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Successful training sessions completed!
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What Should You Weigh?
Your Weight is a Measurement of Your Health
All too often I see people set unrealistic weight goals without understanding what weight is. Lets clear it up. A basic measurement of good health is to be at a moderate weight for your height. Weight-to-height ratio is described as Body Mass Index. (Divide your weight by your height in inches) If you measure between 20-25 percent for people over 20 this is considered healthy. 25-30 percent categorizes a person as above healthy weight or obese. Above 50 percent is Morbidly Obese, meaning an increase in co-morbidities. I do not use this as the only tool to measure weight. People are highly individual and some have genetically dense musculature, or have maintained solid lean tissue. Others may have a large skeletal frame for their height. BMI is a crude guideline that should not be used by itself to measure a personal weight goal. The scale also offers a number. But this too can fool you. Muscle weighs three times more than fat. So a fit person may weigh more than an unfit person. Small, lean people can also be carrying a lot of unhealthy bodyfat. People on high sodium diets are often carrying humps of extra water. Start by taking a weight history. Tracking your past weight is a good tool to help you figure out your set weight. It is normal for the muscle to atrophy, which is what causes extra fat pounds to accumulate. Muscle atrophy occurs from prolonged lack of use. During pregnancy, after surgery or just plain being sedentary will cause atrophy. Try to remember your lowest weight after age 18 and your highest weight up to now. How do you fair? This amount should not be such a wide spread. Once you have strength trained to build back any lost lean tissue you can better assess how your body has fared in spreading around the weight. Body fat is a good measurement to track weight and this measurement should be used to set weight goals. The moderate body fat range for men over 40 years old is 20 percent and for women is 25 percent. Moderate body fat for men under 40 ranges from 8 percent during puberty, to 15 percent in their late 20's. Female adolescents range between 17 and 25 percent. You should note here from these numbers that men are not physiologically suited to hold body fat as compared to women. Added body fat on males comes at a hormonal cost and increases the risk of heart attack. Once you have your fat tested, and it exceeds the amounts here, multiply the excess percentage by your weight and you have your body fat weight loss goal. Example: John is 44 and weights 210 and is 6 feet tall. He remembers his weight in college at about 175. This is his highest weight. His BMI is 29 (210 lbs divided by 72"). In addition to that he measures his body fat at 32 percent. If his healthful range is 20 percent body fat, than we take the excess 12 precent and multiply it by 210, which is 25 pounds. This would put John at 185 lbs for a moderate weight. Muscle gain would only account for about 5 pounds, even after a year of strength training. So a healthy weight for John would be to add five pounds of lean tissue and lose 25 lbs of fat. (Half of each pound of fat is water so it's not all bad) Now his BMI would be 26.4, but he's actually burning more calories because of his increased lean tissue and lost excess body fat. John may have been leaner as an adolescent, but his fitness and lean tissue are needed at this stage of his life. Now that he's exercising, 190 lbs is John's ideal weight. By using BMI, current weight, past weight history and body fat, you can determine what a good set weight is for you. Take your time to determine this number and adjust it as you exercise more. I know my weight when I started exercising is the same as it is now, 15 years later, but I'm four inches smaller and 10 percent leaner. So don't let the size of the numbers fool you! It's all in the exercise plan. |
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