Confusing nested function (IF, LOOKUP, CHOOSE, MATCH)

Hello,

I am working on a spreadsheet that has a formula in that I'm not quite following the logic. I understand to a point, but not enough to explain it to someone else (which I have to do). It works perfectly, but I'm wondering if there is an easier way to accomplish the same thing. Here is the formula as of now:

=IF($F3<>"",LOOKUP($F3,$AW$25:$AW$33,CHOOSE(MATCH($H3,{"M";"F"},0),$AX$25:$AX$33,$AY$25:$AY$33)),"")

It is looking up the ages (column F) of each person and referring to an RDI (recommended daily intake) table ($AW$25:$AW$33), and returning the correct RDI for each person depending on whether they are male ("M") or female ("F"). The values for male are found in columns $AX$25:$AX$33 and the values for females are found in columns $AY$25:$AY$33.

Thank you! I know this is a bit of a messy one.

To use the vlookup, you'd have to use 1 as the 4th argument (or leave it out), since the original formula is a LOOKUP, it does the 'closest match' type.

Thanks a lot for the response, John. A short formula like that would be great. However, it didn't seem to work. I'm thinking that maybe it is because the age isn't an exact match (the values fall between a range of ages):

Captura de pantalla 2016-06-30 a las 2.55.45 PM.png

Any further insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the response, Jonmo1. That didn't seem to work either. I think it may be because of the issue I posted above. I appreciate your help.

If this formula works
=IF($F3<>"",LOOKUP($F3,$AW$25:$AW$33,CHOOSE(MATCH($H3,{"M";"F"},0),$AX$25:$AX$33,$AY$25:$AY$33)),"")

Then this formula would work as well (I added the If F3<>"" part, and the row #s were different in John's post compared to the original.
=IF($F3<>"",VLOOKUP($F3,$AW$25:$AY$33,IF($H3="M",2,3),1),"")

Jonmo1... That worked! Thanks a lot for your time.

You're welcome.