Everyday Systems

I'm trying to figure out what my personal "best weight" should be, and it's a bit tricker than I thought.

If I use the formula (height in cm - 100 = normal weight in kg), I come up with a normal weight of 78kg (about 172 lbs).

If I use the formula (normal weight * 90% = ideal weight in kg), I come up with an ideal weight of 70.2kg (about 155 lbs).

Now the BMI people say healthy weight is where BMI falls within a zone of 20 to 25 BMI. (BMI= weight in kg/height in meters squared, e.g., (80kg/1.80*1.80 = 24.69) ). With this formula, I come up with a range from 63.5kg to 79 kg (about 140 lbs to 174 lbs).

The healthiest weight for a male is supposedly associated with a BMI of about 22 (female about BMI 20), which gives me a figure of about 70kg or 154 lbs).

John Walker, author of "The Hacker's Diet" says that each person has a range of potential "best weights", which is roughly defined as a healthy weight which is both easy to maintain ("a natural point of balance") and which 'feels good' (i.e., you're happy with the results when you look in the mirror). This would imply that there is no "single" best weight. He argues that the body has its own equilibrium, and fights to find natural points of balance: while a person may struggle to maintain 165 lbs, and constantly struggle against putting on extra weight, he may be perfectly comfortable at a lower weight like 158 lbs).*

Thus according to Walker, my best weight may be found among a variety of different points between say 140 lbs and 174 lbs, where I feel good and the weight is easy to maintain (both things that can't be calculated with pencil and paper).

Is there a "No S Diet" way of figuring out what one's weight should be?

Sixty



*
"I initially tried to stabilise my weight at 155, but I discovered a tendency to creep upward from that point. It seemed I had to constantly watch my diet on a daily basis to remain at 155. Feedback systems often have points of natural stability. Experience had taught me that 165 was such a stable point, but I didn't feel good there. I'd learned that 155 was unstable. So, I decided to see if there was a stable point below 155 I could be happy with. In due course, I arrived at 145. That was it. I haven't deviated from that weight by more than five pounds for over two years."

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/su ... 0000000000

Here is a web site that has optimal height and weight information along with other weight lifting type of information. I'm not sure about the BMI and whether it is an accurate indicator, but the other weight tables from insurance companies are probably good. The reason I think so is they use weights established back in the 1940's and 1950's and it's unlikely we've grown so large over the past 50-60 years that these tables aren't relevant. Maybe if you're a pro football player, or world's strongest man competitor they're not, but for the rest of us, these look like good estimates.

Ray


http://www.gofit.net/fitness-calculators-02.html

The official No S Diet way of determining your ideal weight:

1) eat moderately

2) see what happens.

I'm semi-serious. Actually I'm totally serious. People were much thinner before they had household scales. These numbers tend to just freak people out, and it's very hard to come up with meaningful, realistic goals. I used the above method and I wound up 15 pounds below what I thought was my ideal weight. Behavior is the problem, behavior is the solution. Weight is just a side effect.

Reinhard

Reinhard,

< Behavior is the problem, behavior is the solution. Weight is just a side effect.

So at what point do you say "ok, after xx months/years of good eating habits, I know that a good weight for me to maintain is xxx".

The reason I ask is that if you don't have some figure in your mind, you might not notice when the weight begins drifting upwards again.

My weight has fluctuated over the years between 150 and 195lbs. I never even noticed gains until I was up some 20lbs. Now I'd like to find a stable weight somewhere in the middle, which should trigger an alarm in my brain when the trend begins heading up.

Sixty

I think if you focus on the behavior, you won't have the numbers creep up on you like this. If you are eating moderately, why would you change anything when you got to a certain weight? You'd just continue to eat moderately.

People managed to be thin and stay thin before there were scales. They managed much better in fact. Scales and results based thinking puts the focus on temporary short term issues, and even in this capacity they aren't that accurate. So I'd say ditch the scale as a primary metric and focus on permanent changes in behavior.

Reinhard

Last night I was looking at the book French Women Don't Get Fat. Here's what the author had to say about ideal weights (somewhat paraphrased):

One must not forget, there is weight, and then there is weight: there's the "ideal" body weight that shows up on insurance company charts, based on nothing but height; there is "fashion weight," an ideal much less natural, in which commerce plays a big, sometimes insidious part; and then there's the "well-being" weight, the one at which a particular individual feels comfortable in his or her skin. This last concept -- feeling comfortable in your own skin -- is the one presented as our goal. It is the weight at which you can say, "I feel good and I look good." The actual number will vary at different times in our lives, but invariably it is based on learning how to be a bit narcissistic while also a bit hedonistic -- two notions that are not as bad or even as contradictory as many Americans suppose.

Everything is a matter of balance is the quintessentially French mantra. Finding and maintaining personal equilibrium, to be comfortable in our own skin, is our mission.

Good posts, Reinhold.

It was always hard for me to 'let go' of the number game. I HAD to have feedback--a source of PROOF that I was losing, or reaching a goal.

I now have a good feeling about how I eat, which feels so much better than mear thinness, and I know I am losing body fat and gaining health and wellness. I have the ability (more and more) to move around and do things than I did, with less fat in the way. I no longer obsess about food, or even about the S's I have on weekends. Weekends are supposed to be 'bonus'--so they are.

I figure I'll someday 'level off' at a healthy size for my middle aged frame. I was 99# the day I got married (29 years ago), but now I'd be very happy at 130-ish. But will I step on a scale to see? Maybe. At the doctor's office, probably. The way they make yoou get on there with boots on and coat practically, I probably won't look. (Reminds me of a friend I had who took the bobby pins out of her hair, took off all jewelry, and checked her navel for lint before stepping on a scale--always a mental picture that makes me laugh).

The best thing I've gotten out of No S is being in control over food--WITHOUT being obsessed with it. Taking food more lightly, having a better attitude about it. And feeling better and lighter in the body. Being free from the numbers game has been very liberating.

Hooo, boy did I type Reinhold? I meant Reinhard, obviously. Long weekend.........too many S's..........