Reasonable goal weight?
 

I am a 5-9.5 male with a goal weight of 170lbs. The problem is my current weight is 193lbs and I was just measured at 13.1% body fat. The way I add it up that is 25lbs of fat total and I want to loose 23lbs. Whats is the deal?

Thanks
Paul Corder

Most of the guildlines,different tables and all of the stuff is crap.I've never did one that was reasonable or within a goal i could do.Ride,eat better and you'll be where you'll be.I'm 6',192 and i'm not fat but if i went by the guildlines,i should be 178,that bs.

I'm with shokhead. I'm 5' 11" and am at 192. I was at 207 last spring. My personal goal is 185. I feel good, am active and can still whip a** on my 28, 30 and 34 yr old sons. (Grin- just an expression). I think most of these tables are not geared to body structure. Do what you feel is healthy for you and don't worry above guidelines.

Good Lord, if I went by those guidelines, I would have to lose a lot of muscle!

As I work out with weights a lot and have pretty good musculature, those indexes just don't seem to apply.

I am 6', and when I am at 200 lbs I am just about right

How was your body fat determined? I have a hard time believing that 13.1% figure, unless you are very heavily muscled, and have very little fat around your abdomen (less than 1").

If your body fat is actually that low, then you would have to lose muscle mass to lose that much weight. Pro cyclists routinely do this to increase their power-to-weight ratio (they have no arms and no chest muscles)...but, most of us who aren't being paid to ride like to look a little more developed.

Another way of determining body fat percentage is available at this web site: http://www.he.net/%7Ezone/prothd2.html. It only requires two simple measurements, and uses formulas developed by the US Dept. of Defense. It's not as accurate as water weighing, but should be in the ballpark.

Your current Body Mass Index is 28.1 (based on weight and height). The somewhat controversial cutoff for "overweight" is 25, with 30 being the generally accepted cutoff for "obese". At 170, your BMI would be 24.7 - a very reasonable goal...and, you'll definitely be faster on the bike.

I have a hard time believing that you have 13% body fat. I am 6' tall and weigh the same as you do and after all my cycling, I have enormous leg muscles from all my cycling. So the first thing to check is is your fat measure reasonably accurate? I am not saying that your figures are wrong, but they could be. But that would mean you would have a whole bunch of muscle for someone your size.

Now the thing is, you seem to think that you can lose 100% of your body fat. If you did that, you would kill yourself. Fats make up our cell membranes (phospholipids). No fat, no membranes. Also fats do things like cushion certain organs and parts of your body. For men, 4% body fat is just about the lower limit that can be achieved. Body builders and wrestlers do this and they can tell you that 4% body fat is hard to reach and hard to maintain. It really isn't worth doing for the average guy. I would think a comfortable lower limit for most people would be 8-10%.

I do not belive that I can lose all my fat or I would not have a problem.
Body fat was measured at the gym with some electrodes and some sort of machine. I do not know if it is the most exact way to measure but the fact is it would have to be way off to make the BMI weight possible without losing muscle. I may have to back off lifting to fit my new found passion for cycling.

Thanks for the replies

Paul

The Bodyfat Percentage (BF%) of a 76 inch male with a 15 inch neck, and a 33 inch abdomen is 13% Recommended BF% for a man is 15%

That web site gave me 9%. 69.5" tall 18" neck 33" abdomen.

FWIW about body fat measurement. I'm 6'2" and 175#

My body fat on that website-7%
measured by our fitness guy at work with calipers and measurements-13%
on a friends scale that uses some electronic impedence voodoo-19%

What this tells me is that you should get weighed in the tank if you want an accurate measurement.