How to decide on a target weight!

karrianne32

I am a 5'4" female. My upper healthy weight is 10stoneish. I have been down to 9st2lb and looked very ill, 10st2lb and looked a bit skinny (big top half which don't get smaller is my problem)
Is it daft to not be aiming at perfect weight range?
At 13stone I'm already 31lb lighter and down to a size 14/16 from a 20+
Cheers
Karen

stumblinthrulife

My suggestion -

1. Figure out your current body fat percentage - there are lots of ways to do this, but easiest is a tape measure + online tools.
2. Figure out your current lean body mass (1-BF%) x current weight
3. Decide your ideal body fat percentage - this will determine how you look. You can see some examples and tables below.
4. Divide you lean body mass by 1 - your ideal BF percentage, and you have your target weight for the body of your dreams.

Example. You say you are 13st = 182
For the sake of argument, let's say your body fat is 50% (you're going to have to figure out the proper figure your self). That would mean you have a lean body mass (everything but fat) of:

182 * (1 - 0.5) = 91 pounds.

Let's say you look at the pics below and decide you want to look like the firl in the orange undies, at 25% body fat. So you take your current lean body mass of 91 pounds, and figure out how much you'd have to weigh to reach 25% body fat :

91 / (1 - 0.25) = 121 pounds.

So theoretically, if you could protect all your lean body mass (eat protein, lift weights), your ideal weight would 121 pounds. That would give you 25% body fat, and leave you looking pretty hot (if that's your goal).

Body fat pictures -



Body fat tables -

ninerbuff

Find out your lean body mass. Once you do that you can approximate what your weight should be by deciding what body fat % you want to be at.

So for instance if you want to be 20% body fat you take your lean weight and divide it by 1 minus .20.

So say you're 95lbs lean weight then that would be:

95/.80 which equals 118.75lbs

So at 118.75 lbs you'd be 20% body fat.

But again you need to know your lean body weight.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

stumblinthrulife

Find out your lean body mass. Once you do that you can approximate what your weight should be by deciding what body fat % you want to be at.

So for instance if you want to be 20% body fat you take your lean weight and divide it by 1 minus .20.

So say you're 95lbs lean weight then that would be:

95/.80 which equals 118.75lbs

So at 118.75 lbs you'd be 20% body fat.

But again you need to know your lean body weight.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Awesome, having what I've learned so far confirmed by someone so qualified is quite a nice validation!

RetiredAndLovingIt

interesting!

gailmelanie

My suggestion -

1. Figure out your current body fat percentage - there are lots of ways to do this, but easiest is a tape measure + online tools.
2. Figure out your current lean body mass (1-BF%) x current weight
3. Decide your ideal body fat percentage - this will determine how you look. You can see some examples and tables below.
4. Divide you lean body mass by 1 - your ideal BF percentage, and you have your target weight for the body of your dreams.

Example. You say you are 13st = 182
For the sake of argument, let's say your body fat is 50% (you're going to have to figure out the proper figure your self). That would mean you have a lean body mass (everything but fat) of:

182 * (1 - 0.5) = 91 pounds.

Let's say you look at the pics below and decide you want to look like the firl in the orange undies, at 25% body fat. So you take your current lean body mass of 91 pounds, and figure out how much you'd have to weigh to reach 25% body fat :

91 / (1 - 0.25) = 121 pounds.

So theoretically, if you could protect all your lean body mass (eat protein, lift weights), your ideal weight would 121 pounds. That would give you 25% body fat, and leave you looking pretty hot (if that's your goal).

Body fat pictures -



Body fat tables -

Please understand that the pictures do not represent what EVERY woman would look like at those body fat percentages. General build and muscle under the fat will change how even a higher percentage of body fat looks. I look like the 45% picture does here, but I know, objectively, that my BF% is not that high. Those photos can be misleading. I have seen pictures of different women of the same height and weight, but they really look different in the way of estimating fat.

karrianne32

I like the photo of 35%! She's got a beautiful figure!
I have used two online calculators with very differing results.
One said 27% which I know is wrong and the other said 39.6% which looks about right.
Doing these calculations I have 12lb to lose. I am already a UK size 14 (I have one pair of 16 jeans, all of my other skirts/jeans are 14) so this seems about right!
Thank you
Karen