Before It’s Viral: The NIH Body Weight Planner
A new slimmed down weight planner from the U.S. government aims to make it easier to drop the pounds. The Body Weight Planner, just out from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), asks people to enter in their weight, age, sex, height and exercise level. Then it comes up with a plan of how many calories they need to eat a day to achieve their goal, and later, keep the weight off. Best of all, it’s free.
Besides the great price, the calculator is unique in the way it factors in your exercise levels. First, it asks you to estimate your level of physical activity from 1.4 (not much) to 2.5 (LeBron James). Normally, we don’t figure that stuff out when calculating a plan, usually just sticking to the calorie levels. The Body Weight Planner then takes yet another step by having you name your goal weight and the date you hope to achieve it. It even asks if you’re going to increase (or decrease) your level of physical activity. Gonna bike? Great. Light running? Expect the weight to come off a bit slower. The Planner considers every level and type of exercise individually and adjusts your plan accordingly.
The final step is to connect your results to SuperTracker, a a free food, physical activity, and weight tracking tool from ChooseMyPlate.gov. SuperTracker provides you with a free personalized meal plan. You can also switch to “expert mode” to get a step-by-step, calorie-by-calorie breakdown of how your diet will go.
So check it out before it goes viral. Preferably from the track, not the couch.