 |
Ideal weight and body weight norms
Are there body weight norms? The truth is there probably is no such thing as an 'ideal weight'. Weight Tables exist, but values range wildly. Do the following. Take your fingers and wrap them around the thinnest part of your other wrist. Do your thumb and fingers overlap? Do they barely touch? Perhaps, there is some distance to go before they touch? I assure you, two people of the same age and height will not weigh the same if one can easily wrap their fingers around their wrist and the other cannot. They simply possess a different frame and bone structure. It does not make much sense either, that there should be an 'ideal' weight for both of them despite their identical age and height. In truth, when people ask about an ideal weight they really want to know whether they're overweight or not. Being 'overweight' or 'obese' is indeed a concern since carrying excess weight can engender a number of health problems and chronic diseases. This is well established in the scientific literature. Chronic diseases such as hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, and Type II diabetes are associated with excess body fat especially in the intra-abdominal region. Having excess weight also places you at greater risk for reduced life expectancy and early mortality. Naturally, this begs the question how do you tell if you're carrying 'excess weight'? Said another way, how do you know if you need to lose weight? Although the subject of who should not attempt weight loss is perhaps not fully addressed in the literature, the question of who should lose weight for health reasons is much clearer. And the answer is, of course, you should lose weight if you are either 'overweight' or 'obese'. So, how do you tell if you are within range of an 'ideal' weight-- neither overweight nor underweight? There are several methods. Absolutely every method has some drawbacks. Some are more a reflection of your total body weight and neglect to factor in body fat-- the real culprit in health issues. Others calculate body fat but are relatively inaccurate. Still others are fairly accurate but they're either too invasive, impractical, or expensive. A quick review of some fundamental body weight notions might help before discussing the methods used to determine your 'ideal weight'… We refer to the make up of your body's weight as body composition. Every time you step on the scale, you look down to see a number. In everyday terms, this number represents your total body weight. Your body weight includes not just the fat that you seemingly want to get rid of, but also the weight of skeletal bone, muscles, organs, brain, skin, nails, hair-- and all bodily tissues. The term Lean Body Mass (LBM) represents all of you except your fat. When you lose weight, you don’t just lose fat. Some of that loss stems from your lean body mass. Therefore, it's not really weight that you want to lose. It's body fat. Indeed, you want to lose as much body fat as possible while minimizing muscle loss. Unfortunately, your bathroom scale does not discriminate between the two. The next time you step on a scale, bear in mind that the number you see does not indicate how much body fat you have nor how much fat you've lost. It merely reveals your total body weight. This is also why it's important to know your body fat percentage. This number indicates what percentage of your total weight is fat and how much of it is lean body mass. Naturally, knowing your body fat percentage will also tell you whether you're within an 'ideal weight' range or not... according to body weight norms or body fat norms. We'll discuss how you can find out your body fat percentage and what some of the methods are to tell whether you're overweight, underweight, or just about right-- in this section. The simplest and by far, the most often used method, at least in clinical studies, is Body Mass Index or BMI-- sometimes also called the Quetelet Index. This is the subject of our first topic...
Jump from Ideal Weight Section back to Workout From Home home page
|
