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Your Healthy Weight

How to Determine a Healthy Weight for You

When deciding how much weight you want to lose or gain, traditional weight charts can be very misleading. This is so because much depends on your body’s composition.

Are you big-boned or small-boned? Are you well-muscled or a bit of a weakling?

Since excess weight tends to accumulate around the hips, we can use hip measurement to estimate your Body Fat Percentage (BFP) and from that, youroptimal weight.

Calculating Your Body Fat Percentage

More important than how much you weigh is how much of that weight is fat. The recommended BFP is between 19 and 24 percent for women and between 14 and 19 for men. Here’s how to calculate your BFP.

In the table above, find your height in inches. If 20% of your body mass was fat tissue, your hip measurement would be approximately as shown in the left hand column. Subtract that number from your actual hip measurement. Multiply the difference by two and add the product to 20.

For example, if you are 5’8”, that is 68”, and had a BFP of 20%, your hip girth would be about 35.75”. If your actual hip girth is 38.75”, the difference is a positive three (38.75 – 35.75 = 3). That means your BFP is 26% [(3 X 2) + 20], a bit above the ideal range.

On the other hand, if your actual hip girth is 32.75”, 32.75 – 35.75 yields a negative three. Adding negative three times two to 20 indicates your BFP is at an unhealthily low 14% [20 + (-3 X 2) = 20 – 6 = 14%].

Next use your BFP to determine your ideal weight. Since a healthy BFP is between 19 and 24% for women, 14 and 19% for men, if you need to lose weight I recommend you first aim for the top of the healthy range and for the bottom if you need to gain weight.

Using the examples above and assuming both are women, the overweight woman’s initial BFP goal is 24% and the underweight woman’s goal is 19%. Let’s call the first woman Orchid and the second, Ursula.

Orchid currently weighs 150 pounds. Since 26% of her weight is fat (BFP = 26%), her body is composed of 39 pounds of fat (150 X 26%) and the remaining 111 pounds is lean tissue (muscles, bones and organs) or Lean Body Mass (LBM). Orchid’s first BFP goal is 24% and the corresponding LBM is 76%. Dividing her current LBM by 76% indicates her first weight goal is 146 pounds (111 ÷ 76% = 146).

Ursula currently weighs 110 pounds. At BFP of 14%, her body is 15 pounds fat and 95 pounds LBM. Setting her first goal at 19% BFP and 81% LBM, her target weight is 117 pounds (95 ÷ 81% = 117).

If both women maintain their current LBM in pounds, that is if they don’t add new muscle or lose muscle through unhealthy dieting, we can calculate their optimal weight goal at the outset.

Twenty-one percent is considered an ideal BFP for a woman ( 16% for a man). To achieve this, Orchid needs to lose 10 pounds of fat and should weigh 140 pounds [111 ÷ (100% - 21%) = 140]. Ursula needs to gain 10 pounds of fat and should weigh 120 pounds [95 ÷ (100% - 21%) = 120].

Adding Weight Training Changes Everything

If Orchid and Ursula add some weight training to their shape-up program, they will add LBM and “automatically” reduce their BFP at the same time they increase their body’s metabolism or the rate at which their bodies burn calories.

A revved up metabolism may at first seem counterproductive for Ursula who needs to put on pounds, not burn more calories.

However her thin bones need strengthening; and resistance training is the most natural and healthy way to do this. Also remember that muscle weighs more than fat so adding muscle moves Ursula more rapidly toward her goal weight.

If Orchid loses four pounds of fat to reach her first goal of 146 pounds and 24% BFP and at the same time adds four pounds of muscle, her weight will still be 150 pounds but her BFP will be a healthier 23%. Now to reach her final goal of 21%, she only needs to lose four more pounds of fat, compared to ten more pounds in the first scenario.

If Ursula gains seven pounds of fat to reach her first goal of 117 pounds and 19% BHP and adds four pounds of muscle like Orchid, she will weigh 121 pounds but, at 18%, will still be below the healthy BFP range. However to reach her final goal of 21% BHP, she has to gain four more pounds of fat, just as in the first scenario; but she will weigh a much healthier (for her height) 125 pounds.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to be taken as medical advice.

 

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