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Weight Charts & Body Frame Size
Recommended Weight

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

Diet Article: What is your ideal or recommended weight?


Most weight charts contain tiered weight recommendations which are solely based on an individual's height. 

This is one of the best formulas for guesstimating what a good weight might be for an individual. But weight charts should only be considered a pattern for weight loss planning.

The USDA uses the 'age' method for determining adequate weight, which we feel is very flawed and inaccurate.

While Danny might be 21 years old and require 2,000 calories per day to meet his nutritional needs, his father Big Dan who is 50 years old may require more rather than less calories. Danny is on the short side at 5'6" while his father towers over him at 6'6". Therefore, basing caloric needs on age is simply a ridiculous and faulty method for recommended weight guidelines.

I've seen weight charts that vary thirty pounds or more.

Although I am considered thin by my personal doctor and by the people that I know, if I were to weigh what some of the weight charts recommend, I daresay that I'll blow away into an early grave. I'd be wearing size Fetus - and probably could never even look another Twinkie in the eye. So....what's a perfect weight?

The perfect weight is a weight at which you feel best - and almost 100% of the time that weight will fall within the recommended weight provided by an accurate chart or guidelines. An accurate recommended weight chart is based not only on your height, but also on the size of your body frame. Age and muscle are two more identifying factors that should be added to the guidelines; muscle builders will weigh several more pounds than other individuals who mirror their height as well as their body frame, yet the body builder will still be in excellent health, as well as stellar physical condition.

There are other factors that influence weight that you'll only see mentioned at Diet Bites. For example, a woman who has a large bust or booty is simply going to weigh more than another woman who is her same height and body frame who has a small bust and a small booty. Small breasts weigh about one pound each while very large breasts can weigh two or more pounds each. It's like carrying a five-pound sack of potatoes on one's chest. Trust me, I know.


The same applies to the buttocks; a tiny set isn't going to weigh as much as that well-endowed set.

While we can stipulate and suggest and recommend a pattern for weight loss, we are all designed differently.

That well-endowed chest or rear are natural assets to the individual; they were not intended to match anyone's body composite. And because we are all created with different assets that make us unique and beautiful, we will all weigh differently.

This isn't to say that we should toss these 'perfect weight charts' out the window. It is to say that we should use them only as guidelines or patterns in determining an 'ideal number' to aim for when losing weight or when maintaining our weight.

There are a plethora of individuals in the world who never weigh and yet they have no problem at all in maintaining their svelte shape OR the shape at which they feel best. They just 'know' - a primal instinct of how much food and drink they require to stay at their recommended weight. When they start to feel their belt or jeans tightening, they cut back on their daily diet - or they incorporate more activity into their day. Some might avoid sweets or dessert time.

In Summary

Although weight charts are a great tool in helping pinpoint a weight that might be right for our bodies, many times individuals become trapped in the numbers - a Diet Numbers Game if you please. And they just aren't satisfied until they reach that ideal weight set out by some stinking chart.

With that said, aim for the weight at which you feel most comfortable. And if you're wanting more information on weight charts, calculating body frame size these links will lead the 'weigh':

Effect of Weight on the Body Frame/Skeleton
Simple Formula for Calculating Body Frame Size

Weight Charts for Men & Women

Identifying & Calculating Your Weight Loss Formula

Wickedly-Good Diet Index of Articles

 

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