Thanks for the feedback.

FYI, body frame size is not a factor in calculating BMI which is determined from weight and height only.

Measurement of body frame size has not had a lot of research to back it up. The wrist measurement is based on Caribbean research done on cadavers. I don't have the reference handy for using elbows. I checked Met Life and they use elbow measurements as well. They still publish height - weight tables, but the ones on their web site look "lighter" than the last published ones I saw.

The bottom line is people think they can weigh more if they have a larger skeletal frame. The reality is most women are small frame and most men are medium frame. Whether you use wrist or elbow, vertical height is still a factor. So the taller you are, the larger your frame and therefore the more you can weigh.

Basically, in order to estimate body frame size, one would have to choose a site where there is very little overlying fat, tissue or skin on top of your skeleton. The wrist and elbow are the 2 most likely sites to reflect skeletal size. The wrist and elbow tables are pretty gross and should only provide an estimate of skeletal size.

The references I have says it depends on your body weight, duration and effort. Gender is not a factor in calories burned per minute during any exercise. So I will provide you with data for a male, 176 pounds and female, 137 pounds. The numbers are calories burned per minute. If you weight less or more than this, you can estimate lower or higher calorie expenditures per minute. Then do the math using the variables of your body weight, duration and effort.

Calories are:

• Passive, light effort (kissing, hugging) M 1.8, F 1.4
• Moderate effort (kissing, hugging, petting - fondling) M 2.1, F 1.6
• Vigorous effort (intercourse) M 2.4, F 1.8.

Actually sexual intercourse provides much greater benefits to both men and women (skin, vaginal moistness) than calorie burning. Besides, intercourse isn't like riding a bike or doing aerobics for a set amount of minutes each time you exercise. Hopefully you are not even thinking about using a stop watch. Just enjoy each other.

Congrats on the recent weight loss!

Have you tried the Healthy Body Calculator yourself to see how many calories you need to lose weight? You can customize your results by choosing the percent fat calories you want or whether to lose 1 or 2 pounds per week. I doubt that you have a large frame considering your height, but you can check that out with the calculator also by measuring your elbow width.

You didn't ask about your high blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar, but weight loss should help bring those levels under better control. Another thing you can do for yourself is exercise 30 minutes 5 days a week. Choose an exercise you like and ask a friend to join you.

If your mom has had 2 congestive heart failure attacks in one year, she does need a sodium restricted diet. Usually, persons with CHF follow a 1 gm sodium diet, but her doctor may want her on a lesser amount of sodium (i.e. 500 mg). What that means is you don't cook with salt or use it at the table. Also, canned food is not allowed other than fruit. Salted and brined foods are also high in sodium. You don't necessarily need to buy low sodium foods other than possibly condiments or salad dressings, canned soups, etc. which you should be able to find in your local grocery store in the "dietetic" section. A dietetic food is not necessarily salt free. It may mean sugar free or that one other ingredient has been changed from the "regular" food. The best would be to cook everything fresh and from raw ingredients so you avoid not only added salt, but also hidden sources of sodium.

I would suggest you contact a Registered Dietitian who can read your mom's medical chart to recommend a specific amount. Call the clinic where your mom's doctor practices and ask to make an appointment with a dietitian.

Each assessment tool of Healthy Body Calculator works independently of the other sections. Though, I have assembled these various assessment tools together in one calculator, the sum total of these assessment tools may not necessarily give you an overall "healthy" stamp of approval.

The waist to hip ratio is a quick health risk assessment for heart disease that health professionals can use in the field without instruments or lab equipment. It is a very gross method of determining risk of heart disease and is used when family history, physical exam and blood cholesterol are unavailable.

Unfortunately, due to the infinite variances among humans, you happen to fall outside the "hip" assessment norms. This assessment though should not be the only factor you consider in assessing your health. If your other assessments, i.e. weight and BMI, fall within the healthy ranges, rely on those results rather than the waist hip ratio. If your weight doesn't increase with age and you don't have children, your hips may never spread and your waist to hip ratio may never change to a "norm".

Check it out yourself on the Healthy Body Calculator. No matter what weight you put in, the calculator will result with your healthy weight for height. Remember to measure your elbow and the calculator will determine your frame size.

A healthy weight range would be 93 to 113 pounds. A good rule of thumb is a minimum weight of 100 pounds for all adults no matter what their height.

Are you referring to the Healthy Body Calculator? If so, it is not a survey, but a nutritional assessment tool that is based on nutrition science and practice, not my opinion. The results do reflect an accurate assessment. If you are happy and in good physical condition, then congratulations. Eat healthy and exercise every day.

The Healthy Body Calculator will adjust if you add your current body fat percent and / or a goal body fat. However, you are underweight for height (5'11" and 128 pounds) even at 9% body fat. At your current weight, you only have 5.2 kg (11.5 pounds) of fat on your entire body!

If you are competing in a sport, your low weight will be a hindrance. Even if you are a marathon runner, your muscle mass is too low for height. Why do you want to lose down to 5% body fat?

At your current weight and height, your muscle mass and strength is diminished. I would recommend that you maintain your current body fat, increase your body weight to at least 75 kg (165 pounds) through weight lifting to increase muscle mass. Are you comfortable with this goal?

Try the Healthy Body Calculator and find out for yourself. It will figure a healthy weight, BMI as well as calories / fat grams based on your nutrition goals like weight change or limiting fat. Check it out by clicking on the calculator graphic at the top of this page. If you have problems, please write back.

I personally do not sell anything, especially not diet plans or supplements. I do however host advertising for nutrition products and services that are based on nutrition science. I do not store your data from the Healthy Body Calculator, I do not sell the email addresses of people who write me and I do not send junk mail to viewers. Are you relieved?

Glad you enjoyed the calculator, as it is accurate. Come back often to re-check your progress toward your health goals.

The Healthy Body Calculator uses several nutrition science based formulas. If you are 23% bodyfat, you would not have gotten an "unhealthy weight" message. If however, you put in just your height and weight, you would have gotten an unhealthy weight message because your BMI calculation is in the "overfat" range as you indicated. BMI is a calculated health risk assessment based on an average (not lean) person. If you have had your body fat measured at 23%, you need to include that figure in the calculations.

If you would like your current body fat included in your calculations, you need to include it in the body fat section on page 2 of the calculator. You can also include a body fat goal and the calculator will refigure your weight goal based on your body fat goal.

So try it again and include your current body fat to get a weight range based on your current 23% body fat.

You probably over estimated your activity hours as it is the only subjective (your estimate) data. Or you are very overweight and don't need to reduce a lot of calories to lose 2 lb. per week.

Surprisingly, most people think that 1200 calories is a one size fits all diet for weight reduction. Not true. Depending on what your current weight is and your current calorie intake, you may be able to lose 2 pounds per week on 2500 calories. You would lose a lot more weight more quickly on 1200 calories, but you may be more likely regain quick weight loss or find it very difficult to stick to 1200 calories because it is too low.

Re-try the Healthy Body Calculator, but this time don't enter any activity hours. Also, don't choose to lose weight, just maintain. The resulting calories will be your BMR (basal metabolic rate). Now go back again and include your activity hours to find a calorie level appropriate for you to lose 2 pounds per week.

The Healthy Body Calculator is based on nutrition science and practice so yes, you can believe it.

Try Healthy Body Calculator and see for yourself. Instead of filling in your activity hours, just leave it blank. Your result will be as if you were sitting around all day. They try the calculator by adding in some activity times. You will find that your body burns more calories just keeping itself running unless you perform hard manual labor as your job.

Age is a factor in some of the calculations. For example BMI and Your Nutrition Facts, age makes a difference in the results.

I have yet to find reliable weight tables for adults graduated by age. Actually, there is little difference in "healthy weight ranges" between 20 and 50-year-old persons based on the research I have found. There is a difference among "seniors" though as there is a loss of muscle and bone. There are some "senior" weight tables, but the data varies among tables. When I find a reliable data set, I will incorporate it.

Your skeleton doesn't change that much with age other than loss of vertical height, which mostly occurs in the spine. Some loss of height is due to compression, some due to osteoporosis.

The Healthy Body Calculator results are derived from your data using accepted nutrition principles and practice. Your results are a valid assessment, which provides you feedback about your nutritional status. The bottom line is you can use the results to change your lifestyle and improve your health risk from nutrition factors or not. What you choose to do is your choice.

No I don't use the Metropolitan Life Insurance tables to calculate weight. Besides weight is only one parameter to determine health.

Most practitioners rely on the BMI. What was your calculated BMI and was it still in a healthy range at 195 pounds? If so, then ignore the healthy weight range.

Also, if you are aerobically fit, perhaps your body fat is on the low end, which would mean that your muscle mass is on the high end. Muscle weighs more than fat. If you know your % body fat, enter that value into my calculator because it will effect how your healthy body weight range is calculated.

There are a lot of variables to calculate weight. Guys get to weigh more because they have lower percent body fat due to testosterone. Females have higher percent body fat due to progesterone and estrogen.

You probably over estimated your physical activity, as that is the only data not based on physical measurements. Include activities for an average number of hours per week. Only include your exercise time based on your average number of hours / minutes per week. The Healthy Body Calculator is based on nutrition science and calculates accurately if you put in measured physical data.

Congratulations on eating a low fat diet. It is difficult to eat really low fat and high calorie because of how much more food (volume) you have to eat. The difference between the calories in 1 gram of fat (9) versus the calories in 1 gram of protein or carbohydrate (4) make fat a good choice for people who want to gain weight or are unable to eat a large volume of food. At 3,000 calories per day, you should aim for 130 grams of fat or less. This would translate into 20 fat servings. (1 tsp. butter or 1 ounce of lean red meat would approximate 1 fat serving.) At 5,000 calories per day, you would have to aim for 167 grams of fat or less. This would translate into at least 33 fat servings. While this sounds like a lot of fat, depending on the foods you choose, fat adds up quickly even if you don't eat food that is fried.

Your "true weight" is without any clothes, fasted (just after awakening in the morning with empty bladder and after a bowel movement), but I consider weight to be relative to time. Either you are maintaining, gaining or losing weight over time. So it is your choice to weigh yourself with or without clothes. FYI, weight charts that most doctors' use includes the weight of indoor clothes, but without shoes. These doctors' weight charts do not include weight adjustments for persons with amputated limbs or prosthetic devices.

I would suggest you weigh yourself without your prosthesis as the Healthy Body Calculator will adjust for any amputated limbs you indicate. Also, since prosthetic devices vary in weight, I could not include any prosthetic weight in the calculation. So your calculated healthy body weight range will not include your below the knee limb weight nor your prosthesis. Your Nutrition Facts will also be adjusted downward for your amputated limb.

You probably over estimated your activity level. In addition, your current weight will increase the number of calories just to maintain your weight which is the baseline for calculating weight loss.

Try using the calculator again and don't include any activity. This will be your basal metabolic rate or the amount of calories your body needs just lying in bed. Next add activity calories. Compare the difference between the calories you burn just laying in bed versus getting up and moving around.

I would think the 2000 calories diet you have been following seems reasonable, but 35 grams of fat is only 16% calories from fat which may leave you not feeling satisfied after meals. 66 grams of fat would give you about 30% calories from fat.

If the calculation for waist to hip ratio resulted apple shape, then that is what you are. You may want to re-measure your body just to check again.

Options to analyze your food intake are: nutrition analysis software, a Registered Dietitian who will analyze your food records, the diabetic exchange list or Food Guide Pyramid which you can use as guides.

All foods can be categorized into 6 different exchanges i.e. milk, meat, fruit, vegetable, bread, fat or combinations of several different exchanges. Or you could follow the Food Guide Pyramid which separates foods into the same 6 groups (fats also includes sweets in the pyramid), but pyramid serving sizes are based on nutrient content not calories, protein, fat and carbohydrate like in the diabetic exchanges. You may want to talk to a Registered Dietitian to design an eating plan that utilizes a guide like exchanges or the pyramid servings to achieve your health goals.

Either you overestimated your activity level or your current body weight is far above a healthy range. First, go back and check your activity level as it is the only subjective data in the calculations. All other data you enter should be based on measured values. Since body weight is the basis for calculating calories, if your body weight is quite high, then perhaps 3,400 calories may be an appropriate weight loss for amount for you to eat.

Your Nutrition Facts results depend on the data you entered i.e. your current weight and your weight goal (maintain, lose or gain). Therefore, Your Nutrition Facts are what you should eat based on your weight goal.

Record the food you eat and use Your Nutrition Facts calories and fat grams as a guide. Exercise more, at least 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. Perhaps you should see a Registered Dietitian who could analyze your food intake and make recommendations on an eating plan based on your food preferences (likes and dislikes).

Do you think you over estimated your light and moderate activity? Do you really exercise continuously at these rates for 10 hours per day? If not, go back and redo the Healthy Body Calculator. Unfortunately, most people sit or stand most of the day which is very light /sedentary activity. If you do exercise, how long do you exercise at the light or moderate level?

A weight loss diet should be planned at a level less than the person needs to maintain their weight. This depends on how much they eat and how much exercise they get. It is possible that a 3,000-calorie diet is a weight loss diet if you need over 4,000 calories per day to maintain your weight. There is not such thing as a stock 1200 or 1500-calorie diet fitting everyone's calorie needs. A calorie prescription should be individually tailored to a person's weight, food intake and exercise habits. Successful weight loss (i.e. losing weight and keeping it off for 2 years) depends on eating less food, exercising 5 times per week for 30 minutes and nutritionally analyzing everything you eat. If you want a customized weight loss plan, go see a Registered Dietitian.

The Healthy Body Calculator will accept a fat distribution down to 10%. I would suggest you try again and perhaps your fat, protein and carb didn't total 100%. If you change the fat, make sure you also change one or both of the other calorie nutrients.

Thanks for writing.

Well the Healthy Body Calculator will allow you to choose to lose 1 or 2 pounds per week. Re-do the calculator with that goal in mind and your personal calorie recommendation will be figured. If you want to change the percent of calories from fat, carbohydrate or protein, do so when you are on page 2.

Next you need a meal plan that includes your food preferences and a personalized exercise plan that works within your lifestyle. I would suggest you go see a Registered Dietitian for your meal plan and an exercise physiologist for your exercise plan. Both these professionals should be available at your doctor's clinic. Some health clubs hire these professionals as well to work with clients.

First aim to lose 10% of your current body weight which would be about 28 pounds. At 2 pounds per week, it should take you about 14 weeks. With each 5 to 10 pounds you lose, go back to the Healthy Body Calculator and enter your "thinner" data. As you lose weight, your calorie requirements will drop and you will need to adjust your food intake down as well so that you continue to lose weight.

Well why don't you try the Healthy Body Calculator out so you can put in your goals i.e. weight and calorie distribution. You should weigh around 149 - 169 pounds. You can determine your body frame size (build) by using the calculator yourself. Persons with a medium build should weigh towards the middle of the range or around 154 pounds.

First, there is no normal calorie requirements based on height alone. Your body composition and daily activity including exercise has a great impact on how many calories you burn. It is true that the taller / more active you are, the more calories you need to maintain your body. So depending on how you entered your activity hours, there could be great variability in the calories calculated. Try entering various activities and see the results for yourself. BTW, your Stairmaster routine amounts to less than 20 minutes when averages over a week. Do you think you may have overestimated your activities when you used the Healthy Body Calculator?

With regards to your weight, you are only about 10 pounds overweight. So go back and rerun the Healthy Body Calculator with your weight goal and activity hours included. I would also suggest you include weight training in your exercise schedule as muscle burns more calories than fat. Include a goal of increasing your muscle mass and reducing body fat through aerobic exercise and weight training while including a gradual reduction in calories. Weight loss that is slow is more likely to be kept off. Focus on increasing your strength while eating healthy rather than a number on a scale.

Your Nutrition Facts are calculated from the data that you entered using proven nutrition science algorithms. If you chose to lose or gain or maintain weight, Your Nutrition Facts were adjusted to include that data. As to how Your Nutrition Facts compares to what you are eating now, you would have to evaluate that by writing down everything you eat / drink and analyze your food with some nutrition analysis software.

If you are overweight, then your calories and fat are going to be higher because it takes more calories to maintain your weight at that higher level. If you are on a weight reduction program, then you need to reduce your calories. As you lose 5 to 10 pounds, you will need to refigure how many calories to eat as your calorie needs will drop as you lose weight. When you get to your weight goal, you will need to slightly increase the calories you eat to maintain your weight goal, but not enough to start gaining again.

Hunger is dependent on many factors, one of which is how often you are used to eating. Depending on the fat content of your last meal, you may not be hungry for up to 6 hours after eating. Fat keeps you satisfied longer between meals because it is the slowest energy-producing nutrient to be digested and absorbed by the body.

I would suggest you start including a morning meal to break your fast from the previous night's meal. In addition, if you split the calories you do eat into several meals, your body is more likely to immediately burn the calories for fuel rather than storing those calories as body fat. For instance if you were to eat two 500-calorie meals, you may not need that many calories. Any calories not immediately needed for energy would be stored in fat cells. If you ate three meals of 333 calories each, you would probably not store any calories in fat cells.

I would not recommend less than 1200 calories to lose weight and less than 1600 calories per day is probably deficient in several vitamins or minerals. Since you choose to eat 1000 calories per day, I would suggest you take a multivitamin. Read the vitamin supplements topic.

In fact, the Healthy Body Calculator does just that, if you enter your current % body fat and / or a goal even if you just want to maintain your current body fat level. Then the calculator won't perform the average body weight calculation or a BMI. Did you read the text on page 2 below the % body fat and on page 3 below the % body fat calculation that explains this?

I formerly taught sports nutrition at the university and worked with collegiate football and hockey players who turned pro or entered the Olympics as well as body builders. That is why I designed the Healthy Body Calculator to work for athletes as well as average people and body builders who have a lean body fat.

Yes, you are correct in your assumptions. Because your body fat is low the calculator assesses that that your body weight must be appropriate which it is not. You are underweight. Therefore no matter what your weight, if you maintain 8% body fat, the calculator will tell you, your body weight is healthy. I have fixed that exception. Usually persons with low body fat and high body weight have problems with these types of calculations. You are the exception with low body fat and low body weight.

The healthy body weight range of 144 - 176 assumes a body fat of less than 25. Of course, you could weight more than 176 if your body fat was low.

A doctor or a dietitian can assess your weight to height ratio. You are underweight.

Counting calories is boring. It is easier to write down everything you eat and then use nutrition analysis software to keep track of calories, grams of fat and other nutrients. It has over 18,000 foods to choose from and there are a lot of "entrees" listed and many fast food restaurants. Don't know of a good book for calorie counting.

You are a perfect exception to the body fat norm. You are thin with a low body fat. Use the calculator without inputting your body fat to calculate a healthy body weight, which should be 144 - 176 pounds. Ignore your BMI calculation as your actual 8% body fat may be much lower.

Yes you can weigh 145 pounds and still be 8% body fat. No you will not be overweight. Try your same data including body fat, but change your weight to 145 pounds. It will calculate a healthy weight range above and below 145 pounds.

To gain weight that is more muscle and less fat, weight lift to maintain your low body fat and increase your muscle mass while gaining weight. You can choose to gain 1 or 2 pounds per week and the calculator will determine how many additional calories you need to eat. Leave the fat at 30% of calories as fat is a concentrated source of calories. To gain weight, you will need to eat a lot more food than you usually eat as carbohydrates or proteins are move bulky than fat.

I would be surprised if your elbow breadth is 3 1/2", try measuring your elbow again. This time, place a ruler on a flat surface in front of you while placing your left fingers on the protruding bones of your right elbow, lay your elbow on the ruler. Then remove your elbow, but leave your left-hand fingers on the ruler. Read the number of inches between your fingers to get a better measurement. Then re-run the calculator.

Thanks.

If you are referring to the Healthy Body Calculator, it is not down loadable software that will run on a PC. But you can run it as many times as you choose from my web page.

Look for a stand alone nutrition analysis software that will calculate a healthy body weight, activity level and at least 200 exercises.

If you are referring to your Healthy Body Calculator report, perhaps you overestimated your daily activity level. Without any of your data, I can't comment on whether or not Your Nutrition Facts calories are too high. The calculations are entirely based on the physical data you input. The only variable left to your judgment is your activity level. Did you overestimate what you do in a typical day? Also, do you write down and nutritionally analyze everything you eat? You may be surprised.

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a calculated estimate of your percent body fat. If you were to divide the body, you would have 2 piles of either fat or muscle with organs and bones. A BMI or percent body fat less than 25 is considered healthy. Since your known body fat is lower than this norm, BMI will not accurately calculate your percent body fat. I would suggest you input your body fat data to the Healthy Body Calculator to get a more accurate result.

If you want to lower your percent body fat and know that you are 20.6, I would suggest you enter your current body fat as 21 and your body fat goal as 15. The Healthy Body Calculator will tell you what you should weigh when you reach your goal of 15% body fat.

Your current exercise routine would support a reduction in body fat. However, you did not say what you were eating and food has a great impact on body composition as well as exercise. If you are eating sufficient calories to maintain your weight, preventing weight gain and limiting fat to less than 30% of your total calories, you could reach your goal even without any weight loss. If you also want to lose weight, exercise is the only way to maintain the muscle you have and lose only fat pounds. Unfortunately, I cannot predict how long it will take you to lose 6% of your body fat whether you maintain or lose weight. I can only predict how many calories you need to lose 1 or 2 pounds per week. You can add a weight loss goal along with your body fat data and the Healthy Body Calculator will predict how many calories you need to reach your goal.

Probably the current best indicator of a healthy weight is the BMI, which calculates the percent body fat. General guidelines are posted on the Healthy Body Calculator BMI graph. A BMI < 25 is considered healthy, 26 - 29 overfat and > 30 unhealthy, but is age dependent. I would suggest you surf the net for Body Mass Index or BMI to get more information.

As to how to get to a healthy BMI, try diet and exercise. Diet to reduce weight. Exercises to increase muscle mass and decrease fat. Muscle burns many times the calories that fat does and keeps your metabolic rate higher for up to 15 hours after exercise. Basically, body fat just sits there, occupying space and storing calories. A certain amount of body fat is necessary though to produce sex hormones, insulate the body from cold and cushion the internal organs.

A healthy weight and muscle mass varies between individuals and depends on gender, height, weight and age. However, there is no reason that with increasing age, a person can't maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise.

Your Nutrition Facts was calculated on the data you entered and your weight goal. If you selected to lose 1 pound per week, then yes, Your Nutrition Facts deducted calories to include the weight loss. No guesses here. Healthy Body Calculator is based on your physical measurements and nutrition science algorithms.

The only variable you are asked to estimate is your activity level. Make sure that you have accurately estimated your activity hours. If your weight loss does not occur as expected and you have kept track of the calories you have eaten daily, you may want to go back and re-assess your activity level. It may not be as high as you estimated.

There are limits built into the program I designed to run the calculator so that people won't harm himself or herself. You seem to be eating a pattern like the Zone diet. I will consider increasing the protein percent to 30 after doing some research.

Thanks for the feedback.

Since you didn't include your physical data, I can only answer generally. In regards to calories, perhaps you overestimated your activity. Most people are sedentary i.e. sit or stand most of the waking day. Go back and re-evaluate your activity hours.

With regards to your weight, the healthy range calculated is correct. I do not know what table or calculation your doctor used to recommend a healthy weight for you. Since it is a range, did you pick the upper limit of a healthy weight for you or did you read about your body frame size relative to where you fall in that weight range?

Actually, fractions of inches or of pounds would not create a significant change on the result. So don't sweat the fractions.

With regards to your waist to hip ratio, perhaps you could re-run the calculator with 31" hips to see if you change to a pear shape. BTW your weight is on the low end for your height and you may be premature in worrying about your "fat genes". Your BMI is probably on the lean end anyway.

PS I designed the calculator because so many people asked what they should weight and how many calories they should eat. I figured people would like to tinker with the numbers themselves!

You and short people are the reason why designing a weight / calorie calculator can be difficult.

Since you know your % body fat, including it produced a more realistic healthy weight calculation. Congratulations, most people your age have a higher body fat! If you think you should lose weight, I would suggest focusing on losing body fat through exercise and resculpt your shape.

I am not aware of any studies that target big or tall persons. As it is, there are few studies that deal with people of any size, gender or age as to healthy weight to height proportions. Because of that, many people rely on life insurance height weight tables.

Test out the Healthy Body Calculator. The body fat section tells you how fat can be measured. Also look at the BMI section. You should be able to find more details by searching on the net or in your library for this assessment methods.

Unfortunately, if you are younger than 18, it will not do any calculations for you. So to see info about how to test one's percent body fat, pretend for now that you are older.

Also, have you read my nutrition topics like exercise, sports nutrition and overweight for more info?

Thanks for the feedback.

The calories, protein, fat, sat fat and carb are calculated using your current physical data and are not based on the old USRDA food label. If you weight changes, these nutrient amounts will change. Also, whether or not you chose to maintain weight, gain or lose, the numbers would also be higher or lower.

I will re-read the DV explanation and try to clarify. The remaining nutrients are the amount of nutrients recommended by the % Daily Value on the new food label and are the same for every adult. Actually, the new Daily Value for vitamins and minerals on the new food labels contain the same recommended amounts for these nutrients as the USRDA on the old food label. These numbers are the highest nutrient amounts from the 1968 RDA's. In other words, the % Daily Value should cover the nutritional needs of all adults, male or female for any age over 19.

Why not give the Healthy Body Calculator a spin and find out yourself?

Congratulations on the weight loss and exercise program. First try out the Healthy Body Calculator and find your healthy body weight. Is 145 pounds a realistic weight goal? Your body fat (same as BMI) seems healthy for a woman so your body weight at 150 is probably proportionate to your height. Your exercise program would provide you with increased energy so I would recommend continuing your routine. Have you considered adding weight training?

The symptoms you describe when forgetting to take phentermine are not surprising since one of the drug's side effects is sleeplessness. So when you forget to take a pill, your body remembers to sleep more.

Generally, when people quit taking phentermine, fenfluramine or a combination of the two, weight gain occurs according to current research. I would not suggest you rely on phentermine for a long-term solution to your weight as weight loss seems to plateau after 6 months. Long-term weight loss requires lifestyle changes that include reduced food intake, exercise and food intake diaries. Research has shown that a 10 - 15% reduction in weight, significantly decreases obesity-related illness. Is 145 pounds a realistic goal for you?

Here is something better. Try my new feature the Healthy Body Calculator. It will calculate your healthy weight based on your height and tell you how much of what nutrients to eat.