How to find your ideal weight????

[RemyLebeau97]

Ok this is prolly a whole lot more simpler than I thought and at one time like back in 6th grade we were told the answer to this question but I wasn't paying much attention. What my question is, does anyone know how to find out your ideal weight for your height and age?? I am 6 feet tall, 168 lbs and 23 years old, I know it's something like you take this times this divided by this plus this, I just don't know the order, if anyone can tell me thanks.

[Sleepyjack]

Are you talking about the body mass index?
It's a quantifiable measure of your height by weight to get a unit as kg/m^2 (basically how much weight you have per metre squared of area). If you ask me, it's a bit of a crock really, cause it almost classifies me as overweight

atm iam about 187cm and 82-84 kilos or so, bit variable.
Anyway to work out my BMI, it's:

kg/m^2 = BMI
84/ (1.87^2) = 84/(3.5)
= 24

so my BMI is 24kg per metre squared. Basically they have some chart which puts you in a certain perecntile against other people you're height or weight to determine if you're overweight or not.
Ideal BMI of height versus weigth is something like 20 (or 19)-25 i think? So i am almost classified as overweight
Where it breaks down, is that muscle is heavier and more dense than fat so it weighs more. Also, people with larger muscle mass, also consolidate bone mass/density ( i think? as part of teh muscle building process) so they have literally big bones as well
So theres no real otehr qualities added to the weight, which would make the test more apt. Like if they added a qaulity component of your percentage of fat, that would (probably ) be a good way of determining what quality of mass you have and could be factored intot he calculaiton. Or if you could measure bone mass somehow?

That way, bulkier guys with more muscle mass than fat don't get classed as overweight

I am not sure if there are other tests which factor this in? generally though, as an average sorta measure, it's reasonable i guess. A bit crude though. As part of software engineering we often make qauntifiable things like this for qaulity, so i might look into making my own version

Although, depending on what you want to do? fitness goals etc, 168 and 6 foot sounds quite apt to me?

edit: heres a BMI chart thing
http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm

and some more info:

About the "Medical Recommendation" of Ideal Weight
By Steven B. Halls, MD

The medical profession likes simplicity. Researchers have tested if being overweight causes health risks, using a body mass index (BMI) of 25 kg/m2 as the definition of overweight. This is obviously too simple, but it is a common method used in data analysis. Numerous studies have confirmed that having a body mass index over 25 kg/m2 is associated with increased risk of disease (like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, etc), and risk of a shortened lifespan3.

It is important to point out that this simple definition of "overweight" by medical researchers, is not representative of how people regard each other, nor is it how a doctor would judge an individual patient, nor is it used by most nutritionists.

Furthermore, the BMI of 25 kg/m2 definition of overweight is a "unisex" threshold, that suits neither men or women particularly well. Nevertheless, a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is defined as "overweight" by some important institutions1.

The definition of "underweight" at a BMI below 19 kg/m2 is also arbitrary. It may be somewhat suitable for women, but is quite unsuitable for men.

A better definition of weight categories2 is shown in the table below. It suggests that an "overweight" BMI is actually 27.3 for women, and 27.8 for men.

Adults Women Men
anorexia < 17.5
underweight <19.1 <20.7
in normal range ideal weight 19.1-25.8 20.7-26.4
marginally overweight 25.8-27.3 26.4-27.8
overweight 27.3-32.3 27.8-31.1
very overweight or obese >32.3 >31.1
severely obese 35 - 40
morbidly obese 40 - 50
super obese 50 - 60 kg/m2



Another problem with all of the above definitions, is that they only apply to adults. For children under age 18, the "normal" BMI changes with age. Thus, to judge a child's Body Mass Index, you should refer to the boys BMI chart or girls BMI chart instead. In my opinion, children whose BMI is somewhere inbetween the 5th to 85th percentiles, should be considered normal, and not overweight.



Discussion

There are MANY websites on the internet that offer a simple "body mass index calculator" function. The vast majority of these websites use the too-simple definition of overweight at 25 kg/m2. You should be wary of these types of websites, not only because of their simplicity, but also because they don't compensate for Gender, or for Kids, or for different Ages of adults. The halls.md Body Mass Index Calculator does all of these things. It is a versatile tool, which also computes the "percentile" statistics of the individual compared to the equivalent population.

linkage: http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/medical.htm

[RemyLebeau97]

Ahhhh, just what I was lookin for, much appreciated, thanks