What Is My Ideal Weight?

By: Laura Quintanilla

When asking, “What is my ideal weight?” there is something you may want to consider. Most people who ask this question want to lose weight and want to know how much weight they really need to loose. But there is a better way to go about this.

What I am talking about is instead of asking, “What is my ideal weight?” to ask, “What is my body fat percentage?”

If you lose 10 pounds that can be a good thing. But if you lost 10 pounds and your body fat percentage stays the same, that is a bad thing!

It means you lost vital muscle mass as well as body. By doing this you LOWER your metabolic rate. This is where the term, “yo-yo diet” comes from. A person diets and/or exercises and loses weight and they gain it back rapidly.

This happens because the weight lost is the wrong weight. That person most likely lost a lot of muscle instead of fat. But this is most often what happens when a person is only asking, “What is my ideal weight?”

If you focus on body fat and lose body fat you will keep the weight off and look ten times better because your body shape will be very different. Your energy levels will also be much higher.

The way to get your body fat percentage is to get a body fat caliper or similar device to give you a measurement. It may not be a precise measurement but what you want to see is what change is occurring over time.

As you work on your weight loss program, you want to see your body fat percentage go lower and lower. Check it every week or every month. Replace the scale with your body fat caliper. Set body fat goals rather than weight goals. You will see it totally changes how good you feel and how much smaller you get and also how much stronger you get.

What if you went on a weight loss program that resulted in less body fat but preserved your lean muscle? Can you imagine having lean muscle tone, keeping the weight off? Can you imagine having a completely different body shape than you have now? That is what happens when you focus on fat loss and not weight loss. So try to stop asking yourself, ” What is my ideal weight ?”

For men the average body fat percentage is 18 – 24%. For a male athlete it is 6 – 13%. For women the average body fat percentage is 25 -31% for athletes it is 14 – 20%.

About Author:
Hi! I’m Laura Quintanilla. I am a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer for women.

I help women in their 30’s to 50’s… who can’t lose weight no matter how much they diet and exercise or just feel lost when it comes to getting fit and healthy shed their stubborn, hard to lose weight without starvation diets, without dangerous drugs and without intimidating, awkward and uncomfortable workouts.

Visit my website Orange County Boot Camp.

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