Q: I was with a group of women who attended your wellness seminar during our lunch hour recently. During the drive back to our work site, one question was focal: Why do all the studies about what people “should” weigh never take body type and muscle mass into account?
At one point, you flashed a general guideline that stated something along the lines of; a 5-foot woman should weigh 105lbs; then add 5-lbs for each inch. I’m 5′6″ and the possibility of Christ coming out of heaven and asking my hand in marriage seems more likely than achieving 135lbs! I run 3 hours a week (15 miles) and do Pilates 2 hours a week (I weigh 160) and I have for YEARS! I just can’t believe that I don’t have enough muscle mass to count for something.
A: It’s a challenge to pack a lot of information into an hour lunch time lecture and have folks understand fully what should really take about 3 hours to talk about. That said, the formulas I gave you are meant as a guide and during the discussion I mentioned two other important measures. We talked about how they are at least as important as your ideal body weight (and maybe more so). One is Body Mass Index (BMI) and the other Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR). Both of these are equally important and help folks to do exactly what you are discussing – put your height and weight information in context.
