There is no ideal body weight. Say that aloud, “There is no ideal body weight”. Sure, the government has very exacting standards as to what the best lean body mass may be. Sure, there are height and weight charts from the 1950s that claim to be able to say who is the right weight and who is wrong for health insurance quotes. But the reality of the matter is that you will find 5 foot 8 athletes who weigh 190 pounds, and you will find 5 foot 8 drug abusers who weight 150 pounds – and the majority of official paperwork on the matter will assign a greater health probability to the drug user. So let’s throw these numbers out the window and create our very own definition of what your person ideal body weight should be.
Let’s examine some of the factors that, if met, ensure you are already at the body weight:
- You are below 15% body fat, revealing at least an outline of your abdominal shape
- You can run a mile in under 12 minutes
- You can complete 20 pushups or 30 situps in one minute
- You appear reasonably athletic and fit when looking in the mirror
- You aren’t winded after activities such as walking up 2 flights of stairs or carrying in groceries
- You feel good and alert most of the time
If you are in agreement with these factors, then it would appear you are already where you need to be. Keep on training hard and working to improve, but you’ve got it locked down! If you are lacking in some areas, fear not. It will just take a bit more weight lifting, cardiovascular training, and intelligent eating to cut down the fat, build up the muscle, and reach a point where you have the muscle, the shape, and the conditioning to be at your own personalized ideal body weight. Each of these indicators is designed to be a relevant evaluator of strength, fitness and lung capacity. However, you can surely find other criteria and design your own rubric. Define it, write it down, then you will have a baseline from which to assign your own adherence to an ideal body weight measurement tool that is right for you!