How Much Should I Weigh Anyway?

Patient / Public:		4.11 (281 votes)
Healthcare Prof:		3.93 (118 votes)

The most typical questions we get in my feedback emails are “How much should my weight be for my height?” In this post, we’ll address and clarify the most common methods to calculate these numbers.

To find out how much your ideal body weight is (your optimal body weight) several things need to be considered, such as your height, your muscle to fat ratio, your sex, age & bone density.

Many people always focus and recommend to calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index) which is the most common way to determine whether you’re at your ideal body weight. Others maintain that BMI is by nature faulted because it doesn’t account for things like muscle mass when determining ideal ranges. These people might maintain that waist to hip ratio is a better method of determining your best body weight.

In reality, one individual’s ideal weight could be entirely different from that of another. When you compare your weight to the weight of your friends and family, you will have to risk being too generous in your estimates if you’re walking on egg shells in the presence of people who are obese–or too much on the low-side when surrounded by a crew of a bunch of would-be models.

Whether comparing your weight to that of people inside or out of your social groups, using straight weight simply won’t work.

The percentages of overweight the USA compared to that in the Netherlands will yield results showing that The Netherlands is much healthier. And that said, a Dutchman might therefore be aiming to have a lower body weight than you might as an American if all he had to go off was his veritable healthy body weight social network around him.

How about BMI, Is Body Mass Index a good Ratio?

Your BMI refers to your weight compared to height.

• Imperial units: Your weight in pounds multiplied times the number 703, divided over a square of height measured in inches.
  For example if your weight is 190 lbs and your height is 6 feet (72 inches) then:
  72² inches gives 5184
  190 multiplied by 703 and then divided over 5184 results in: BMI 25.76
• BMI units: Your weight in kilograms over the square of your height measured in meters.
  For example, if your weight were 80 Kg and your height were 1.8 meters, then:
  1.8² meters results in 3.24
  80 divided over 3.24 results in: BMI of 24.69
  

Health professionals across the globe typically agree that:

• Individuals with BMI under 18.5 are below ideal body weight.
• Individuals with BMI ranging between 18.5 – 25 are at ideal body weight.
• Individuals with BMI ranging between 25 – 30 are classified as overweight.
• Individuals with BMI greater than 30 are classified as obese.

Some countries’ health experts maintain that the lower threshold for BMI should be calculated at 20, saying that any number below that is actually underweight.

To calculate your BMI, use our Weight Loss BMI Calculator. There you’ll also find other valuable calculators such as waist-to-hip ratio calculator etc.

What Are the Issues and Problems with Using BMI?

BMI is essentially an oversimplified measurement to many. It does not factor in an individual’s waist, hip, or chest measurements. Olympic sprint champions could register a BMI much higher than a person of the same height who essentially operates in the couch potato olympics. On one hand, the couch potato could have a large midsection, very little lean muscle along with a whole lot of fat on the hips, in the blood, upper thighs, and other areas of the body. The Olympic athlete on the other hand would have a narrower waist, significantly lower body fat, as well as much better health as a result. Yet the pure BMI numbers may describe the couch potato champion as a champion of health compared to the athlete.

BMI simply doesn’t factor in bone mass (bone density.) Individuals who have severe osteoporosis–meaning they have extremely low bone density–could register lower BMI measurements than those who share the same height who lives and maintains a healthy body weight. Yet the person who has osteoporosis could actually have a significantly wider waist, increased body fat along with weak bones.

The health experts also criticize the BMI standard as being simply too–well–simple to measure health. It could be considered a ball park standard at best, and a basic standard which could indicate variations in population, but that should simply not be utilized for people for use in health care determination.

Put concisely: health professionals maintain that BMI underestimate body fat in the overweight and obese while at the same time overestimating fat in muscular and lean people.

What is Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)?

Waist-to-hip ratio is the comparison of the circumference of the waist to the circumference of the hips. To calculate WHR, one would take a measurement of the smallest circumference of the waist, typically just higher than the belly button, then divide the total over the circumference of the hip at the level where it is the highest.

If an individual’s waist were to be 28 inches and their hips were 36 inches, the waist-to-hip ratio is calculated by taking 28 and dividing it by 36 to equal 0.77. Listed here below you’ll find a breakdown of waist-to-hip and the associated cardiovascular health risks.

Male WHR (Waist-to-hip ratio)

• Under 0.9 yields low risk for cardiovascular health issues or major problems
• Between 0.9-0.99 yields moderate risks of developing cardiovascular problems
• Over 1.0 yields high risks for cardiovascular health problems

Female WHR

• Under 0.8 yields low risk of cardiovascular issues or major health problems
• Between 0.8-0.89 yields moderate risk for cardiovascular health issues
• Over 0.9 yields high risks for cardiovascular health problems

Waist-to-hip ratios among people are a significantly more accurate indicator as to whether someone’s body weight falls in the ideal body weight category as well as to the health risks for developing serious conditions may be. This is especially true when compared to the simple measurement of BMI. Studies have concluded regularly that those individuals who have apple-shaped bodies–with larger WHR’s–are at much higher risks for health problems when compared with people who have pear-shaped bodies–with lower WHR’s. Apple-shaped individuals essentially accumulate more fat along their waists, while pear-shaped people have fat that accumulates along their hips.

For example, a woman who has a WHR below 0.8 generally experiences better health and greater fertility than their counterpart females who have higher WHRs. Diabetes also poses a much lower risk to pear-shaped figures as well as the bulk of most cancers and cardiovascular health problems. Along the same line, men who have WHR’s of .9 or lower are also generally healthier and more fertile than their male counterparts with higher WHRs. They’re also at a lower risk of developing other serious health conditions and diseases as well.

Research also indicates that where WHRs are replaced by BMI for use in correlating risks of heart attack, the net would be cast much wider, and many more people would be erroneously factored in.

What are the Issues of Using WHR (Waist-to-hip Ratio) as a Measurement?

Just like the limitations that BMI experiences by definition, WHR cannot accurately measure an individual’s body fat percentage, nor their muscle-to-fat ratio. It is, however a much better indicator for determining an individual’s ideal body weight or health risks than using BMI as a predictor.

How is Body Fat Percentage Determined?

An individual’s total body fat percentage can be calculated by taking the total fat and dividing over the total body weight. This results in a number that indicates essential fat amount along side storage fat amount.

• Essential Fat Amount – This number is the total amount of fat an individual requires to survive. Women typically require a significantly higher percentage of essential fat than their male counterparts. Essential fat ranges between 2% and 5% among males, and between 10% and 13% for women.
• Storage Fat Amount – This amount consists of the total fat that has accumulated in the adipose tissue, that protects internal organs of the chest as well as the abdomen.
• Total Body Fat Amount - this amount of fat is the essential plus the storage fat.

The ACE (American Council on Exercise) suggests these following percentages:

Essential Body Fat

• 10-12% – Women should ideally maintain between 10-12% essential fat
• 2-4% - Men should ideally maintain between 2-4% essential fat

Total Body Fat

• Athletes
  • Male athletes ideally maintain between 6-13% total body fat
  • Female athletes ideally maintain between 14-20% total body fat
• Non-athletes classified as healthy and fit
  • 14-17% is generally regarded as healthy and fit for non-athlete men
  • 21-24% is generally regarded as healthy and fit for non-athlete women
• Acceptable
  • 18-25% is generally regarded as acceptable for non-athlete men
  • 25-31% is generally regarded as acceptable for non-athlete women
• Overweight
  • 26-37% is regarded as overweight for men
  • 32-41% is regarded as overweight for women
• Obese
  • 38% or greater is regarded as obese for men
  • 42% or greater is regarded as obese for women

The majority of health experts maintain that using an individual’s body fat percentage is the most accurate method for gauging their level of fitness because it includes the individual’s true body composition. Men with a body fat percentage that is over 25% and women with a body fat percentage over 31% are overweight or possibly even to the level of being obese.

Using total body fat percentage does not erroneously conclude that a couch potato is healthier or fitter than an Olympic champ.

Some of the methods to calculate an individual’s body fat percentage include near-infrared interactance, bioelectrical impedance analysis, or dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. While none of these methods give complete 100% accuracy, the predictions would be acceptable  as resulting in very close estimates.

Some health and fitness gyms as well as a doctor’s office keep devices on hand that measure body fat percentage.

Conclusion Regarding How Much You Should Weigh Anyway

This discussion has briefly reviewed three different methods for determining whether your current body weight is an ideal weight as well as how to determine and optimal target weight.

BMI – Quick, easy, simple measurement involving simply a scale and your height; basic correlations exist between BMI and health risks, but there are many limitations to this method.

WHR – Fairly quick, easy, measurement with more accuracy and correlation to health risks than BMI but lacking only in the near precise accuracy of using body fat percentage.

Body Fat Percentage – Professionally determined method for determining healthy body weight that is more accurate but also more costly than using BMI or WHR.

Both BMI as well as WHR may easily be measured at home. WHR is a clear, more accurate measurement than BMI. Yet BMI can be a useful measurement for the typical, “average” individual who isn’t an Olympic athlete or consistent and serious weight trainer.

When embarking on a weight loss regime including exercise alongside diet, keep in mind that exercise will most likely raise muscle mass which increases weight; and though the waist can shrink, muscle outweighs fat, so it won’t be a direct perfect correlation to weight loss. It will however increase your overall health in the process.

For this reason many aim to achieve target measurements for their chest, waist, and hips. An ideal waist-to-hip ratio can be achieved for the individual dedicated to their health and who monitors Body Fat Percentage. If you are looking for more information on the topic, discuss a realistic determination of personal targets with your physician, nutritionist, or personal trainer and make it happen!

When the cookies and cream ice cream beckons or you feel like you have been duct taped to the couch, check out these tips from the experts to help you take the steps to drop the weight finally! By Pete Maughan

When you have made a decision to lose weight and committed yourself to change, it’s important that you know how to stick with your “Future You” plan. You’ll need weight loss commitment techniques that will deepen your resolve. “Many people think that through discipline alone, they can will themselves fit,” says one expert but in most cases, willpower doesn’t last long enough to see it through without some tools to keep you on track.

Here are some tips to give you the motivation for weight loss that will carry you through to the finish line.

1. Get Rid Excuses Entirely For example, even if you don’t consider yourself a morning person, do what it takes to schedule exercise first thing in the morning. The later you wait in the day to exercise, the more excuses you will have for not getting your exercise in. Throw a pair of workout clothes all around, such as in the car, at your office, and anywhere else that you find yourself. What you have got to begin reminding yourself over and over again is that there’s just never a reason not to get your exercise in. Shift the needle in your favor by laying your workout clothes on your bed the night before. Figure out what is stopping you and remove the reasons before you have a chance to use them as an excuse.

2. Play With Your Kids Finding time to exercise was simpler before children if you have them, right? But just because you have a family and they have needs, it doesn’t mean that your list of priorities can’t have room for both family and workouts. Get your kids involved with you. Take your kids and spouse on a family hike, go on a bike ride with your family around the neighborhood. Or do something that your kids have been begging you to do. You will find that your kids will love you forever and you’ll become active and it will become more and more natural for you. You could even go rollerblading, or on a razer scooter, or bring your toddlers and get a jogger and go for a walk. Even scooters and inline skates are fantastic for kids because your children will have a blast, but at the same time, these activities will be just as much of a way to burn calories for you parents. Getting moving with parents is good for the little guys for their own exercise as well as for developing stronger bonds with parents. Children in families who spend time running, playing soccer, rollerblading, and other activities are more likely to stay together than those who don’t.

3. Workout with Your Spouse One study at Indiana University showed that 94% of spouses who did their workouts together as opposed to separately were more likely to stick to the plan. On the contrary, only 57% of people who worked out alone stuck to their exercise regimen. If it’s the husband who’s not interested in a run, consider something like throwing around a football or shooting some hoops. A good game of one-on-one basketball will burn double the calories of walking. Starting a biggest loser challenge with your spouse is also something you ought to consider.

4. Get a Pedometer Or Other Tool There are many great tools for fitness these days such as the body bug, or if you want something that doesn’t cost as much, pick up a pedometer which can be bought for insanely low amounts of money.

5. Track Weight and Feelings Free On Weightlosswars You can track your weight, log and track your exercise minutes, and of course, you can track these directly in conjunction with a weight loss challenge here on the site. Those who are most successful at losing weight and maintaining their healthy weight are those who take the couple minutes to jot down what they’ve done and keep track. They self-monitor, according to several studies. It has been shown through several very well known studies that the simple act of tracking your weight results in much more favorable weight loss than those who do not. Additionally, remember to put  down your positive feelings in words, too, so that you’ll have something to turn back and review on your down days. Describing how great you have felt after a nice workout can really help you to have the motivation for exercise that you need to actually get out the door and onto the bike, into the gym, or onto the court. Get a weight loss journal free on weightlosswars.

6. Seek Inspiration from God, Friends, Family, Mentor Feeling a little less than energetic today? Find a mental image from your life that you can use to keep you going. Do you know someone who has managed to be a great parent who also took time to exercise? Do you know someone famous who finds time in their ultra busy schedule to workout? Instead of draining yourself with sad or discouraging thoughts, focus on positive role models. God answers prayers about all kinds of things. Think of the old adage to pray and ask Heavenly Father for help as if everything depends on Him. But then get up off your knees and get to work as if everything depends on you. Except that in this instance it might mean getting to working out, or focusing on restricting your calories.

7. Focus on “Future You” Remind yourself that eating better and holding to an exercise plan will be important to making you look and feel better in the long run! Sketch out detailed visions of your ideal self in your minds eye. Imagine in your mind that you’re going on a date with your spouse and that you’re wearing something that makes you look really good. Picture yourself running into an old high-school nemesis. Picture yourself and how you look toned, healthy, and good. Come up with motivational scenarios that you can fall back on when you’re having a bit of difficulty following your plan. Make sure that the visualizations are powerfully compelling and inspiring. They must be powerful enough to overcome whatever is facing you right now. Powerful enough to overcome your couch and tv, to overcome the ice cream in the fridge, or the chips you want to munch on.

8. Treat Yourself Did you exercise the restraint from finishing off your daughter’s food from lunch today? Did you take that quick walk after lunch? Did you stand up from your meal and leave food on your plate? Did you leave even your favorite foods on the table without finishing them off? Well then treat yourself to a reward. Find some simple, non-food pleasure such as taking thirty minutes of quiet time to read a great novel, or buy a new shampoo you’ve been wanting to buy, or get a new video game you’ve been waiting to demo!

9. Turn On Music that Gets You Goin When it comes to exercising, you might want to turn on something like eye of the tiger to get you out the door to the gym. Then once you’re there, music can keep you going long enough to get a real burn in. Music gives you the mental stimulation, but it can also keep you in a good mood while you run, spin, kickbox, or anything else you’re doing to get moving. Music can also help you maintain a tempo and pace for your activity that will keep your heart rate at a level to burn more calories. Listening to music helps you divert long enough to workout to the full term. One study showed that college students who exercised to music worked out 11% longer than students who worked out without music or just in a noisy gym environment.

10. Build Up A Reward Find some way to keep reminding yourself about your progress in your efforts to exercise and eat healthier. Throw a dollar in a jar each time you get a workout done, then cash out with some kind of non-food splurge.

Losing weight can be an isolating endeavor, which may lead you to quit early on your weight-loss aspirations. But becoming involved with a team weight-loss competition allows you to lose weight as a group and motivated each other to keep on track. Whether you start a weight-loss team at work, at home with family, with your friends from college, or even with your facebook friends online, a weight-loss challenge format can be extremely fun and helpful to you and your team members as you unite to find solutions and encouragement. Heck, we might as well say it now, that it also may help you through smack talk and the true competitive spirit to win (by losing!)

Organization

The first step to create a weight-loss challenge team is finding people who might be interested. Ask around at work, ping friends and family members on facebook how they would feel about joining a team to compete in weight loss percentage against other teams. Once you have at least a few interested people, break this into teams or ask them to group themselves. You could also just organize one large team. Some good ways for teams to be formed might be by office location, departments at the office, family groups such as you and your family against your brother and his family, etc.

Competition

Now, the best way to get your blood boiling is to make your group weight-loss challenge into a weight loss competition between groups. The element of competition will really rev up motivation while adding a spirit of camaraderie among teammates. Usually, competition involves a team’s combined weight-loss percentage because this allows for the most fair comparison between teams. But you might like to choose anything pertinent to weight loss as a measure for competition. This could range from total exercise hours to steps walked.

Weight Loss Kick off Events and Themes

Kick off events for your team weight loss competition help you get to know your team mates better while engaging in a fun weight-loss activity like a lunch break walk along a walking trail by the office. These kind of events also can also be scheduled regularly as meetings to check progress and share ideas. You might consider bringing in guest experts such as a nutritionist to speak with your team about healthy cooking. Or you could start a weekly walking or jogging group. Still further you could organize a group sport like basketball. Fitness in groups might bring back some great memories from high school and can be very motivating. Eating healthy foods as a group can also make weight loss a more positive experience.

Prizes and Prize Pots

Prizes, even when they’re small, can be a big motivator in a friendly team-based weight loss competition. You could also consider weekly motivational prizes and potentially offer one to the biggest loser that week in the group as well as to the biggest losing group for the week. By arranging prizes throughout the weight loss challenge you’ll keep people interested. At the end, something more grand like a bike or fitness equipment for the overall biggest loser along with something like an extra vacation day for the entire biggest losing team might be very motivating. When playing as a team, choose prizes that you can all enjoy (like that extra day off!) Or maybe it could be a half day off via a trip to an amusement park.

Peter Maughan is a weight loss expert with over 7 years experience in workplace health and wellness and university settings. He recently became certified in adult weight management although it has been a professional specialty for nearly a decade. His internet presence focuses on important weight loss categories such as motivation, weight management, and the crucial first steps to successful weight reduction. He is the owner of www.WeightLossWars.com, which is the largest weight loss challenge company in the nation with more than 120,000 weight loss competitors who compete in both team and individual weight loss challenges.

I feel like the more I study weight loss, the more I am convinced that weight loss has more to do with psychological and personal principles than with physiological and medical response and phenomenons in the body. Let me explain.

So many people are looking for the cure to weight loss when right in front of them are the keys to becoming a better person whether it be physical or spiritual, mental or interrelationship-wise. I think it’s time we make a push back to a principle focused approach to weight loss. There is a concept embraced by millions and which I also believe that that principle and concept is that whatever principle of intelligence we gain in this life, it comes with us to the next life. Now, I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I do believe in a next life based upon us coming forth with the opportunity and responsibility to come to an accounting for our time spent on earth according to our deeds and according to our actions. Now, with this in mind, we have a couple ways that we can approach weight loss or any other self-improvement. We can seek to attain a principle regarding it. For example, there is a very basic principle of weight loss which comes down to calories in versus calories out. Now, we all deep down in our minds, hearts, and souls understand this principle. We also may have each encountered different roadblocks in adhering to this, but we all know it’s true.

So let’s take that principle and relate it to how it could be like any other principle that we could master. What do I do if I want to master the study of chemistry? Well, I might enroll in a class. I might read a book about it, and then, it is left to me to apply the concepts, and I might find a way to grade myself, or if I’m in a class, then I might be graded by my instructor on how well I have mastered the concepts. But the real proof comes down to the application of the principle because that is the evidence that the principles have been mastered. So how can we master this principle of calories in vs calories out? We can monitor our calories and we can then apply the rules and watch as we achieve results. If we don’t do this, then we’re kidding ourselves. And we may want to find an accountability partner, instructor, or loved one to help us on our journey. One interesting thing that weightlosswars does is allow you just that, an accountability partner through “motivators” who can remind you to stick to your goals and check up on you. Other options are to enroll in a class at a gym with a trainer who will hold you accountable.

Pete Maughn has mentioned a number of things that were the biggest factors in his choosing to pursue a medical degree. They are listed below:

Reasons why Pete Maughan chose to pursue a career in medicine

1. For the rigorous lifestyle
2. For the value proposition to customers

Here is the detailed breakdown:

He wanted to be an MD for the Rigorous Lifestyle Balanced with Family Life.

An easy life has never been an issue for Pete. If you ask anyone who knows him, they’ll say he become entrenched in many great causes and usually ones based around either his religious life, his family, or his businesses. In his career he has always focused on long term strategies that often include long hours, hard work, blood sweat and tears. Sure, he may have taken advantage of easy wins in business on rare occasion—but only when those wins didn’t come with common negative side effects associated with short-term plays. This has been something that he has molded to his family life. For example, although many of his counterparts own a home, he have chosen not to own a home in order to always have the flexibility of moving to within minutes of his places of work. Doing this, Maughn has been able to be with his family quicker and not burdened by long commutes. He didn’t want them suffer under the burden of his long hours that come with starting a business.

He wanted the value proposition to provide to customers, patients, and others

Pete has enjoyed the business, marketing, and other aspects of the business world, but had felt the missing “health and wellness” piece through the process. Over time, health and wellness have become more and more a part of his career and have ultimately taken over his entire career to the point which he felt compelled and ready to take it to the next step. Although Pete Maughn has successfully been involved in several businesses and enjoyed them immensely, while participating in these businesses, he had not had the opportunity to enjoy the full use of the science, health and wellness, and more social aspects of his personality. This drove him to enter the field of medicine through a medical degree.

This is a 3 part article series articulating the reasons Pete Maughan chose a career in medicine and chose to become Pete Maughn MD. Follow the blog to see the 2nd and third parts of the series.

One of my early ventures in the health and wellness industry involved helping people lose weight through supplements. It is something that I have since gained additional information, education, wisdom, and opinions on. For example, there was a time when I didn’t think enough about building up trust with partners who I did not know or have enough experience dealing with. Some of the people I partnered with to provide weight loss supplements to customers ended up being very stand up, and I feel the value provided to customers was immense. In other cases, I believe that I rushed into relationships with vendors and other marketing partners in too quick a fashion and hence developed the wrong kind of value proposition with customers and clients.

This is all part of the process that has led me to the position I am in today in the health and wellness industry. Eventually, I will be involved in the field of medicine specifically in health and wellness because I am preparing to enter medical school. This will give me even more knowledge, insight, and wisdom when it comes to vetting the science and medical side of things in providing any potential products to patients and customers in the future. Additionally, the experience I’ve gained in working with some unsavory business partners and vendors has led me to know more about how to test and develop more slowly these kind of business relationships. I’m less prone to rush into a business deal and more prone to be prudent and careful in order to protect customers, my reputation, and the health and wellness of both customers as well as of own company so that I can continue to build value as a company on an ongoing basis.

One of the products that was offered by one of my partners at an early point was Caralluma Extreme. This product was sold by two brothers who ended up getting themselves in over their heads. Another product sold through another partner was Adipose Rx which also ended up being sold by a partner who unfortunately was involved in shady business and who caused me and many customers pain and problems but only on a financial level. So I have learned my lesson, and I will do better in the future!

My name is Pete Maughan and I began a career in health and wellness early. I had always wanted to be an MD but I also spent time learning about and applying business, marketing, finance principles and the more broad health & wellness industry. But before I started working in health and wellness, I started out with a company called Junto Group.

At Junto Group, several new entrepreneurs and I were involved in all kinds of different business models, researching, strategizing, and preparing but it felt like there was a tendency to bloviate instead of a propensity toward action. I feel like I learned more in Junto Group meetings with Greg Warnock and my fellow Junto participants than I had learned in years of college training about business. But meetings like this where you discuss strategies, financials, and business plans and ideas don’t bring a whole lot of wisdom if they’re not coupled with real action. But one of the main things I took from these meetings is that sales trumps just about anything. If you can show real sales, then you have traction. If you start a business and have everything set up except for sales and you may just have nothing.

So when I went on to do work with Junto, Inside Sales, ehealthcompete, Prolero, and others, I decided for sales to be the lifeblood of everything I did. I have learned by experience that if I focus on taking care of the sales team, things go better. But if your sales are meager, it rarely matters if you have successes or failures in other aspects of the business.

Now, take for example my time with ehealthcompete. This health and weight loss competition company focused on the corporate side of competition weight loss, and other corporate health and wellness initiatives. I spent time as their VP of Sales and focused on getting them new business from schools districts and other corporations. It was a fun time to be involved with the company. Then later, I went on to work in several weight loss businesses and settled into a deal with weightlosswars that eventually turned into more.

Now I find myself interested in elevating my career from one of general health and wellness, to that of one focused on medicine specifically. I feel a deep sense of urgency in localizing the specific problems associated with obesity and helping to overcome them.