1. What’s Wrong With Weight Charts Going for the 3 Increases: Increase in Health, Increase in Happiness & Increase in Energy
Strategies for Success in Weight Management
By: James J. Messina, Ph.D.

2. Calculating Lean Body Mass
The best weight for you is your lean body mass (everything but fat) plus just the amount of fat necessary for good health:
10 percent to 18 percent of total body weight for men
18 percent to 25 percent of total body weight for women
A health professional can estimate percentage by measuring body fat with skinfold caliper

3. Body Mass Index Most people do not have their lean body mass measured
A more common, but less accurate, way to determine your ideal weight is to use standard weight charts based on a person's height and frame
BMI: Measures weight (in kilograms) divided by height, squared

4. Body Mass Index Ranges 18 or less underweight (increased health risk)
19 to 24
ideal weight
25 to 29
overweight (increased health risk)
30 or higher
excessively overweight (significant health risk)

5. Ideal Calculated Weight
For Men: 106 lbs. plus six lbs. for each inch in height over five feet
For Women: 100 lbs. plus five lbs. for each inch in height over five feet
Using NIH guidelines, roughly 100 pounds greater than the ideal Calculated Weight constitutes clinically severe obesity

6. How the charts got started
1942, Louis Dublin, a statistician at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, grouped four million of MetLife insured Put categories based on height, body frame (small, medium or large) & weight
Discovered who lived longest were ones who maintained their body weight at the level for average 25-year-olds

7. How the charts got started
Metropolitan Life tables widely used for determining recommended body weights
1942 tables gave "ideal body weights“
1959 revised as"desirable body weights“
1983 revised as "height and weight tables"
Weights given in the 1983 tables are heavier than the 1942 tables because, in general, heavier people live longer today

8. Critique of MetLife Charts
Insured people tend to be healthier than uninsured people
Frame size was never consistently measured
People included were predominantly white & middle-classed
Some persons were actually weighed, some were not
Some wore shoes and/or clothing, some did not
Tables do not consider percentage of body fat or distribution known as factors in longevity

9. Use of the Charts
Many experts say 1942 tables are more accurate because they indicate lower "ideal weights"
Many experts support the use of the 1983 tables, citing that these are the latest statistical sampling of such matters
The American Heart Association recommends using 1959 tables rather than the newer tables that suggest somewhat higher weights

10. Charts make it obvious
US Army, US National Center for Health Statistics, North American Association for Study of Obesity & USDA
There is no consensus of "ideal body weight"
It is different for every individual
Depends on health, body fat content & distribution, musculature, age, activity, metabolism, & other factors not simple to measure accurately

11. What we learn from looking at charts
You & your physician or dietitian must decide what your ideal weight should be
You probably have an idea what that weight is
Start conservatively
If you reach your target weight & still feel you need to trim off additional weight, you always have option to set a new target goal.

12. Online Weight Chart resources