ExerciseCaloriesAndWeightLoss.com

For anyone who has ever been concerned about their weight, it's a question that arises pretty frequently: 'how much should I weigh for my height?'. The answer seems like it should be simple, but it's not. First of all, the answer depends on age, sex, muscle-to-fat ratio and bone density. Second, the answer depends on which method you choose to use to calculate it. The three most common methods are body mass index, waist-hip ratio and body fat percentage. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

Body mass index (BMI) is basically weight in relation to height. To find BMI, one takes weight in pounds multiplied by 703 divided by the height in inches squared. The resulting ratio will fall into a range. As a general rule, less than 18.5 is underweight, from 18.5 to 25 is ideal, 25 to 30 is overweight and over 30 is obese. The problem with BMI is that it looks at simple weight and does not differentiate between fat and muscle. Basically, BMI underestimates the amount of body fat in obese people and overestimates it in lean or healthy people, but it does provide a good ballpark estimate.

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is the ratio of the size of the waist to the size of the hips (measuring the circumference, in both cases). Specifically, one would take the narrowest part of the waist (generally right above the belly button) and divide its circumference by that of the widest part of the hips. It doesn't really matter if you use inches or centimeters to measure, as long as you use the same unit of measure for both. There are different ranges for men and women. For women, a ratio of less than .8 indicates a low risk of cardiovascular problems, a ratio of .8 to .89 indicates a moderate risk, and .9 or above indicates a high risk of cardiovascular problems. For men, the risk of cardiovascular problems are determined as .9 being low, .9 to .99 being moderate and 1.0 or higher being a high risk area. WHR is generally accepted to be a better indicator than BMI of whether or not body weight is ideal and more particularly if a person's body weight is creating a danger to their health. Even so, it falls short of being able to measure body fat percentage or muscle to fat ratios, so it is not the perfect answer to the question of 'how much should I weigh for my height?'.

Many experts say that the best to answer comes from the body fat percentage. The big advantage to using body fat percentage as a measurement is that it shows the true composition of a person's body - how much is fat and how much is not. Unfortunately, the methods for calculating body fat percentage are complicated and generally involve a visit to the doctor (or at least the gym). No method of calculating body fat percentage is 100 percent accurate, but three of the more popular and effective methods are near-infrared interactance, bioelectrical impedance analysis and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Again, there are different ranges of acceptable body fat for men and women. In general, men would be considered to be athletic between six and 13 percent body fat, fit from 14 to 17 percent, acceptable from 18 to 25 percent, overweight from 26 to 37 percent and obese at 38 percent body fat or more. Women would be considered athletic at 14 to 20 percent body fat, fit at 21 to 24 percent, acceptable at 25 to 31 percent, overweight at 32 to 41 percent and obese with 42 percent or more body fat.

Whatever method one uses, it is important to find out where someone is in relation to their ideal weight so that they can start to formulate a plan to achieve their goal weight. It is very important for cardiovascular health and general well-being to be as close to one's ideal weight as possible. For that reason, 'how much should I weigh for my height?' is a great question to ask. The next important question to ask: 'how do I get there?'.