Setting Your Goal Weight

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You're ready to embark on a sensible eating-and-exercise program. And you realize that there's probably something to Prevention's Your Perfect Weight philosophy: Instead of dieting, you're going to be making some healthy lifestyle changes that you will follow for the rest of your life.

Fine. But what about all that . . . uh . . . fat? What happens when you know you have some pounds to shed before you're at a healthy weight that's attractive and comfortable for you?

The question then becomes how many pounds. Ah, that's the $64,000 question.

Only you can decide on the goal weight you'll be shooting for over the next weeks and months. And just how do you go about determining your goal weight?

It's an important question, because the wrong choice could create health problems. In fact, selecting the wrong goal for yourself may very well have been responsible for diet failures in the past.

If you're choosing your target number based on a picture of bikini-clad Cindy Crawford taped to your refrigerator door, or on a yellowing photograph of yourself in your wedding dress from three decades ago, your goal-weight expectations might be unrealistic. Times, and "ideal weight" guidelines, have definitely changed.

Depending on whom you talk to, you'll get a different opinion about the best weight for you and how to achieve and maintain it.

These suggestions should help you decide on a goal weight that makes sense for you.

Doing It by the Numbers: Suggested Weights for Adults When picking a weight for yourself, checking the federal government's standard guidelines for adults can be helpful. Don't just land on one number; choose a range of three to five pounds. After all, body weights naturally fluctuate, especially among women, and it's unlikely that your weight will stay exactly the same day after day, no matter how diligent you are about your diet and exercise program. There's no point in setting yourself up for psychological disappointment, and if you allow yourself a range of a few pounds, you'll still be able to monitor how you're doing, and catch yourself in plenty of time if your weight starts creeping up past that acceptable limit. Note that the ranges are for both men and women, with the higher numbers in the range intended for men. Also note that the heights are measured without shoes on and the weights taken without clothes on. Height Weight 19 to 34 years 35 and older 5'0" 97 - 128 108 - 138 5'1" 101 - 132 111 - 143 5'2" 104 - 137 115 - 148 5'3" 107 - 141 119 - 152 5'4" 111 - 146 122 - 157 5'5" 114 - 150 126 - 162 5'6" 118 - 155 130 - 167 5'7" 121 - 160 134 - 172 5'8" 125 - 164 138 - 178 5'9" 129 - 169 142 - 183 5'10" 132 - 174 146 - 188 5'11" 136 - 179 151 - 194 6'0" 140 - 184 155 - 199 6'1" 144 - 189 159 - 205 6'2" 148 - 195 164 - 210 6'3" 152 - 200 168 - 216 6'4" 156 - 205 173 - 222 6'5" 160 - 211 177 - 228 6'6" 164 - 216 182 - 234

Standard Tables Are Not So Standard

Are you one of those people who swears by those standard government height-weight tables? Then you should know that they have been dramatically updated over the past few years. What's more, even the people who put those numbers together insist that you can't just focus on one number. Rather, they insist, you must understand how the numbers were determined. Only then will the goal weight you set for yourself be the best one for you.

Why were those tried-and-true tables changed, anyway? Well . . . because they weren't so true after all. "Originally, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans were based on the 1959 and 1983 Metropolitan Life Insurance tables, using nonrepresentative populations--that is, only people who were applying for life insurance. But the tables were changed in 1990 because we wanted a more representative sampling of the population," explains Jay Green, a registered dietitian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Up until 1990, the criteria used to create the tables were essentially an insurance applicant's height, frame and gender--that's it. So, if you were a 5'8" - 5'9", medium-framed woman wearing three pounds of clothes and one-inch heels, you should have weighed anywhere from 127 to 141, period. Those early tables assumed that all women who were 5'5" were exactly alike.

But then things changed, for the logical. For the first time, such crucial factors as one's other health problems, such as high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar; a family history of obesity-related problems, including diabetes; and the location of fat in the body were taken into account, explains C. Wayne Callaway, M.D. Dr. Callaway was a member of the nine-person Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, the government institutions that drafted the proposed changes to the earlier tables. The committee's aim? To encourage people to shift their thinking away from the ambiguous "desirable weight" to "healthy weight."

Suddenly, says Dr. Callaway, the old height-weight charts seemed outmoded. "The notion that ideal body weight is independent of how much body fat you have is foolish," he says. "The amount of body fat is much more important than actual weight as well as where the fat is located and whether you have other health conditions. If all you used was the weight table to determine your healthy weight, it would give you false reassurance if, for example, you had spindly legs but also a potbelly. And healthy pear-shaped women, on the basis of the table, might feel they had to lose weight, even though there's no evidence that fat in the thighs causes harm."

Also added to the new tables were separate sets of weights for folks above and below age 35. The reason? "Our data showed that overweight is much more hazardous in terms of your future health if you're 20 than if you're 60," Dr. Callaway explains. "The adverse health consequences of excess body weight seem to be greater the younger you are."

Which is not, he quickly points out, license for older people to pack on the pounds, even though a quick glance at the tables might seem to indicate that. It simply means that no appreciable health risk has been found for slightly heavier weights among older folks.

So, Dr. Callaway concludes that if all three of the following statements describe you, then there's no health reason for you to lose weight.

1. I have no health problems that would be eased or eliminated through weight loss.

2. My waist-to-hip ratio is acceptable. (To determine your hip-waist ratio, see "What Kind of Fruit Are You?")

3. My current weight falls within the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. (See "Doing It by the Numbers: Suggested Weights for Adults," on page 13.)

What Kind of Fruit Are You? Apples are great to eat, but it's not so great when you look like one. Most overweight women tend to be pear-shaped, with the excess weight concentrated in their hips and thighs. Most overweight men, on the other hand, are apple-shaped, with their extra pounds packed around their bellies. A report based on a five-year Iowa Women's Health Study--involving more than 40,000 older women--revealed that the rounder or more apple-shaped a body is, the higher the risk of health complications and even death. Why? Researchers think they have the answer. Any belly fat that's actually within the abdominal cavity can easily enter the bloodstream and deposit itself onto the liver, leading to higher levels of blood cholesterol, they believe. They also have evidence that excess abdominal fat might cause elevated blood pressure and blood sugar levels. To determine whether your body shape puts you at health risk, first measure your waist at the narrowest point between the bottom of your rib cage and the top of your pelvis. Then divide that number by the size of your hips at the widest protrusion of your buttocks. The number you get is your waist-hip ratio. If you're a woman and the number you get is larger than 0.8 (or if you're a man and your number is 1.0 or higher), you're carrying more abdominal fat than is good for you. A weight-loss diet will probably help reduce your belly fat--along with your health risks.

Letting Go of False Ideals

If, after all this talk about setting a healthy goal weight, you're still clinging to the dream of someday returning to your college or wedding-day weight, you need to recognize that it just may not be possible--or worth it. After all, as you age your metabolism naturally slows down--and the weight you could easily maintain in your teens or twenties might not be doable today without a considerable decrease in the number of calories you take in or without stepping up your exercise program to superhuman levels.

If your notion of what your body size should be is based on what you see on the TV screen or in the pages of fashion magazines, you may be dooming yourself to failure. The fact is, most of us don't look like actresses or models, and to attempt to make our bodies match theirs is unnecessarily punishing, if not impossible. Obesity expert Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., of Yale University's psychology department, estimates that most actresses and models probably have a body-fat composition of just 10 to 15 percent. Normal body fat for healthy women is about twice that much--22 to 26 percent. To try to get your body down to such levels may seriously jeopardize your health.

Getting Real

Rather than forcing your body to conform to some unrealistic ideal, consider what is healthy for you, Dr. Brownell advises.

Dr. Brownell says that for people with relatively small amounts to lose--say, 10 or 20 pounds--shooting for the numbers in the government health tables is fine and probably realistic. "But if you have much more weight to lose, the tables can be an obstacle," he insists. "It presses people to try to achieve weights that, for biological or psychological reasons, may not be attainable for them. They may fixate on the tables, push themselves to try to reach a certain weight, dismiss the value of anything short of that, and then become high risks for relapse."

So rather than aim for an "ideal weight," Dr. Brownell believes that goal weights should be highly personalized and renamed "reasonable weights," attained through reasonable changes in one's diet and exercise. He believes, for instance, that your starting weight and the length of time you've been overweight are key factors in establishing your goal weight. Thus, a 5' 4" woman who has weighed 175 pounds for the past ten years, would have a very different target weight compared with a 5' 4" woman who weighed 135 for most of her adult life and then suddenly shot up to 150 over the past year. The woman who maintained 135 most of her life might realistically expect to get back to her original, comfortable weight of 135. But the woman who has weighed 175 for the past ten years might be satisfied if she reaches and maintains a weight of 150.

Dr. Brownell knows his theory is controversial. "Many people believe that ideal weight taken from a health perspective is the only weight, and that anyone who is above that mark should lose," he says. "But I think that ignores reality. It would be great if people didn't drink too much or smoke either, but that's not the way it is."

You might want to determine your goal weight by aiming for the lowest weight you've comfortably maintained as an adult for one year. The thinking is that once you're back at that weight, via a sensible diet and exercise program such as the one outlined in this book, it shouldn't be too difficult to stay there.

The Bathroom Scale--Friend or Foe? Are you the sort of person who wakes up, staggers into the bathroom half-asleep, climbs onto the scale . . . and becomes depressed for the rest of the day if you don't see a number you like? You've got lots of company: all those diet fanatics who let the numbers on the scale rule their lives. Don't misunderstand. Just like standardized height-weight charts, scales are useful tools for gauging your weight-loss or maintenance patterns, and you should buy the best, most accurate model you can afford to help you attain and maintain your goals. But remember: Your scale is your assistant, not your boss, your mother or your guru. If the number your see today happens to be higher than the number you noticed the last time--regardless of your sensible eating and exercise in the interim--it may be because you drank more water than usual, or because you consumed more water-retaining salt or monosodium glutamate or because your menstrual period is here (or fast approaching). And let's face it, there will be times when your weight goes up for no discernible reason at all. The real questions to ask yourself as you hop on and off the scale are: How am I eating? How often am I exercising? How do I look? How do I feel? The more you come up with answers you like, the more you'll realize that the number on the scale is just a number.

Doing What Comes Naturally

Other weight-loss experts recommend aiming for what they call your natural weight. Your natural weight is the weight you will maintain when you eat normally (approximately 1,800 calories per day for a woman, and 2,200 per day for a man) and exercise regularly, doing the equivalent of a one-hour brisk walk daily. Eat right and get the right amount of exercise, many pros say, and you should eventually get down to an easily maintained weight you're happy with. And that weight may well be something other than what you find on any height-weight chart.

Firming Up Rather Than Slimming Down

Another point to consider when establishing your goal weight: You may not love what you see when you look in the mirror, but your spreading bottom or your flabby middle may not automatically mean a weight-reducing diet is in order. Perhaps what you really need is to start a regular program of resistance training to reshape and strengthen your body without weight loss. (To learn how to start a resistance-training program, see "Resistance Training: Pump Up Your Weight-Loss Power," on page 71.)

When it comes to choosing the best weight for you, there are clearly many factors to consider. Don't hesitate to get your doctor's input, if she's at a reasonable weight herself! The bottom line, however, is that the number you shoot for should be one you can comfortably live with--now and forever.