To get grams you should divide the number of calories from fat needed by 9.

• Carbohydrates: This should make up 55% of your diet. Multiply your caloric intake by .55 to determine the number of calories that should come from carbohydrates. To get the grams you should divide that number by 4. 

For my personal use I said that I was moderately active, because that is how much I plan on exercising. So once you find that number you add it back onto your BMR. 

It seems like a lot of work to get these numbers, but you only need to do it once. Although I don't plan on counting calories and macros religiously it is always good to know where you stand. Also this is better than counting on those weight loss/calorie tracking apps, since they almost always underestimate the amount of calories you should be eating which can be detrimental. Those apps are great though if you like them, so just determine the numbers yourself and enter them into the app instead of letting it determine the numbers for you! It is possible to go into the settings and enter your own data, promise! 

Much love all! Good luck with the formulas!