Losing Resolve on New Year’s Resolutions? MayoClinic.com Offers Free, Easy Tools to Help with Healthy Eating, Fitness and Weight Loss Goals

Rochester, MN (PRWEB) January 24, 2007

“How many calories do I have to cut to lose weight?” “If I exercise more, how many more calories can I consume without gaining weight?” “And what exactly is a ‘portion’ of food, anyway?”

MayoClinic.com offers a variety of free calculators and tools to help people find answers to those questions and stay on track to achieve weight loss and fitness goals for the New Year. No registration is required to use these tools:

Body Mass Index calculator:

Though some know if they are overweight simply by how they look or feel, a more objective measure — one used by doctors — is a calculation of your body fat in relation to total weight. It’s called body mass index (BMI). This calculation — a person’s weight in pounds divided by his or her height in inches squared — gives a fairly good approximation of body fat for most people. This calculator does the math. BMI charts indicate when it’s time to lose weight.

Calorie calculator:

Managing weight always comes down to calories in and calories burned. This calculator allows people to determine a calorie count based on your activity level.

Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid calculator:

This isn’t the U.S. government food pyramid most people have seen before. MayoClinic.com’s version emphasizes lower-calorie foods that can help people feel full, with fruits and vegetables at the base. This calculator estimates daily calories needed to lose weight and lists how many portions of sweets, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vegetables and fruits a person can squeeze in the calorie count.

Portion control for weight loss:

Portion size is the bugaboo that can put the calorie counts off the charts. A serving of pasta is one-half cup, not a super-sized plateful. A portion of meat or fish is about the size of a deck of cards. This slide show can help take the guesswork out of determining a portion.

Target heart rate calculator:

It’s not just what a person eats, but also their activity level. Exercising longer and harder burns more calories. But what’s “harder”? An increased heart rate is one measure of intensity. This calculator provides a target heart rate range, based on age, weight and some health conditions.

Calculators and calorie counts can help launch a weight loss plan. But anyone who’s tried — and failed — to lose weight, or lost pounds only to regain them, knows weight management isn’t easy. MayoClinic.com offers in-depth information on weight loss strategies, motivation and goal setting as well as recipes for long-term weight management success.

For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.com.

To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to http://www.mayoclinic.org/news. MayoClinic.com (http://www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource for your health stories.

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