Our Biggest Single Limiter: Our Weight. (Page 4)

Saw a study a couple months ago that compared various predictors of metabolic and cardiovascular health. BMI did very poorly, as you note. Body fat % was OK. The best predictor, though, was simply waist size. Abdominal fat does bad things that fat in other areas doesn't do. Don't remember the cutoff for women; for men it was 40" (ie, you want your waist size to be less than 40").

Note this was about health markers such as longevity, cardiovascular risk, type II diabetes, etc - they weren't looking at athletic performance.

I Don;t think it should be about the weight loss as much as it should be about maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle. Having lost 60 pounds in the last year wasn't my main goal as much as it was changing my lifestyle and becoming more active. This is where most diets fail with people is that they don;t change their lifestyle after or as part of their diet. As soon as they have made their goal weight they gain it back.

Being active and enjoying sports (SBR) is the best thing that I could have done for myself. Weight loss was just an added benefit. Though I am still loosing weight would like to loose another 20 pounds, it isn't my main focus. My training is and the weight loss is following. As I get faster and stronger the weight falls off.

I think just focusing on weight loss can have a negative impact on training were as focusing on increasing strength and endurance has a better outcome.

I'm 37. I'm very small-framed and fine-boned, so I have a fair amount of muscle relative to by bone/fat mass. I also like to keep up a good strength-to-weight ratio.

I never picked a specific body fat % to shoot for.

When I decided to get fit 7 years ago, I was 5'8" (still am), 205 lbs, wearing a size 35-36 pants. I carried most of my weight in the gut/butt/hips/thighs.

I set out to get into a size 32 pants for vanity, be able to do 20 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, and climb the rope hanging above the in-laws' pond hand-over-hand.

9 months later, I was 140lbs, size 28 pants, could do 25 pull-ups, 100+ push-ups, and climb the rope no sweat.

The omron impedance monitor bottoms out at 4% and would consistently show an error when I use it. For reference, I took measurements every morning at roughly the same time. Absolute caliper numbers were questionable because of the excessive amount of skin.

DEXA scans use about 1/10th the radiation of a chest x-ray. They are relatively cheap $75-100. Before someone starts claiming to have single digit body fat measurements it would be better to have  a DEXA scan. The results are usually enlightening.

Exactly!  I think maybe Thor Hushovd (6' 180lbs) is one of the few exceptions nowadays.  Like a guy said earlier, he's not getting paid for it, so not too much of his concern.  I'm 6'1" and wanna drop about 20(MAX) to get down to 200 and that's it.  I'm pretty much big boned.  I cut weight for a fight once to 185 and I looked "pathetic and sickly" at weigh-ins.

No knock for those that wanna erase every possible pound to reach their unltimate race weight, it's just not for me.  Some people just have different goals and objectives.

I think my Wife would leave me anyways if I got much below 200.  I don't feel like being the guy at the beach who gets sand kicked in his face  (j/k)

I am fat - there I said it.

of course this is a personal measure. Maybe to others I am "normal". I know at my lightest adult weight, when I was rowing in the lightweight boat for my universities crew, I weighed in at about 152. If needed I could drop down to 148 in a few weeks but that was only a few times. I never got my body fat tested, as a poor college kid I could not afford it (and I did not go to one of those nice universities with alumni donors everywhere.) Right now I am at about 210. I have been working on getting it back and have probably dropped about 8 pounds in the last few months. It is slow but I expected it to be. If my food is not pre-packaged (IE yogurt, string cheese, etc) and is not a fruit or a veggie - I weight it before eating it and keep to a serving size. It has been tough but that, with working out, seems to be helping.

It is also nice that in the morning if I do not want to get up and go to the gym my wife pokes me and says "you told me you didn't want to be fat anymore, did you change your mind." which is usually a good motivator for me to grudge my way through getting ready and getting in a good workout. I do the same for her when she is lazy but I have to be a little more tact in what I say than she does, as she is more sensitive to the issue.

I would love to get back down to about 160, which is my goal. If I can sit there at my 5'10 height I will be happy and feel good. Once there for a bit if I can drop a few more pounds of fat, I will try but I am not sure it would be 100% necessary.

Each person is different for sure... there really is no hard numbers; however, I would look to get a more accurate calcuation and talk to a doctor about the results to make sure you're good.... at least in my mind better safe than sorry... 4% if very low to for a 37 year old and I personally would be want to get a professional opinion, but that's just me.  again YMMV.

I wouldn't be too concerned if the "true" numbers were higher. I'm comparing how I feel and look (pure perception) and performance numbers (pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups) to a measurable index. Notice that I'm not mentioning triathlon related numbers because I'm new to the entire thing.

Where are you located in Georgia?  I may be able to set you up to have one a month for a year. That would be the equivalent radiation exposure of one chest x-ray. I would be interested to hear what you plan to do with the results.

Sorry about the hijack

This is my problem: I just want to participate in endurance sports AND look like Jamie Eason.

If I could do that then I don't care how fast I am anymore.

I use the results mostly to adjust diet and weight loss... I started at 230 lbs (5'10") and am trying to slowly move down to a better weight (did I just say weight?)... Anyway, I'm at 190 now and the testing does allows me to get an accurate reading twice a year and then I can use my scales % in between to gauge continued success.  My goal is to keep the muscle mass (or as much of it as I can) and slowly lose the fat... that requires a fair amount of food logging and workout calories burns to fine tune week to week... but so far it's worked well.  Knowing my actual muscle mass let's me calculate a much more accurate RBR, which is the basis of my whole diet.  Trying to lose at most 1 to 1.5 lbs of fat per week  is a bit of a challenge and the more accurate numbers I have to play with the better.....

That's my case for sure.  I'm 6'1 or 2 and I race at 150.  Maybe get up to 160 over the holidays.  I have broad shoulders and can put on upper-body muscle if I'm in the gym and/or swimming a ton.  But the time versus gain is terrible.

I'm a good cyclist / climber, so why not do what I enjoy?  I used to get comments about looking too thin.  But I've been at my equilibrium point for so long now that my friends and family either don't notice anymore or just don't say anything.  They know I'm healthy and they know I eat a lot.

For me it's not goal based.  It's just where my body is comfortable.  I'm fortunate to have the body and metabolism that already suits me.  But let me tell you if I tried to get up to a strong 200 (not fat) it would be every bit as difficult as you getting to my weight.  I think it takes long-term effort and discipline to change our bodies after we're done growing.

The thing I like about being overweight is that I get to pass the 140lb guys while coasting downhill while theyre pedaling away.

Then again, a beer belly sucks to have when youre trying to stay on the aero bars.

One thing about our cultural or national attitudes toward weight loss I've noticed is that we are a nation of overeaters and of overweight people- No offense to us as I include myself.

In every instance when I have lived in another country outside the U.S. I have lost weight. Even Europe (Germany in the military, Belgium as a cyclist). In the Middle East and Africa it is unusual to see anyone other than men over 40 who are over weight. There are no overweight children. Of course, infant mortality rates and even average lifespans are lower. The average lifespan in Somalia is only 47 for a male- so we aren't talking about a health concious lifestyle.

We don't eat well here. Our food choices aren't good, but they are fast. I ate less in Asia, the Middle East and Europe but I ate better and lost weight. I also exercised more consistently there because I had no choice. It was part of my job.

For me a lot of it is lifestyle.

I like this post and I think you and I are likely built very similiar. I am also 5'9" and weigh in the 150s. It is possible to be the best triathlete I can be I should weigh closer to 130 but that is not what I want in life. Triathlon is a sport and a hobby for me, not my job, not my life and no where near the most important thing on my list at any given moment.

I have been 127 pounds and 13% body fat. I looked like hell and was miserable. I had people asking me if I was ill and should they be praying for me.

I also have a hard time believing that lighter = faster for everyone. I recently lost a couple of pounds but at 159 I was running faster than I was at 150. I am sure part of that is base, technique etc. but it is also the truth.

Moving my body from the 150s to the 140s or the 130s would equate to a part time job I don't have time for. It would mean focussing on calories, carbs, fat % etc. I have 5 kids and homeschool. Focussing on every morsel that goes in my mouth is not a priority. We eat at the table at home just about every night. I eat a good breakfast, a good lunch (most fo the time), don't eat out too much, drink lots of water and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. I think that is good enough.

My body has showed me it likes being this size. I am happy, healthy and like the way I look. I spent years looking at the scale and having someone else look at the scale over my shoulder. I will not even have a scale in my house now. Life is too short.

I disagree. There's a proven relationship between gadgets and weight loss. As gadgets increase, weight, primarily in the wallet area, decreases.