Your Numbers, Across Your Cycle

A few questions, about two minutes. Your Body Literacy Map comes free, by email.

Step 1 of 5

The basics

These four go into the standard equation for estimating what your body uses in a day.

Units

Age

Height, feet

Height, inches

Weight, pounds

Your training, and how you're handling it

Count anything structured: lifting, classes, runs, rides, deliberate long walks.

0 to 1 days a weekMostly day-to-day movement. 2 to 3 days a weekTraining is a habit, not the center of the week. 4 to 5 days a weekMost weeks you train more often than not. 6 to 7 days a weekTraining is close to daily.

Any of these lately?

Tick anything that's been true over the last few months. Tick none if none apply.

Periods have gone missing, or turned unpredictable Waking tired, not recovering between sessions Frequent illness, or niggling injuries that linger Cold all the time, hair thinning, nails brittle Training performance flat or going backwards

What's your goal

Pick the one that matches the next few months, not the one that sounds most ambitious.

Fat lossEating below maintenance on purpose, for a defined stretch, then stopping. The scale trends down over weeks, not days. MaintenanceHolding steady while you learn your pattern, recover properly, or take a break from dieting. Often the right answer after a long stretch of restriction. Body recompositionEating at roughly maintenance with protein held high and training doing the work. Slower, and the scale barely moves. You judge it by how clothes fit and how you're lifting, not by the number.

Where you are in your cycle

Day 1 is the first day of proper bleeding. If you're not sure, say so. Your numbers don't depend on it.

I know when my last period started I'm not sure of the date Irregular, absent, or I don't currently cyclePerimenopause, hormonal contraception, or cycles that don't keep to a pattern.

First day of your last period

Typical cycle length, in days

Where to send your results

They'll appear on this page straight away. The email is your copy, so you don't have to run this again to find them.

Your numbers and your Body Literacy Map

One email. The Map is a free 28-day reference for what tends to shift and when.

We'll email you occasionally. Unsubscribe any time. Privacy

If food or your body already take up more room in your head than you want them to, a calorie number probably won't help right now, and it might make things harder. This is a fine place to stop. The Body Literacy Map is free, and it has no numbers in it at all.

On its way

Your Body Literacy Map is on its way to your inbox. It's the 28-day reference for what tends to shift and when, with no numbers in it at all.

Your numbers

What each phase of your cycle does to your target.

Your calorie target stays about the same all month. What changes is how hard it feels to stick to. Hunger and water retention rise in the week before your period, so that week feels harder for everyone. It's expected, and it's built into the plan.

A note on the numbers

These are estimates to test, not targets to beat. Lower is not better, and going lower is the most common way this stops working. If the number makes you want to eat less than it says, that's worth taking seriously rather than pushing through.