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Lifestyle Calculators

Lifestyle calculators can be useful decision-making tools.  Some forecast the consequences of factors beyond our control; those in this tutorial show the effects of our lifestyle choices.   This VCC resource will evolve over time.  New lifestyle calculators may be added; others deleted.  Additional contextual information will appear on this page and/or on the pages of VCC programs under development that use these tools.  Although lifestyle calculators may include all variables relevant to some people, they inevitably exclude some variables relevant to all people.  Thus, neither the VCC nor ASU endorse them, nor should they substitute for consultation with a health care provider or other licensed professional. 

  • Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Calculators
    • Option one
    • Option two
    • Context:  Current public opinion strongly opposes drunk driving, but widely ignores the well-publicized standard of never driving after drinking because it precludes common legal practices such as a single small glass of wine during a leisurely dinner out.  However, driving after one drink per 50 pounds of ones body weight (e.g., 2 drinks for a 100 lb woman) triggers legal vulnerability as well as the risk of harming oneself and others.  BAC calculators offer little incremental guidance because they fail to include many relevant consumption variables, and therefore become unreliable for self assessment as drinks and time increase.  Hand-held breathalyzers offer improved predication of BAC, and are thus useful educational tools; costs (e.g.,) vary with level of artifact control.  Nevertheless, a decision to drive based on a finely grained “under the limit” breathalyzer reading cannot be considered responsible given calibration and absorption-rate issues, and the fact that impairment begins before the legal standard is met.  Municipalities are increasingly moving away from reliance on breathalyzers in favor of immediate blood samples to avoid later court challenges.  Finally, despite the well publicized legal standard of .08 in Arizona and many other locales, one can be cited for DUI with a much lower BAC, for example, in the context of a minor traffic violation; this nuance of the law is all but unknown to the general public, and the requisite legal defense is very expensive.  Given the horrific costs of continuing casualties and accelerating incarceration rates, ignition interlock devices will likely become mandatory on all new cars someday.  (Toyota already has the technology to detect BAC from palm sweat on the steering wheel and prevent the car from starting.)  Initial public objections will inevitably fade as historically happened after seat belt legislation.  Read more on BAC or on Arizona law.

  • Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculators
    • For children and teens
    • For adults
    • All ages
    • Context:  Body Mass Index (BMI) is a more convenient predictor of obesity and health risk than classic height and weight charts, but it misdiagnoses many athletes and is quite inferior to direct measures of body fat percent (such as underwater weighing) that require off-web professional consultation.  Read more. 
  • Calorie-Activity Calculators
    • Calories per Exercise Activity
    • Daily Caloric Requirements
    • Lose one pound
    • Resting Metabolic Rate
    • Context:  Research and speculation on why people overeat is so voluminous that the general public often loses sight of basic biological algebra.  The daily number of calories required to maintain ones weight can be approximately determined; eating more or less than this number by 3,500 calories during a given time interval will produce a predictable weight change of about one pound; and although exercise is beneficial for myriad reasons, the amounts required to rid the caloric effects of even minor eating transgressions is daunting.
  • Cost of Smoking Calculator   Context: A single tobacco purchase or smoking event may be inconsequential in the short run, but over time their costs may be dramatic.
  • Diabetes Related Calculators
    • Diabetes PHD 
    • Diabetes Risk Calculators
    • Context:  Lifestyle choices may increase or decrease the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes.

  • Financial Calculators
    • Appraise your home.  Zillow.com is a commercial site using large real estate databases to provide free estimates of the market value of a home from its street address and zip code.  Real estate groups, threatened by competitive accuracy, have initiated legal attempts to shut Zillow down.  Nevertheless, if planning an actual home sale, it would seem prudent to obtain a second opinion from a professional appraiser.
    • Consequences of marriage. 
    • Federal income tax calculator, forms, and filing capability (free if your adjusted gross income is less than $54,000; select the freefile link in the left margin).
    • Free annual credit report. This site does not provide a free FICO score; however, such can be approximately calculated here
    • Home buying vs. renting.
    • Personal finance calculators from USA Today and Yahoo!.  An amazing array of financial-lifestyle number-crunching tools.
    • Social Security Retirement Estimator; other SSA benefit calculators.


  • Heart Rate Targets During Exercise 

Copyright 2008, John J. Horan, Ph.D.