Doing the Math...

I can't set a goal without informing myself, so here I am, AGAIN, doing math.

(For someone who really doesn't like math, I sure seem to do a lot of it!)

IF I were to set a weight loss goal, I would want to lose the weight by our family reunion in July. And if I'm going to lose the weight by the end of July, I really ought to just plan to lose the weight by Seminar. =D So... my weight loss deadline would be July 15.

July 15... that gives me... about 15 weeks to lose some weight.

At 1 lb a week, that would be 15 lbs, and that would put me at approximately 115 lbs.

That would be good. I would be happy with that. I would be even happier with 110 lbs, though, so let's just aim for 110, since this is all hypothetical. Shall we? =D

So... to lose 20 lbs in 15 weeks, I will need to dispose of 70,000 calories. Wow. That's a lot of calories! Okay... so, 70,000 calories over 15 weeks is... 4666 calories a week. Let's just round that to 4700 calories per week. That means I need to somehow get rid of 671 (rounded down to 670) calories per day. On average, I burn approximately 1350 calories, just by being alive every day. The actual number is 1366.something, but I rounded down for simplicity sake. So... I burn approximately 1600 calories daily, between being alive and living a fairly sedentary life. I could easily up that number to 1800 calories a day, just by being a little more active around the house and sitting less. But for now we'll stick with 1600 calories. So.... I need to somehow rid myself of 670 (or 700, for numbers' sake) calories a day. If I eat 1200 calories a day, that takes that number down to 300. That means I need to burn 300 calories a day through exercise.

Goal: lose 20 lbs
Deadline: July 15
Calories/Week: 4700
Calories/Day: 700
BMR: 1350
Daily Calorie Expenditure: 1600
Calorie Intake/Day: 1200
Calories Burned through Exercise/Day: 300

I seem to always come up with the same answer, every time I want to lose weight. 1200 calories, burn 300 every day. I guess it's good the formula works each time, but somehow I always think it will come out differently. =D Silly me.

So... if I eat 1200 calories a day and burn 300 through exercise, it IS possible for me to lose 20 lbs by the middle of July. That's good to know.

Now, the question is... do I want to?