What is your ideal weight?

Thanks, Carrie... and congratulations to you on your new baby and weight loss. Good luck with the upcoming season. I personally can't wait. I have teenagers, but I can relate to the evening snack.

Peter I asked my doctor he said I don't want you to lose too much weight and I should at least once a week buy a Strawberry whip cream cake and not share it with anyone and to drink 2 cases of Coke Classic every week. He said I looked great at 325 but said 250ish looks good to.

carrie, thanks for agreeing with me on the athletic females thing! :D and to echo brad, congrats on the baby weight loss. after reading your post, out of curiosity, i went on to the National Institutes of Health's website to get my "official" BMI- 21.6. last time i had mine checked, by skin fold, which isn't even the most accurate way to have it measured, i was 19.3. so neither the old school height vs weight charts, or the "updated" BMI calculations take into consideration lean muscle mass. according to my skin fold calculated BMI, i'm nearing the low, underweight end of the range. but according to height and weight charts, i'm nearing the top, overweight end of the range... :rolleyes:

48 M 5'11" (actually 5'11 1/2") 150 (BMI=20.9) 135-178 (BMI 18.5-24.9) 145 (?) -- college weight

42 Male 5'11'' 240 190-195 180-185 I have to start exercising more regularly and stop scarfing down everything in sight!!....and maybe lay off the beer a bit more? Newmastersswimmer

George- was that Dr. Magoo?

Something I've been wondering lately is whether the person who swims five tough workouts a week achieves any more health benefits than someone who swims three less intense workouts? I looked around on the internet but most of what I found seemed to deal with benefits of going from zero exercise to very moderate exercise. Are marathon runners "healthier" than 5k or 10k runners? Certainly training harder and performing better have their own rewards, I'm just wondering if anyone had seen any good treatment of the health benefits, if any, of going beyond regular moderate exercise? 42 6'1" 166-170 170? 165-175? If I could lose 5lbs of fat and put on 5lbs of muscle I would be very happy. Have recently started going to the gym again.

46 M 6'-2 1/2" 225 190-195 190 Back in the early 90's when I was doing triathlons fairly regularly in the summer my weight would go down to the mid-low 180's but in the winter it would be in the low 190's and I felt that I swam faster at the higher weight. I've put on a lot of muscle mass since then but other masses as well....but am not swimming faster . To get to a better weight, I'd need to reassess my career and lay off the anxiety foods. I think stress is a real killer for me in the weight issue, even if I cut back on food volume. Interesting thread, DV

57 M 5'8" 161 155-160 155-160 Weight is very tricky in athletes. I am almost exactly the same height and weight as Kitajima,but more of my weight is around the middle. I don't want to lose weight,just move it.

As several posters have noted, the "ideal" weights from health practitioners (and from Weight Watchers although that is a sound nutritional program) seem very low. Recommendations based on BMI also frequently seem too low especially for athletes. BMI calculations do not assess body fat percentage so athletes often have a higher than "ideal" BMI but are not overfat as they have a higher muscle mass than non-athletes. There is far too much emphasis on ideal numbers. The emphasis should be on overall health and secondarily on performance. If you follow a healthy diet with alcohol in moderation and exercise regularly, you will be healthier, live longer, and have a better quality of life than if you eat junk and never move. Proper nutrition and regular training improve performance as well. At any weight, a person who exercises regularly is healthier than a person of the same weight who is inactive. If we would concentrate on healthy habits instead of ideal numbers, we would all be healthier and happier.