6a. Personal Info

The information contained in the Personal Info section tells the GMI Engine about you, so that it can compute your nutrient goals. These goals are based on guidelines from the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies (HMD), and are particular to your age and gender. Keeping this section updated ensures that you will receive suggestions that reflect your current needs and preferences.

Making updates to your personal info

You can update or change information such as your current weight, weight goal, your activity level, or create a custom calorie goal in the Personal Info section. Just click the blue Update Profile button to save your changes.

Updating your current weight

Updating your weight in the Personal Info section of the profile will also update it in the weight tracking section of the site. Keeping your weight updated in the system will help ensure that your personalized calorie estimate meets your needs.

Updating your weight goal

Click on the "Do you want to" field. Next, choose whether you would like to maintain, lose, or gain weight, or set a custom calorie goal.

If you choose to lose or gain weight you will be asked to set a target weight and choose how fast you want to reach your desired weight. Your target weight can be either a short-term goal, or a longer-range goal. Setting a target weight helps the system personalize your calorie goal estimate for you. To change the rate of weight change, click and drag the slider.

When you move the slider along from the slow to fast setting, you will see your calorie goal estimate update accordingly. Your calorie goal will not go less than 1500 calories if you are a man, or 1200 calories if you are a woman. Good Measures sets these lower limits because very low calorie diets do not supply adequate nutrition to meet nutrition goals based on HMD Guidelines. If you need a different calorie goal, speak with a Good Measures Registered Dietitian.

Estimated activity

Your estimated activity describes, on average, how active you are during a typical day, but does not include any time you spend doing formal exercise, such as going to the gym. It does includes the time you spend doing light household chores, at work, and in activities other than formal exercise. (Good Measures counts exercise separately on the Log page.) The best choice for most people is option 2, "some light activity while otherwise mostly sitting or standing in place (office worker, retail service, parenting)."

Click the word "activity" to edit your activity level. Your calorie goal estimate will be adjusted if you choose to change your activity level.

Calorie goal

Good Measures uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation to calculate your basic needs, then adjusts for the daily amount of activity you do (excluding formal exercise), and makes another adjustment if you choose to gain or lose weight.

If you would like to customize your calorie goal even further (e.g., for example, if you been working with a member of your healthcare team and have established a calorie goal that works for you), you may do so by "set custom goal." You will be asked to set a target weight and you will be able to enter your calorie goal.

If you save a custom calorie goal, it will override the goal the Good Measures Engine calculates for you. Your calorie goal will not be updated or changed automatically (for example, in response to a change in your weight).

Allergens

If you have a food allergy, you may customize your profile so that those foods will not be suggested to you in New Foods to Try or Meal Suggestions. Simply check the corresponding box in the Allergies & Sensitivities section of My Profile.

If a food contains an allergen you identified, you will receive an on-screen alert before it is logged in your Log. You will see a similar alert if the allergen appears in a Suggestion Source library, or before you accept it from a friend/household member into your My Foods.