Low Calorie Dieting - Beginner's Guide

Nutrition experts developed the weight range chart in Figure 2-1 to provide weight-loss professionals and dieters with a quick and simple way to determine healthy weights according to height, for men and women alike.

Find your height in the first column on the left side of the chart, and then move your finger across the graph to a midway point in the healthy weight section to find out approximately how much you should weigh when you’re at your healthiest weight.

Most importantly, this chart shows you a 25-pound weight range for different people who are the same height. Even if you and I are the same height, we may have different amounts of bones and muscles. If you have more muscle and denser bones than me, you may weigh more than I do, but you’re not any more overweight than I am. A higher weight within the range probably applies to you, and a lower weight probably applies to me. Men, for instance, often have a higher percentage of muscle tissue and bone mass than women. A younger woman probably has more muscle and bone than an older woman of the same height. Your healthiest and most comfortable weight probably falls somewhere midway in the range for your height.

Just because a healthy weight range chart provides a wide range of healthy weights for your height doesn’t necessarily mean gaining weight to the top of your range is healthful. Higher weights are generally considered the norm for men, very athletic women, and anyone else who has a larger frame and more muscle weight.