Quote:
Originally Posted by dixiedieter
What kind of test and where did you get it done at? I'd love to have someone tell me if I'm being realistic.
It's basic math that you can do yourself if you have all the right information. First you need a pretty accurate estimate of your body fat. Either from a caliper measurement done at a gym or a tanita scale. Once you know your bf%, you can figure out your lean muscle mass. Once you have your LMM, you can add to that like a certain percentage of fat you would like to be, say 25%, to get an accurate goal weight. Now, I have heard it said that an obese person will not only lose fat, but will also lose some water weight as well as blood volume, and lean muscle, just because as you reduce, you really don't need all that much stuff in volume to maintain your smaller frame. So while you will lose additional lean matter as you slim, it's at least a good starting point. You just need to adjust it as you go along.
So for example, a 250 lb girl with 50% bf, to make it easy. This girl has approximately 125 lbs of fat and 125 lbs of lean muscle, blood volume, etc. So let's go with her lean mass of 125 and assume of course that you don't want to lose any of your muscle. So 125 is our new base. If you want to be 25% body fat, then you figure out at which weight 25% fat would leave you with 125lbs lean - or basically your 75% remainder. In this case, the magic number if 166-167. Because if you take 75% of 167, the number is 125, which is your current lean body mass.
So you see, alot of times, people are choosing these way crazy numbers which would require them to actually lose lean body mass. I'd be happy to help you guys figure out your numbers if you're having trouble following this example. Granted, as you drop, you will lose blood volume, water, etc., that may lower your number, but yes, it's really crazy for anyone to pick a number from a height/wt chart or a w/l clinic's recommendation for example, without knowing what their own individual body composition is made of.
Don't even get me started on BMI charts, which are a total universe based on averages only. Most muscular people will show as overweight on BMI charts simply because their body composition (muscle) makes them heavier than average. It's a fancier name for the old Metropolitan Life Ins. heigh and weight charts, because it really is no other data points that ht/wt. Now, if you wanted to add in a neck and waist measurement, then it would start having some meaning. I know the military is big on neck measurements bc alot of their very fit guys blow the bmi charts away due to their heavy muscle weight. But they all have good waist/neck ratios as well.