Majority of us live very fast and busy life. We earn money and spend it to live a quality lifestyle. Office, colleague, home, family, friends, party, eating, outing, day end and loop. Hey, wait… where’s me and my health? To support all the other things in our life, we need to take care of ourselves and a part of that is maintaining a good health. Good health helps to keep the wellness of our body and mind. It is not such an easy thing to maintain. It should be a part of our daily routine.
To maintain good health, there needs to have proper planning, preparation, and enough dedication to maintain those. Along with regular exercise, good and healthy food habit is also necessary. First we need to understand some basic concepts on which health of body is determined. Health is nothing but a level of functional efficiency of a living person. It’s not only applicable for body , but mind as well.
BMI (Body Mass Index)
English BMI Calculation Formula: BMI = (Weight in Pounds / (Height in inches x Height in inches)) x 703
Metric BMI Calculation Formula: BMI = (Weight in Kilograms / (Height in Meters x Height in Meters))
The World Health Organization (WHO) Recommended Healthy BMI Range of 18.5 – 25 for both man and woman.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
BMR Calculation Formula for Man: BMR = 10 x Weight in Kilograms + 6.25 x Height in Centimeters – 5 x Age in Years + 5
BMR Calculation Formula for Woman: BMR = 10 x Weight in Kilograms + 6.25 x Height in Centimeters – 5 x Age in Years – 161
Total Calorie Needs
There is a formula called Harris Benedict equation to determine the total calorie needs per day. It’s basically multiply the BMR (calculated in above mentioned way) by the appropriate activity level (to be determined from daily routine/activity).
- Sedentary (little or no exercise, just daily routine) = BMR x 1.2
- Lightly active (light exercise and/or sports 1-3 days a week) = BMR x 1.375
- Moderately active (moderate exercise and/or sports 3-5 days a week) = BMR x 1.55
- Very active (hard exercise and/or sports 6-7 days a week) = BMR x 1.725
- Extra active (very hard exercise and/or sports & physical job or hard training) = BMR x 1.9
So if you are a man of 30 years of age and your height is around 6 feet (183 cm.) and your weight is around 70 Kg. and you are lightly active, then the calorie need of your body per day should be around:
(10 x 70 + 6.25 x 183 – 5 x 30 + 5) x 1.375 = 2336 calorie.
If you are a woman of 30 years of age and your height is around 5.6 feet (170 cm.) and your weight is around 62 Kg. and you are lightly active, then the calorie need of your body per day should be around:
(10 x 62 + 6.25 x 170 – 5 x 30 – 161) x 1.375 = 1885 calorie.
Ideal Body Weight
Now you need to decide if you are overweight or underweight as per your height and age. That also can be calculated (the best formula is debatable though for a long time).
J. D. Robinson Formula (1983)
52 kg + 1.9 kg per inch over 5 feet (man)
49 kg + 1.7 kg per inch over 5 feet (woman)
D. R. Miller Formula (1983)
56.2 kg + 1.41 kg per inch over 5 feet (man)
53.1 kg + 1.36 kg per inch over 5 feet (woman)
So if you are a man of 30 years of age and your height is around 6 feet (183 cm.), then the ideal weight of your body should be around: 73 kg. – 75 kg.
And if you are a woman of 30 years of age and your height is around 5.6 feet (170 cm.), then the ideal weight of your body should be around: 59 kg. – 61 kg.
Calculate Body Fat
Again you need to decide if you are obesity prone at all or not. That again depends on a formula (based on U.S. Navy method)
For man: 495 / (1.0324 – 0.19077(LOG(waist – neck)) + 0.15456(LOG(height))) – 450
For woman: 495 / (1.29579 – 0.35004(LOG(waist + hip – neck)) + 0.22100(LOG(height))) – 450
So, if you are a man of 6 feet height having neck of 15 inches, waist of 42 inches, and hip of 46 inches, then your body fat is 29.8% approx., which is a bit high.
And, if you are a woman of 5 feet 6 inches height having neck of 14 inches, waist of 39 inches, and hip of 42 inches, then your body fat is 41.8% approx., which is quite a bit high.
As a general, recommended body fat can be between 20%-25% for women and 8%-14% for men. But if you have 30+% body fat as a woman or 25+% body fat as a man, then you are obese.
There are approximately 3,500 calories per pound of stored body fat. So by theory to lose a pound of body fat you need to exhaust 3,500 calories from your body.
You can calculate your body fat percentage here.
Now you know your current weight, if you are overweight or underweight, your body fat percentage and how much calorie you should intake and exhaust. If you are overweight, then you should take less calorie than needed per day and/or exhaust more calorie than intake per day. As opposite, if you want to gain weight, then you should intake more calories than required per day and should exhaust enough calorie to stay fit. So now it’s much easier to plat your diet, isn’t it 🙂 But but but, it’s always advisable to visit a dietitian or a doctor to plan a healthy regular diet. Because it’s not a crash course, it’s your body and it needs regular attention and time, no shortcut or quick methods.
Below are some charts of food values in calories collected from internet sources.
Below are some charts from internet resources describing number of calories burned in a certain time span via various activities.
As said earlier, these information are only to help you get the idea. To plan a maintainable regular helpful diet, visit a dietitian or a nutritionist or a doctor. Because all these depends on your current sex, age, weight, height, fat percentage, food and lifestyle habit etc.