In this paper we report on electron beam lifetime measurements as a function of scraper position, RF voltage and bunch fill pattern in SPEAR3. We then outline development of an empirical, macroscopic model using the beam-loss rate equation. By identifying the dependence of loss coefficients on accelerator and beam parameters, a numerically-integrating simulator can be constructed to compute beam decay with time. In a companion paper, the simulator is used to train a parametric, non-linear dynamics model for the system [1].