A weight loss calculator can be a great motivational tool if you look at it with the right attitude. Whether you?ve got 10 pounds to lose or 200, punching in the numbers and coming up with goals and time lines can help focus you to the task ahead. In fact, a calculator is just one of the tools you can use to help keep you losing weight and getting healthier without getting burned out or quitting because you don?t know what to do next.
The Internet contains every kind of weight loss calculator you can think of. You can calculate your BMI, or body mass index. By entering your height, weight and approximate level of activity, you?ll get a BMI number. This number determines whether you?re about normal, overweight or obese. The lower the number, the better, though it does point out the numbers than mean a person is underweight, too.
The BMI calculator is one of the most common you?ll find, and one of the easiest to use. While you?re losing weight, it can also be fun to punch new numbers into the weight loss calculator from time to time to watch the BMI number go down. Especially satisfying is the day when your number moves from the obese range to the overweight range, or from overweight to normal!
Other types of planning and motivational tools you?ll find on line are calculators for things like figuring your daily caloric needs. These can be used in a variety of great ways to help you lose weight. First, figuring out how many calories you need a day just to maintain your weight is one of the best things you can do when you plan to drop some pounds. Everyone, whether they want to lose weigh or not, should know about how many calories they should eat in a day, just for general health.
One you?ve used the weight loss calculator figure your daily calorie needs, if you?ll subtract 500 from that number and stick to the plan, you?ll lose on average 1 pound a week. Subtract more calories to lose more, without going below 1500 or 1600 calories. Most people need at least that much for proper nutrition and health. If you?re extremely short and small boned you could probably go lower; but not by much. Remember, under eating to lose weight pretty much guarantees you?ll gain it back as soon as you eat normally again.
Another type of weight loss calculator that can be incredibly motivating can be found online, too. You enter your weight, and your goal weight, and it calculates about how many calories you should eat per day to reach that weight by your specified date. Most will even warn you if your date is too ambitious, and that it would be hard if not impossible to achieve the goal by that date. Some let you enter your goal, and they give you a date. This lets you use a weight loss calculator to plan and monitor your success.
