Ideal Body Weight

It's Just a Number

The way to find your ideal weight involves your height and frame size, as well as your gender. There are several ways to find your frame size, but perhaps the most common is the wrist test. Wrap your forefinger and thumb around your opposite wrist. If your fingers overlap, you have a small frame. If they meet, you have a medium frame, and if they don't touch, you have a large frame.

While there are charts you can easily find online to tell you how much you should weigh, you should talk to a doctor first. Why?

1. You could be setting unrealistic expectations, aka: setting yourself up for failure.
2. Different body types have different ideal weight ranges, so a person with a larger frame will not look—or be—healthy if they strive for the weight of their fine-boned friend.
3. Weight can fluctuate throughout the day, so choosing a specific number will be really hard to stick to.

Calculate Your Ideal Body Weight Online

While it's best to consult with a doctor before embarking on a quest for your ideal weight, there are some online sites that can give you a general idea of what you should weigh. Keep in mind, even these formulas give slightly different results, so check with a few to get the best overall range for your body. Here are a few:

• Health Central: This one uses your height, weight, and frame size. It tells you to determine your frame size based on whether your fingers overlap when wrapped around your opposite wrist.
• Web 4 Health Info: This one has charts for people over sixteen years of age, with one chart based on metric units and one based on imperial units. You can click on a link at the top if you are under sixteen or you're trying to check the ideal weight for your child. This one, however, does not take your frame size into account. It is purely based on height.
• Any Subject: Here, you can calculate your ideal weight and then calculate the number of calories you should consume each day based on your goals and lifestyle.
• Changing Shape: This one calculates your ideal body weight based on your height and frame size. To find out if you've got a small, medium, or large frame, follow the easy formula listed on the site (note: it's different for men and women, so please make sure you look at the correct chart). There are a few methods for finding your frame size, including the Hamwi formula, the elbow formula, and a wrist test.

Where to Go from Here

Please consult with a doctor before attempting to reach your goal weight. They will be able to address any health concerns with you and assist you in setting realistic goals for weight loss or gain. Remember, these websites do not know your medical history, so they are only to be used as guidelines.

Knowing your ideal weight range gives you a goal to work toward, whether you need to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain (maybe even change your body composition if you don't have much muscle).

A pound roughly equates to 3,500 calories, so if you want to lose a pound per week (a realistic goal), you'll need to cut 3,500 calories from your weekly intake. That can easily be done by shifting your eating habits to include fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats (so skip greasy fast food!).

Free Dieting doesn't just tell you how many calories you need to maintain your weight, burn fat, or burn fat to lose weight. It tells you where your calories should come from (fat, carbs, protein), how to gain muscle, and how to adjust your calorie intake if you're pregnant.