How much should I weigh?

There is no straightforward answer to this question.  Most of us want a definitive response but this depends on everything from health status to personal preference to how one feels about the subject.

In short, your weight should be what works best for you.

There are a number of ways to look at what your best weight might be.  Body Mass Index (BMI) is one of the most studied and can be a guide to help you know what a healthy weight might be.

BMI is based on a calculation that estimates weight in relation to height. There are more precise measures of weight, but BMI allows researchers a quick and inexpensive way to compare the weight of different populations. Because this has been the research standard you can easily compare yourself to the findings of researchers on what is considered a healthy weight.  The critical issue is that you are an individual and not a population so you can only draw so many conclusions for yourself.

Being overweight can have serious effects on your health but that is not a given.  There are many people who are "overweight" or "obese" who are quite healthy.  While there are well established connections between obesity and many illnesses, with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, breast cancer, colon cancer, arthritis and stroke being the most common problems, weight is only one factor.

There are other factors such as the quality of calories you eat, exercise, stress and a good night's sleep that are also important to your health.  All of this needs to be take in context.  It is important to consider other consequences such as mobility and quality of life.

BMI is a rough estimate of body fat. When we say "rough estimate" this means both – an estimate and a rough one at best. The limitation is that it doesn’t measure body fat directly, so BMI can be misleading for those who have an especially high ratio of lean muscle mass to their overall weight. For the vast majority of us, however, Body Mass Index is a fair indication of whether your weight is in a range for your height that might or might not put you at health risks.

This table shows the range of weights for a normal Body Mass Index. Your Ideal Body Weight should fall between the weights for a BMI of 19 to 25.

For instance, if you are 63 inches tall (5 foot 3 inches) a good range research says that a healthy weight is between 107 lbs. and 141 lbs.

If your BMI is not in the "normal" range you can use the BMI table below along with the BMI calculator on this site to see if you fall in the Overweight, Obese or Severely Obese ranges.

For some this may be shocking information.  While BMI information is not perfect, it is a pretty starting place, especially for the majority of the population.

It is not critical to get to a perfect weight.  The goal should be striking a balance for you that works for you.  Yes, you can get to a healthier weight if you are overweight or obese and that is a contributing factor to health conditions you may have. It does take some planning and work at taking action, but as you read through this book, each day you’ll learn a little more about how to make that happen.

Lunchtime is one of the places where people get way too many calories.  Many people don’t make their lunch to take to work with them even though it is so expensive to eat out these days.

Being very conservative, if you eat lunch out every day and it costs $5.00, that’s $25.00 per week or about $100.00 each month. $1,200.00 per year. (That’s a trip to Cancun!)

Save your money and save your life! Start making your lunch each day and taking it with you. It takes all of 5 minutes to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain bread and put it in a bag with a piece of fruit. By making your lunch, you not only save money but you are in complete control of both the amount of calories and quality of calories you’ll have each day at lunch.