[CAROLINAINDC]

Hi everyone
My name is Carol. Right now I am circa 135 #'s. I am aiming for 100#'s. Is this an unrealistic goal? My height is 1.50 cms (which is almost 5'0").
And I am 32 yo.

[SilverLife]

Welcome, Carol! It's nice to have you here.

Your question about ideal weight is a huge subject. There are many charts and equations that can be used as starting points, but they are only that. You will find what best fits you.

I used this chart which compares the 1959 and 1983 height and weight tables used by the Metropolitan Life Insurance company. The table for women is at the bottom of the page. Some are more comfortable being at the low end of the spectrum and some at the high. At different years, the insurance company has decided, according to the statistics of those insured with them, that particular people at a particular weight lived longer, and so they publish different height/weight charts according to the statistics, for a very small group of people.

Here is an interesting comparison of height/weight tables and some notes about the arbitrariness of the tables and their lack of basis in evidence. This site states, again, that no chart can determine what is right for someone.

Here, a scholarly attempt to determine ideal weight for women. They still haven't found it.

An article in the NY Times on the absurdity in arbitrarily deciding ideal weight for others according to the insurance company's tables.

Here, some interesting examples of how to calculate normal body weight in a book at google. This book includes the simple equation for women that for 5 feet at 100 and 5 pounds for every inch over that. Might be fine for some folks and very wrong for others. The equation does not take frame size, age, or proportion of fat to muscle into account.

All these charts and equations are starting points, but finding what fits is up to each of us.

Hope this helps a bit. It can be a controversial area of discussion for many. For those of us who just want to look and feel our best, we'd like something simpler.

You can see in looking at the statistics in the profiles of folks here at 3fc that women of the same height choose very different weights as their goal. Some choose to weigh less than what the charts and equations say, some more. There are legitimate reasons for those choices. A ballerina must weigh less than what a modern dancer can weigh. There are athletes who need to weigh less or more than what the insurance company's statistics state.

I like being sleek and missed it while I was heavier. Others like being more solid or a tad rounder, for their reasons. It's great to be able to choose.

All the best to you!

[thesame7lbs]

Wow, SilverLife, those are some great resources! I think you, like me, are a researcher and data-gatherer, yes? I love to really dive into a subject and read a lot about it.

Carol, like SilverLife said, only you can decide what's right for you. There are so many individual factors.

At 5 feet even, 100 pounds would be a BMI of 19.5 -- at the lower end of the healthy range.

You may want to start with something more in the middle of the healthy range, say 110, and then, when you approach or reach that goal, you can reassess. It seems to me that most of us pick our goals pretty arbitrarily -- it may be a weight we remember being back in jr high or high school -- and then, along the way realize how much our bodies have changed, or find that regular exercise reshapes us in a way that is pleasing at a higher weight than we thought we'd be happy with.

I wish you success in your effort! Please join us on our weekly chat thread and "get to know" everyone!

PS -- Are you in Washington DC? I'm way out in Rockville, MD. Nice sauna we have here, isn't it?

[SilverLife]

Same7, I do like to look up things and read, when something interests me. I always appreciate how practical and full of common sense your approach to this new lifestyle is. I enjoy your posts!

Choosing a weight, a food plan, and how one exercises are so individual, and ever changing. It's interesting to read how thinking has changed, and not changed, over the decades, about these things.

I like having references and source information. The posts which include them always appeal to me more than those that don't.

Hope you all have a lovely morning!

[CAROLINAINDC]

WOW! Silverlife thanks so much for all the articles, I am sure will read them.

Same7, my god it is so humid already and It is only 8 am!!!! I walk to work (nice!) and I am sweety as h3ll when I get here LOL! I live in Alexandria, VA. I

I must confess, I only weight myself once a month (right after TOM) and I am circa 135. Few years ago I was 98#'s (like aorund my 28th bday). I would love to be 110 heck I would love to see 120. I am gonna play by hear... see how it goes.

Currently I walk 5 days a week to and from work and 1 hour weight training X3 a week

I eat healthy (5X a day)... following a 1350 calories plan.