Critical Weight Loss Questions – What Is My Ideal Weight?
Health and Fitness July 10th, 2009What is my ideal weight? This must be the first question you ask of yourself before starting to lose weight.
It is common for people to latch onto one number and aim for that as a goal weight or to just go by their lowest weight in the past. The problem with this is that most will be unable to ever reach a weight they maintained in younger years, or they will reach it but find it impossible to maintain. Your body changes as you age so it’s important to assess a realistic goal for where you stand right now.
You can use weight charts or find a free online body mass index (BMI) calculator to give a more accurate guide to the weight you should be at your current age and height. Your BMI will be a number that places you in a category, such as underweight, overweight, or obese.
Seeing where you fall on the BMI scale may be difficult right now, but it will give you a general idea of where your weight needs to be to fall within the healthy range. You can get the same basic information from a weight chart.
Even more accurate than the scale and BMI is your waist to hip ratio. This will give you a general idea of where you stand right now and how far you need to go, without giving you an actual number. Just measure your hips and your waist and then divide the hip measurement by the waist. Ideally, women should strive for around 0.80 and men for around 0.95.
What makes the BMI calculator and weight charts less accurate is that it doesn’t take into consideration how much muscle is in your body. You can be completely healthy at a weight higher than what these resources predict, especially if you are well toned and have a lot of lean muscle mass.
So, what is my ideal weight? Don’t skip this step out of fear of seeing how far you have to go. The more realistic your goals are the more chance you have of actually reaching them.
Thank you for visiting our Cookie Diet website today. We hope you join the program and start losing weight.