How do you know what the right body weight goal for you is?  Well super change maker, Peter, just asked that great question and below is my email reply to him.  Check it out!

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Hi Peter,

Thank you for asking your question regarding is your new body weight the right goal weight for you.

It really depends on you.  From a BMI and disease risk point of view you are now considered to be in the normal body weight range for an average person with a BMI less than 24.9.  Click here to see your BMI.
Now that you’re there, there are a couple of things you could think about.

1) A BMI halfway b/w 18.5 and 24.9 somewhere around 23 is super optimal for disease risk reduction, so long as you’re not a skinny fat guy with a bad diet, as even this person is at risk.
2) You’ll be fast and light with your BMI under 24.9 and getting around 23 would make you even faster.
3) Going lower on your BMI could cause you to become much leaner and without strength training, skinnier.
4) Now that you’ve hit your goal weight, which we’re deciding right now if it’s appropriate, you want to focus on decreasing your body fat % somewhere in the 6-17% range.  That’s a large range, but I’ll let you decide where is best or we can discuss.  Click here to see the chart.
5) Many coaches, athletes and fit people don’t buy into the BMI for disease risk reduction b/c you could be skinny fat and have poor lifestyle and nutrition habits, which increase your risk for disease and you could be “overweight” or “obese” based on BMI, but have a body fat % in the 6-17% range, with normal blood, cholesterol, etc… vitals.  What this means is if your body fat is b/w 6-17% and your lifestyle and nutrition habits are excellent as are your blood markers, but your body weight increases and your BMI rises above 24.9, then you still might have a lower disease risk and live more optimally.
6)  What would I do?  I would keep my body weight where it is right now and focus on bringing down my body fat % through nutrition, sleep, training and lifestyle and then see how my peformance and quality of life are.  Then test my blood work and decide if losing weight would make me faster in tennis and look better in my clothes or adding some body weight in the form of lean muscle would make me perform better and look better in my clothes or just continue to master what I’m doing to sustain this for life.

Hope this helps.

Mike

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What do you think is the best option for you and why?  Please comment below.