How to Lose Weight- Calculate Resting Metabolic Rate

If you’d like to know “how to lose weight?”, or better: how you can lose weight as a woman over 40, you need to know your starting position. I’m working with women over 40 and quite often I see them missing this important first step.  Your starting position is the amount of calories you burn right now when you do nothing, or as it is called “resting”. So to know how to lose weight you need to calculate the resting metabolic rate.

Once you’ve calculated your resting metabolic rate you can calculate how many calories you should eat less to lose weight. To calculate the resting metabolic rate is really the starting point in answering the question “how to lose weight”.

There is an easy 5 step process to calculate the resting metabolic rate for women over 40 (it doesn’t work for men):

1) Know your weight in kilograms. If you know your weight in pounds calculate your weight in kilograms by dividing your weight in pounds by 2.2.

2) Know your height in centimeters. If you know your height in inches multiply your height in inches by 2.54.

3) Calculate your resting metabolic rate by

10 x your weight in kilograms + 6.25 x height in centimeters – 5 * your age in years -161

4) Adjust your resting metabolic rate by considering your activity level: light, moderate of heavy activity. If you have a desk job and have less than 6 hours of exercise per week, you are in the light category- that’s the category most women over 40 are in. If you spend your whole day walking and lifting light weights (e. g. doing household activities and taking care of kids) you are in the moderate category. Nearly nobody nowadays falls into the strenuous category: These are athletes training daily, or farmers in third world countries working with little to no tools. Usually these people do not need to lose weight anyway and the question “how to lose weight” never come up for them.

Most women over 40 I’ve worked with are in the light category, if you are unsure take this category.

Adjust your resting metabolic rate by multiplying with

• 1.4 for light activity level
• 1.6 for moderate activity level
• 1.9 for strenuous activity level

And you’ve calculated the resting metabolic rate, the amount of calories you can eat every day to keep your current weight.

Let’s see how this works out in a real-life example: Sarah is a woman over 40 (45 years old), her height is 5’4’’ and her weight 170 lbs. She is working mostly on a computer, and meets friends 3 times a week for some exercise. Let’s calculate the resting metabolic rate for her:

Weight in kilograms: 170 lbs / 2.2 = 77 kg
Height in centimeters: 5’4’’ = 64 inches * 2.54 = 162 cm

Resting metabolic rate: 10 * 77 kg + 6.25 * 162 – 5 * 45 – 161 = 1396
Adjust by light activity level: 1396 x 1.4 = 1955

To be on the safe side, I’d recommend to Sarah to stay below 1900 calories per day just to keep her weight.

Of course, since you want to know how to lose weight you need to take the resting metabolic rate only a starting point- the amount of calories you can eat on a daily basis is determined by your weight loss goals (how much weight you want to lose, and the date until you want to have reached your weight loss goal).

Many women over 40 skip these calculations, wonder why they can’t lose weight and ask themselves “how to lose weight?” It is necessary to get some conscious control about the amount of food you eat and the amount of food you can allow yourself to eat if you want to know how to lose weight.

Are you a woman over 40? Do you want to lose weight permanently? Signup for your free, personalized “Lose Weight Permanently” program. I answer your questions individually. Click here now.

Recommended reading:

• How to Lose Weight
• How to Lose Weight – Conquer Your Obstacles to Lose Weight

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