How many calories do you need in a day?

In order to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, you'll need the below measurements. Your BMR is how many calories you would need to live if you lay still all day.

Gender: Female

Height centimetres: 160cm

Heigh in feet: 5

And inches: 3

Height in inches: 63

Body Weight: 128 lbs

Depending upon whether you are a man or woman will depend on which of the below measurements you use. I have included an example of both male and female calculations for reference.

Ideal Body Weight (for my height) Calculation = allocate 100lbs for the first 5ft + 5lbs for every 1 inch over 5 ft

Ideal Body Weight (lbs) = 100 + (5 * 3) = 115lbs

Basal Metabolic Rate Calculation = Ideal Body Weight * 10

BMR (female - 5ft 3in) = 115 * 10 = 1,150 calories

Add 30% more calories for sedentary life = 1150 + (1150 * 0.3 ) = 1,495

Add 50% more calories for moderately active life = 1150 + (1150 * 0.5 ) = 1,725

Add 100% more calories for active life = 1150 + (1150 * 1 ) = 2,300

In order to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, you'll need the below measurements. Your BMR is how many calories you would need to live if you lay still all day.

Gender: Male

Height centimetres: 193cm

Heigh in feet: 6

And inches: 4

Height in inches: 76

Body Weight: 195 lbs

Ideal Body Weight (for my height) Calculation = allocate 106lbs for the first 5ft + 6lbs for every 1 inch over 5 ft

Ideal Body Weight (lbs) = 106 + (6 * 16) = 202lbs

Basal Metabolic Rate Calculation = Ideal Body Weight * 10

BMR (Male - 6ft 4in) = 202 * 10 = 2,020 calories

Add 30% more calories for sedentary life = 2020 + (2020 * 0.3 ) = 2,626

Add 50% more calories for moderately active life = 2020 + (2020 * 0.5 ) = 3,030

Add 100% more calories for active life = 2020 + (202 * 1 ) = 4,040

Having seen the figures, it's not surprising that I put weight on when I moved in with my husband. He requires almost twice as many calories as me a day!

How to calculate your BMI and what it means

The below is a guide as to how to calculate your body mass index (BMI). This is an indicator as to how healthy you are. Note that my BMI used to be 25, right on the cusp of being overweight. As someone who was a size 10, that seemed a little far fetched to me, even though I'm short. So this is just a useful indicator.

Gender: Female

Height centimetres: 160cm

Heigh in feet: 5

And inches: 3

Height in inches: 63

Body weight in pounds: 128

Body Mass Index = Body weight * 703 / Height in inches squared

e.g. Body Mass Index = ( 128 * 703 ) / 63 * 63

Body Mass Index = 22.7

This number doesn't actually mean anything unless you have a scale to compare it to. Below is the recognised scale for BMI:

12 - 18 BMI = underweight

18 - 24 BMI = healthy

25 - 29 BMI = Overweight (this is where I used to sit, at 25)

30 - 39 BMI = Obese

40 - 42 BMI = Extremely Obese

The ideal BMI for you should be between 18 - 24, however, depending upon your build will depend on whether this scale works for you. If you are a short, muscular man, I wouldn't be surprised if you came up on this scale as obese. Similarly, if you are a tall, lean woman, you may appear underweight on this scale.

When using BMI, I would recommend using the above scale in context to other measurements. These can be hip to waist ratio and body fat %.

5 Stretches that are a must after a run

My top 5 stretches for runners, post run - hold for 15 to 30 seconds.

Hip Flexor Stretch:

As we all tend to sit down for a large period of our lives, our hip flexors get very tight. Tight hip flexors result in being more quad dominant, resulting in hamstring and glute weakness when running. To ensure you can engage your glutes (largest muscle in the body) whilst running, this hip flexor stretch is a must post workout stretch!

- come into a lunge and rest your back knee and foot on the ground

- rotate your hips forwards, engage your core (belly button to spine)

- gradually increase the stretch by pushing further forwards

Quad Stretch:

- from the hip flexor stretch, come back into an upright position

- flick your foot towards the sky and reach backwards to grab your foot

- be gentle with this stretch as the quad can be very tight and the hamstrings can become overly activated, causing a cramp

- if you cannot reach your foot, do this with your foot leaning against a wall or use a band around the top of your foot

- as the stretch starts to release the muscle, move further forwards to intensify the stretch again

Hamstring Stretch:

- from the quad stretch, rest the back foot on the ground again

- slowly extend the front leg to straight (if possible) as you move your hips backwards

- keep your hips square with the front of the mat, if they start to twist, come slightly up and realign yourself

Glute Stretch:

This is one of my favourite stretches, helping to activate and elongate your glutes.

- come into a full press up position

- bring your right knee half way between your hands and rest on the ground underneath your chest

- your right foot should now be under your left hip

- slowly slide your back foot towards the back of the mat and rest

- move your hips from one side to the other if you cannot feel this stretch in your glutes, stop when you feel any tightness

Calf Stretch:

There are two variants of this stretch. The first is downward dog. You can use this as a warmup stretch for your hamstrings and calves by bending your knees alternately and trying to move your foot further and further towards the ground.

- come into a press up position

- press your hands into the mat and send your hips into the air adding more pressure through your hands until your legs are as straight as you can make them

- try to press your hands further into the mat and sink your heels downwards

The second stretch is dolphin. If you do not feel the stretch in downward dog, rest on your elbows and see if you feel this stretch through your calves.

3 really good reasons why you shouldn't stop immediately after running ...

Toxins:

As you workout, your muscles produce waste products (toxins). For these toxins to exit the body, they need to be pushed into the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system runs along side your blood, however, unlike your blood, it doesn't have a pump. Instead of a pump, the body uses the movement of your muscles to push the lymphatic fluid towards lymph nodes where the toxins are cleansed. There are lymph nodes throughout the body; behind the knees, in the groin, armpits, behind the ears etc. The toxins eventually flow into your blood stream and are cleansed by your kidneys and excreted out of the body in urine.

So, how is this useful? Well, after a run, instead of coming to an immediate stop, use the last 3-5 minutes to slow down from your run pace to a steady walking pace. This will act as your cool down and flush toxins out of your body.

A reduction in the toxins in your muscles, will help improve how your body feels post workout.

Blood Pooling:

Have you ever felt light-headed after a very intense run? This may be a 100m sprint or a 10km run. Your initial reaction is for your body to stop what it's doing, sit down and try to get some composure back.

However, this could potentially result in you feeling worse, rather than better. 

As you run, your heart rate increases to pump your legs full of oxygen rich blood. This allows your legs to keep moving, which in turn aids the movement of blood back to your heart (venous return). As you come to a stop, your heart rate rapidly decreases and you are no longer assisting venous return. This is called blood pooling.

Therefore, rather than come to an immediate stop after running, consider gently returning your heart rate to normal (60-80 bpm is the average for a healthy person) over a period of 3-5 minutes.

Static Stretching:

Flexibility is the foundation of exercise. If you cannot move, you cannot increase your endurance, strength or power. These 4 elements make up the pillars of exercise.

As you run your muscles are continuously contracting and expanding. As you lift your knee up, your quad is contracting, as your knee descends, it is expanding and lengthening. This motion results in changes being made to the muscles and over time an increase in endurance, strength and power occurs.

When you stop, the muscles are adapting to help you the next time you go running. As part of this process, you may feel you have less mobility after a run than you did before a run. To ensure that you maintain your functional range of movement, you should hold stretches for 15-30 seconds on each muscle group post run.

What should I expect from my first massage consultation?

The formalities - the masseuse will introduce themselves and ask you to complete medical history and personal details forms.

After you have completed the forms the masseuse will as you if you are happy for them to keep your data on file and if you hare happy to be assessed.

The masseuse will then ask you why you're visiting and start a physical assessment. This has 4 sections:

- posture - standing in your relaxed stand

- movement - identifying a specific joint(s) and any dysfunction that joint may have

- palpitation - asking you to sit or lie on the couch while the masseuse presses on the muscle

- functional movement - complete a functional movement that you would complete in your every day life

Once the assessment has been completed, the masseuse will write a treatment plan and outline what they plan to do. They will outline the treatment and any associated risks. This is your opportunity to ask questions and confirm you are happy with the treatment plan.

After the assessment the masseuse will ask you to either put on sports kit or remove articles of clothing which will inhibit the masseuse during the massage. The best kit to wear is a pair of shorts, t-shirt. For women, wearing a back opening bra will allow the most convenient massage. All jewellery should be removed and placed in your own bag for safe keeping. The masseuse will not take responsibility for any personal items.