Your Ideal Weight

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Your Ideal Weight
11
Thu, 06-08-2006 - 7:42am

I found this article on 'finding your ideal weight' and thought it went well with the current discussion on BMI;


Each month iVillage poses a different question to our Dream Team of experts. Here's what we asked this month: How do I determine the true ideal weight for my body?


Lynn Grieger, RD, CDE


The current method of determining a healthy body weight is to use the Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator. BMI is based on height and weight and is used to determine health risks from weighing too little or too much. A BMI less than 18.5 is considered underweight, 18.6 to 24.9 is a healthy weight range and greater than 25 is overweight. For a 5'5" woman, a healthy weight range is 112-150 pounds. Obviously, that's a big spread of weights to deal with. Figure out where you should fall within this range by taking into account your activity levels and eating habits. Are you generally following the healthy eating recommendations at MyPyramid.gov? Also, look at your weight history. Women who generally weigh at the top end of the healthy range might find it extremely difficult to diet down to the lower end. As long as your weight falls within this healthy BMI range, there isn't any advantage to weighing at the lower end.


Jonny Bowden, MA, CN, CNS


I can give you a general formula, but neither of us would be happy with it. Here's why: The look of your body and the performance you get from it has a lot more to do with body composition than with weight. It's perfectly possible to be "overfat" and underweight, and it's perfectly possible to be a gorgeous hunk of shining muscle and be technically "overweight" (most of the athletes you see in the Olympics are way over what that general formula would say is the "right" weight). That's because general formulas don't take into account muscle versus fat. They also don't take into account the significant leeway of individual differences. There's quite a range of weights over and under the "perfect number" at which you can be really, really healthy and really, really gorgeous.


That said, since I know you want a general number anyway, a good guide is 100 pounds for 5 feet, and 5 pounds per inch above 5 feet. So, for example, 5'5" would be 125 pounds. I still think you should do a plus-or-minus 10-15 pounds from that number, but there you have it.


Liz Neporent, MA


You may have some weight in your mind that triggers thoughts like, "Uh oh, I'm getting fat!" But assessing your plumpness is not as simple as stepping on a scale. For one thing, your weight doesn't reveal how much of your body consists of fat (as opposed to, say, muscle, bones, blood and organs). It's body fat ‑- not total body weight ‑- that plays a significant role in disease risk. A very rough way to estimate whether you have too much fat is to determine your BMI, which is a measure of your weight relative to your height ‑- a rough gauge of how "fat" you are. You determine BMI with a BMI calculator.


A more precise way to gauge your body fat is to have it tested by a professional who will most likely use a device known as calipers to pinch you in certain areas and then calculate your body fat percentage. Ideally women should strive to be 16 to 26 percent body fat, and men should aim for 12 to 20 percent.


However, neither your BMI nor your body-fat percentage tells you anything about the location of your body fat ‑- a more important indicator of disease risk than total fat. Fat in the abdominal region, clumped around your internal organs, poses a more serious threat than fat in your hips and thighs; in fact, research suggests saddlebags may even offer some protection against cardiovascular disease. If you're a woman, a waist measurement over 35 inches puts you at greater health risk, according to the National Institutes of Health. For men, the critical number is 40 inches.


Finally, you need to consider other clues that may put your health at risk, including high blood pressure, high levels of LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol), low levels of HDL (the "good" cholesterol), high triglycerides (fat in your bloodstream), high blood glucose levels, physical inactivity, cigarette smoking and a family history of premature heart disease.


Your weight might give you a rough sense of whether you're heading in a healthy or unhealthy direction, but it's important to consider the whole picture. If one measure is out of whack but the others are in the healthy range, you're probably okay. But if they're all on the high side, that's an indication you need to make some lifestyle changes. Your physician can help you put each measurement in perspective and assess your risk for developing obesity-related diseases.


http://diet.ivillage.com/measure/mweight/0,,96nt09sq,00.html?dst=rss|iv_today

~IslandGirl



Moderation IS Key!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-04-2003
Fri, 06-09-2006 - 10:59am

I know sometime last year I had a fitness evaluation that did the testing with the calipers and I know I was a bit shocked, so I'm going to go and find out those papers again and do some calculations using the chart and the body fat percentage to figure out what I need to get down to, to be healthy with a good body fat percentage.


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