Olympians press their will and their bodies to their utmost limit. They are flanked by coaches and technicians, who watch, measure and analyze their every move. The end result can be an act of amazing grace, beauty and awe You may not have a team of coaches and technicians who tape and analyze every aspect of your self-improvement, but you can enlist the support of online calculators that can guide you to reach for your own gold, which may be nothing less beautiful and awesome than fitting into your high-school jeans.
Your Daily Needs
Your body has certain daily operating costs. You expend a certain number of calories running your brain and body as you go about your business each day. Online calculators, such as ACalorie.com and FreeDieting.com, use basic information about you, such as your age, weight, height and activity level, to estimate the calories you need to maintain your current weight. This estimate gives you a starting point. If you are maintaining your current, possibly undesirable weight, you need to change this number by reducing how many calories you consume or the number you burn in your activities.
Short-Term Goals
You can't achieve a goal you never set. To lose weight, you've got to set some targets. The most useful goals are short-term process-focused goals, such as, "I will eat only 1,600 calories today." The calculator at ACalorie provides some estimates that allow you to set reasonable weight loss goals. Many health experts, such as the Mayo Clinic, recommend you lose no more than 1 or 2 lbs. per week. After you've entered your basic data, ACalorie estimates the number of calories you should eat each day to lose 1 or 2 lbs. per week, given your current activity level.
Long-Term Goals
You can look in a mirror and make your own call about whether you need to continue to lose weight, or -- to be more objective and scientific about it -- you can estimate your body mass index, using calculators such as the one at National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Your BMI is a measure of your body fat based on your weight and height. Scores from 18.5 to 24.9 are considered normal. You are considered overweight with a BMI of 25 to 29.9, and obese if your BMI is 30 or greater.
Simple Calorie Counters
Your target calories-per-day will generally be about 500 fewer calories than you presently tend to eat. You can get help managing your caloric intake by consulting food calorie counters. The simple ones, such as Calorie Lab, allow you to enter a type of food, and they provide you an estimate of the number of calories contained in that food. Calorie Lab also has information on food from many restaurants, so you can estimate calories contained in your on-the-road meals.
Calorie Tracker Calculators
Calorie tracker calculators, such as the one at LIVESTRONG.COM's MyPlate, estimate the accumulative calories you consume each day. You establish your own personal database, starting with your age, height, weight and weight-loss goals, and then you enter the types and amounts of food you eat. The calculator sums your calories across all the food you report to estimate the total calories you consume for the day.
Calories-Burned Calculators
You can also lose weight by increasing your activity level to burn more calories. Calories-burned calculators, such as Bodybuilding.com, estimate the number of calories you burn in various activities given your weight, the nature and intensity of the activity and how long you do the activity. Add exercise calculated to help you reach your weight loss goals; it will only be a matter of time before you slip into those faded jeans and step on the winner's stand.
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