For most of my clients, I say where or when you feel happiest at. We can certainly can look at healthy weight ranges but they are usually determined by the general population. Consider this as there is 65% of the population overweight or obese. Then we can certainly look at body fat measures, girth measurements etc. but really where is it for you? What weight, look, feel, fit in clothes, goals do you feel happiest at? What weight previously did you feel good at? What size clothes make you feel confident? When you look in the mirror, how would you like your body to look like? I think these indicators are more important than someone else's graph or diagram. I think you truly know when you are at your healthiest, when you are at your happiest weight.
We must also consider our goals when we are determining our best, happiest, ideal weight to be as well. As I see it, health and fitness is for a life time and during your life time your ideal weight will changing according to your health goals.
Some people simply want a flat stomach, others want some curves, and others need to have a body weight, shape or body fat percentage for a certain fitness event or fitness goal. Let's look at distance runners, they need a low body weight and low body fat percentage. Sprinters need power and strength. Swimmers require some body fat as it helps them to float and be on top of the water. People who compete in bodybuilding or fitness modelling competitions need a very low body fat percentage. These people however could be considered as overweight or obese on the BMI scale.
Which brings me to what measures should we not use to compare ourselves to, to judge our ideal weight. The BMI scale is one of them. The equation for BMI is simply weight over height squared. Meaning it only takes into total mass (weight) inconsiderate of muscle mass over your height. Like I said before if we take a bodybuilder (male), their weight might be 100kgs with a body fat percentage of 6% would consider them as overweight or even obese.
We have discussed what may determine a healthy weight for you but in the end I feel we should all be looking just to be healthy. Healthy on in the inside and healthy on the outside. We should all practice eating well most of the time, exercising weekly for the rest of our lives, take time for yourself and being happy.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
