Ideal Weight - Who's Right?

G

Gizmo1

New member
Hello Everyone,

This has probably been asked before, but I have a question about Ideal Weight. I have started to compile information for my very own Weight Loss Journal. As I was looking at the questions, two jumped out at me.

“How much weight do you want to lose?” and “How realistic is your goal?”

I have stated several time I would love to be down to 190lbs (currently 360lbs 6’ tall, large frame). Is this a realistic goal? Consulting a few of the online weight calculators I got mixed results on what my weight should be. One site says 178lbs while another says 165. Some sites gave a range of 164 to 188. Last but not least I got an answer from one that came closer to the goal I had originally considered. This site said Ideal Weight Range should be 190-194lbs.

So here are my questions:

Which site has it right?
Should I even be shooting for “Ideal Weight”?
How have you determined your weight goal?

Any help that anyone could give would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Gizmo:confused:
 
I determined my goal weight by using 2 methods:

1. I want to be within normal bmi range
2. I want to be at the weight where I feel I looked my best in the past.

I think realistic goals vary based on your own desires/body fat %.

Desire because not everyone is in the right frame of mind to reach their goal. Lots of people want to lose weight, but a lot of people are not willing to put forth the hard work and long term life changes. If you are ready for the changes, then this aspect of goal weight is realistic.

Body fat is also an issue because obviously it would be silly to set a goal weight that is going to require one to lose muscle mass. If a person's lean mass is 190, then a goal of 180 is not realistic in my mind.
 
BMI is a stupid index designed to make it easier for insurance companies to deny people coverage. The minute you do any weight training at all, the BMI charts will be irrelevant to you.

For example, the BMI charts say that my "ideal" weight is 165 pounds. Nice -- until you consider that I have 166 pounds of lean body mass. So to get to my "ideal" weight, I would have to be at 0% body fat, and lose some lean body mass on top.

My goal is to be at around 14% body fat, which would put me in an "elite" status at age 60. That would mean my weight would be around 195 lbs., even though according to the stupid BMI chart, I would still be considerably "overweight".
 
My initial goal is to get into the general weight 'range' given. Then I will take it pound by pound until I am comfortable with how I look and feel. I can't determine now that 125, or 127, or 118 lbs is going to be 'the perfect weight' for me. Who knows? I won't know until I get there, and neither will you.
 
For me, the best indicator is how well my clothes fit and how good I feel. As someone else said, the various tables and charts are not going to work for everyone and I am one of those people. Having weight trained for 10 years a higher weight works better for me and at 5.2" my ideal weight is 130lbs. According to some charts I should be approx. 110-115. I look gaunt at such a low weight.

I think that once you get to a certain weight it is going to feel right and you will know. Good luck!
 
Thank You

Thanks for all the feedback. From the sound of it, it seems that my goal of 190 may be about right. However, As i get closer to that weight I will see how I feel and look. This will be the best indicator.

I have also decided to set myself minor goals along the way. I hope this will keep me motivated. Minor goals of Under 300, 250, and 225. Seems like these stages would give me a place to re-evaluate my goals.

Above all else, I want to be healthy. I would hate to go the other direction after being overweight most of my life. LOL

:rotflmao:
 
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