Ideal Body Weight

Knowing Your Ideal Body Weight, Is a Good Foundation to Help You Determine the Weight You Want to Be

Regardless of whether you're male or female, you want to look your absolute best. It's only natural because this is what the opposite sex is attracted to.

A Victoria's Secret model isn't going to swoon over a 300 pound man who's 5'8" and absurdly obese. This is why many of us work hard to stay fit. We want to maintain that ideal body weight and chiseled physique. What is an ideal weight anyway? This is a great question, and one that has no specific answer.

When you think of an ideal body weight for yourself, what comes to mind? Wait; let me go first. I'm a 31 year old male with a medium bone frame; I stand at 6'1" and have about 10 percent body fat.

I currently weigh 175. Most people would probably consider this fine. Notice the things I factored in. You have to consider bone frame, age, height, and percent body fat. Without one of these, people can be thrown off. Imagine for example if I had 32 percent body fat. This would change everything. If you're not sure how the body fat scale works, let me fill you in. Let's say you're a 100 pound female with 10 percent body fat.

This would mean that 10 pounds of your overall weight is fat. Now, back to me; I don't consider myself to have an ideal body weight. Personally I would prefer to have around 5 more pounds of lean muscle. But hey, I'm working on that.

Muscle and Fat are Two Major Issues When It Comes to Your Body Weight 

Muscle and fat are major issues when pondering an ideal body weight for yourself. If you're lean and totally fine with that, then there's nothing wrong with your body weight.

So long as you're not overly skinny. Fat on the other hand is completely different. You only want a certain percentage of your body to be fat. Too much fat results in obesity and heart issues. Women are aloud to have a higher percentage of body fat than men.

Since men posses more muscle tissue, they're body fat should be lower. Now, when you're thinking ideal body weight, don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat does. If you're an avid weight lifter and stacked with lean muscle, this can throw the standard ideal body weight chart completely off. The best thing you can do is go by your appearance and the way clothing fits.

 *Always consult with your doctor before starting a new diet plan or a new exercise regime. Life Fitness Digest takes no responsibilities for any consequences of the information on this site.