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The Ideal Body Weight for Large Boned People

Nov 7, 2010 | By Bethany Kochan

Obesity is now considered one of the most preventable health risks along with smoking by the American College of Sports Medicine. Body mass index, or BMI, is used as a way to determine if you are at a healthy body weight. However, BMI does not take frame size or musculature into consideration and both of these factors can affect your ideal body weight.

General Guidelines

In general, women should weigh about 100 lbs. at 5 feet tall. For every inch over 5 feet, add 5 lbs. So if you are 5 feet, 5 inches tall, you should weigh 125 lbs. Men should weigh about 106 lbs. at 5 feet tall and add 6 lbs. for every inch over 5 feet. These guidelines are extremely generalized and take only height and gender into consideration.

Frame Size

According to Nancy Clark, MS, RD, you can add or subtract 10 percent of your general body weight based on your frame size. To determine the size of your body frame, you can measure around your wrist or around your elbow. The reason you choose one of these sites is because they don't tend to accumulate a lot of body fat. Also, frame size does not seem to change much when you are an adult unless you have severe health concerns. You can then input this information along with gender and height into a frame calculator.

BMI

BMI is still a widely accepted method of determining a healthy, ideal body weight because it gives you a weight range and not an exact weight. It correlates highly to body fat percentage, so for most people is a reliable indicator of a healthy weight. The only information you need is your height and weight. You can then input the numbers to determine if you are underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

Muscle and Body Weight

If you are an athlete or an avid exerciser with a lot of lean muscle tissue height and weight charts and BMI are a not a good indicator of ideal body weight. Muscle tissue is dense and holds a lot of water, so it weighs more than body fat. People with a lot of muscle tend to be considered overweight or obese by traditional methods. Instead, you may need to measure your body fat percentage to see if you are at a healthy, ideal weight. A range of 10 to 22 percent for men and 20 to 32 percent for women is considered healthy by the American College of Sports Medicine.

Considerations

When determining ideal body weight and setting weight loss goals, take into account your starting point. If you are obese losing as little as 5 to 10 percent of your weight can significantly impact your health and lower your risk of disease. It can also make activities of daily living easier to perform. Also consider that as you age your metabolism naturally slows down making weight loss more challenging. Set small realistic weight loss goals to attain a healthy, manageable body weight.

References

Article reviewed by Matt Olberding Last updated on: Nov 7, 2010

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