What is My Ideal Weight?

If you have been asking yourself that question lately, you have come to the right place.

When starting writing this blog nearly two years ago, I weighed 165 pounds. At 5’9″ tall, I was happy at that weight. It was the lowest I had been in the past 20 years. At my worst, I weighed around 225 lbs. You can read about that in my post How I Lost 50 Pounds in 52 Weeks.

Since starting the blog, I have become very aware of my consumption of food each day as well as my actions to burn off excess calories and to provide necessary exercise for my body. It is a fair statement that I have focused on my own health more since starting the blog than at any time in my life. As a senior citizen who has buried both parents as well as several other aged loved ones, I am very much aware of my own mortality and would like to forestall it as long as possible. I also have a teenaged daughter whom I would like to see grow up.

Getting back to my ideal weight, because of my focus on good health, I have adopted healthy habits on the positive side and avoid negative ones. So, today, nearly six years after starting this blog, I find myself weighing 150 pounds. Because I weigh myself every day, I am not surprised at that, but, considering that I thought I was at my ideal weight at 165 nearly two years ago, I am a bit surprised. So, what should I weigh? One of the factors contributing to the  complexity of this question is the testimony of the senses. What we see looking out at our fellow humans is a skewed population which has 60 percent overweight and 30 percent obese. You need to keep that in mind when thinking about your own weight.

Although I stand 5’9″ tall, I have a small frame. My wrist measures less than 7 inches around.

I found what I consider to be a really helpful web page on the subject and will share it with you here. It was created by Dr. Steven B. Halls in 2008.

According to this page, the average weight that other people of my age, height, weight and gender would describe as their ideal weight is 152 pounds.

The medical recommendation is a range of 129 to 169 pounds. This recommendation is based on a Body Mass Index (BMI) range of 19-25. My current BMI is 21.9. Just for the record, I don’t like BMI as a weight metric. You can check out my post Don’t Get Hung up on Your BMI if you want more info  on it.

Other results, based on possibly out of date criteria, the weight look up tables of the Metropolitan Life Insurance company in 1979, offer 144 to 154 pounds. The Met Life tables show values that are too large for short people and wrong for tall folks and have no age modifiers.

So, even though I find myself nearly 20 pounds below what I thought was my idea weight back when we started writing the blog, I am actually right in the correct range.

If you are looking at this because it is near year end and you are thinking about ‘getting healthy’ in the coming year, this is a good starting point. Best of luck.

You can read some very useful guidelines on my Page How to Lose Weight (and Keep it Off) Page.

Tony