Fit or Fat? Here’s How to Count Calories

Am I overweight or underweight? I’m trying to maintain my weight, do I eat just enough? Too little? Too much? Am I giving my husband and children enough food to meet their daily nutritional requirements?

These are the questions that haunt you, the average Filipino housewife, concerned about keeping yourself and your family in the best possible health. With the current emphasis on fitness, exercise and diet, the need to maintain a balance between food intake and physical activity assumes utmost importance. How can you tell if you have achieved what is known as the “desirable body weight”? And how can you regulate the amount of food you take in?

To figure out your ideal weight, use this formula prepared by the American Dietetic Association:

• For women, allow 100 pounds for the first five feet of height plus five pounds for each additional inch.
• For men, allow 106 pounds for the first five feet of height, plus six pounds for each additional inch.
  
• Then, consider your body build: is it small, average or large? The size of your wrist is a good indicator. Wrap the fingers of one hand around the wrist of the other, touching the thumb to the middle finger. If fingers just touch, your probably of average build. If they overlap, your frame is small. Subtract 10 per cent for your ideal weight. If they don’t quite touch, you have a large frame – add 10 per cent.

Now that you know your ideal body weight, how do you figure out your caloric requirements? Your caloric needs at any given time are based on two components. The first, which you can’t change, is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – that is the calories you need in order to carry out vital body functions (heartbeats, breathing). The second component, which you can control, depends on the amount of energy you need for the day’s physical activities.

Here’s how to calculate your caloric requirements:

To maintain your present weight, (assuming your present weight is your ideal body weight)

Present weight _____ x 10 = _____ which is your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Multiply BMR by your activity factor (see calorie-expenditure chart to help you select the right one):

• 1.3 if sedentary/light
  
• ]1.5 if moderate/active
  
• 2.0 if vigorous/strenuous
  

_____(BMR) x _____ (activity factor) = _____ daily maintenance level calories.

Example: a 140-pound woman who is sedentary
140 (current weight) x 10 = 1400 (BMR)
1400 x 1.3 (activity factor) = 1820 (maintenance-level calories).

To lose one pound a week, subtract 500 calories from the maintenance level calories. To lose tow pounds, subtract 1000. The woman in our example should take in no more than 1320 calories a day to lose one pound a week.

To give you an idea of what this means, here are the caloric equivalents of certain foods: 1/2/ cup cooked packed white rice – 100; 150 grams cooked spareribs – 790; one slice white bread – 50; 4 ounces corned beef - 420; one cup black coffee – 0 to 5; and one Big Mac – 563.