Page 35 - The Skinny On Your Diet Plan

energy the body needs or uses, based on several factors such as sex, age,

height, weight, and activity level.

As their name suggests, these equations are just predictions, or
guesses. They’re based on population averages, which means they might

not hold up for people who fall outside an “average” range (such as people
who are much bigger or smaller, people who are extremely active, and so

on).
Even if we’re extremely careful and precise with our measures, and

even if the person we’re measuring falls neatly into the average, there’s still

at least a 5% margin of error. We also cannot know exactly how someone’s
body may change.

While it’s often cited, for instance, that we’ll lose 1 lb. (0.45 kg) for
every 3500 calories of deficit, in actual physiological systems (i.e., our

bodies), it doesn’t exactly work that way. Body change is complex,

nonlinear, and often surprising. Over time, as we gather data about our
progress, all we can do is adjust our energy balance and nutrient intake

based on our own measured results we’re getting. In other words: Follow
the reality rather than the rules. A.K.A. outcome-based decision making.

All we can do is just use the rules as a guide for direction.

Let’s talk about some factors to consider that could impact your caloric
needs.

Factors to Consider

These are considerations we make during the process of calculating for
our total energy need. We’ll go over them before we move to the next

section.

Our energy needs can be affected by some crucial factors:
1. Our goals:

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