Simple (?) Question - What is my 'Goal Weight'?

Steve J · Simple (?) Question - What is my 'Goal Weight'?

Various posts on various fora seem to put forth the idea that your/my body will reconfigure itself from our WOE until it arrives at its ideal weight. With no hard numbers/calculated figures/etc. given it makes picking a 'goal weight' even less than an exact science.

Googling 'ideal weight' and inputting my height gives varying figures. Since I don't remember being under 200 lbs since my high school days (class of '83) I don't have a good memory of what exactly the various weights given (140-184 lbs seems to be the spread) look like on me. The lower end of the scale seems to be at Bataan Death March levels. The upper range, while seemingly low for a "modern" guy, does seem to be more in line with a 1950's version of me. Or maybe since it's the higher number there's less ground to travel and I accept it more.

So how did you folks arrive at your goal weight? How do you know when a plateau is a plateau and not simply where you're supposed to be weight-wise? Do you use a weight from the past that you felt happy with? Did I miss the definiative website during my Googling?

I'm in no way complaining as I've dropped almost 20 lbs in just over six weeks. Nor am I trying to plan when I should be updating my wardrobe for the summer. I'm just wondering how you arrived at your final answer. I'm in this for the long haul and my emphasis has switched more from losing the weight to actually being healthy and thus not reliant on the medical community during my golden years. The more I read "Trick and Treat" the more committed I am to the health aspects.

But still, I wonder. 43 year old male here should it help.

Bobi

The only "ideal weight goal" I know of is now ancient history and only related to the female gender.

5'0" =100 lbs.
For every 1" above the base of 5 ft, you add 5 lbs.

Just like when you are losing lbs., you will notice that for every 5 lbs. you lose about 1" girth.

...And that is ancient history!!!! LOL

Dean

Steve,

I have often used a certain number of kgs and a certain body fat percentage plugged into a spreadsheet to determine the amount of body fat I had left to lose to reach my "goal". It has always been an arbitrary number, just as any goal usually is. Most people pick something they feel they can accomplish, just to have that carrot and stick, and, when they reach that, they decide where to go from there.

I think the purpose of any "goal weight" is for motivation more than anything, and to track progress, of course. If you know whether things are improving or not, you can adjust what you are doing with food, exercise, and other things that would affect your weight and body fat. As far as where to get these numbers from, there are many web sites that you can refer to. I would advice you to pick the high range, just to have something to shoot for which is fairly easy to obtain, and then see what is what once you get there. Like I said, it's more for tracking purposes than anything else.

For many, once they get down to a certain range of weight and body fat percentage, it's all about that last bit of fat to pinch in certain places, and getting toned up, etc. That is where I'm at presently. I don't care at all about my weight or body fat anymore. I'm just wanting to firm up, build muscle, get ripped, that sorta thing.

Hope that helps.

Sunny

Steve J

Kinda what I figured with the range of weights being so large. So I'll pick a number near the top and do the full length mirror thing once I get there for fine tuning. I was more looking for an ending number to plug into Excel so I can make my pretty graph with the steadily plunging weight axis. Tracking/tweaking purposes mostly, as you said.

It's this guy ...

that got me wondering.

the length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height
the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is one-eighth of a man's height
the distance from the bottom of the neck to the hairline is one-sixth of a man's height
the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man's height

If these various two-dimentional ratios exist it would seem there would be a chance that three-dimentional ratios would also exist. And since a known volume of, say water, has a known weight (62.416 pounds per cubic foot) there might just be a formula. (I know we're built of more than just water. 'twas but an example Grin

)

Ah, this WOE is just too simple, especially when I only seem to need one meal a day. It's giving me too much free time to think of things like this. LOL

Heather L

I agree with Dean's post. I took my lean body weight and went for a fat percentage range that is considered healthy. There would be quite a bit of variation for most people depending on their muscle mass, etc. For me, my lean body mass (140lb)was already higher for my height than some other women's ideal weight at the same height. (5ft 6in)

I also think that ultimately, one will know only by judging how healthy they feel and look as they approach their goal weight.

jeff

Here's my take. Set a preliminary goal of the high end of the "normal" range for your height and body frame. When you get there, stand naked in front of a full lenght mirror. If you like what you see, then all is good. If not, then perhaps more work is to be done.