Lean Body Mass

iammegs

As I've been trying to do more research on what my goal weight should be, I've been shocked by the lower limit on what some sites (e.g. Fat 2 Fit Radio) have said I can weigh. I'm a 5'3" girl (5'3.5" on a good day) with a medium frame (based on bone measurements). I know that even when I was 145#, I was nowhere near a good weight. Now some Web sites say 145# is my lower limit!

Apparently the reasoning is that your lean body mass will stay the same and you just have to maintain a "healthy" level of fat, too. But these sites include water in the lean mass - Based on the scale and charts, I know my body has 80-odd pounds of water now and will have 60-odd pounds of water at my goal weight...

Am I totally crazy? Why do they include water in the lean weight?

ahmommy

My understanding is that most people lose lean muscle mass as they lose weight. You can avoid it some if you do strength training while you lose, but I don't know if you can avoid it completely.

I'm 5'10" and fat2fitradio tells me my weight should be 134 to get to my desired body fat percentage. That's if I were to lose fat and no muscle. I think that's a little low for me so I'm going to try to lose a little more weight but then start lifting weights and gaining muscle mass to decrease my body fat % that way instead.

ahmommy

Oh, on your last point, water is an essential part of your body. While sometimes we retain too much water, we still have to have some. I guess that's why it's included in lean body mass, along with muscle, bones, organs, etc.