ideal body weight

I've gone from a 36 waist to a 32 in men's size. My ass shrank. Everyone noticed. I got compliments because it was revealed to me that under a less than toned form was a pretty decent, curvy and flattering figure.

When I went for my annual doctor's checkup, I was weighed out at a little more than 165 pounds. Kind of a bummer, but I know that since I am weight training and not running in place in front of a mirror , I expected that.

But I look good. I feel good . I don't weigh myself as a measurement of how much effort these last 6 months have shown to me, in little changes, throughout my flesh .

To sum up, I could give a fuck about ideal weight.

Obviously, there's something wrong with this "ideal body weight" concept, and I think I know what it is: Humans aren't ideal.
Ideal means perfect. Humans aren't perfect. Therefore the ideal Human wouldn't be Human. S/He (probably genderless, actually) would be stronger, smarter, faster, would have tougher skin, better hearing, vision, smell, and taste, or perhaps not even have a material body at all.

There is no such thing as a general "ideal body weight". It's as bogus as body mass index. Neither take into account frame differences or the fact that muscle weighs more than fat.

If you really want to measure the results of exercise or dieting do not measure weight, measure body fat, either with callipers or an impedance device.

The ideal weight is actually an ideal weight range. What defines this range as ideal is that below the lower end of the ideal weight range, you are more likely to suffer medical conditions resulting from your low weight, and above the maximum ideal weight, you start to run the risk of medical conditions resulting from your high weight.

Of course, this weight range differs from individual to individual. The ideal weight range is actually a Body Mass Index, i.e a measure of how much fat you are carrying.

The body mass index, and thereby ideal weight is best measured by body fat measurement equipment and techniques such as callipers, electrical impedence, or calculating density by underwater weighing.

However a good approximation of your body mass index can be done in the comfort of your armchair using only three variables: Your gender, height and weight. This does not take into account differences in frame, but is a good guide for over 90% of adults. I will not repeat the calculation here, as it is already noded over at BMI.

People where the quick calculation of BMI index is know to be inaccurate are:

• The aged, who have lost muscle mass due to aging.
• Adolescents under 20 years of age. There is seperate height/age/weight table for this.
• Body builders and profesional athletes with significantly increased muscle mass

Is the ideal weight for a jockey the same as the ideal weight for a body-builder?

I'd like to break that up into two questions:

1) Is the ideal weight for a body-builder the same as the ideal weight for a normal person?

No. A person with a large bulk of muscle would have higher weight but low body fat. The simple formula using height and weight would not work for them. However these people are very much in the minority. If you are one of them, you'll know who you are and hopefully you are not cheating, and so are healthy as well as good looking. For the rest of us, extra weight equals extra fat.

2) Is the ideal weight for a jockey the same as the ideal weight for a normal person?

If the normal person is of the same stature as the jockey, then yes. Jockeys try to be as light as possible so that the horse caries less weight. So small, light people are selected as jockeys, and they then try to stay light. Many sportspeople make sacrifices and have extreme physiques in order to achieve the peak of their sports. Going below the ideal weight range is no doubt one of these sacrifices.

Jockeys are an even smaller section of the population than body-builders. If you are one, then you know who you are and hopefully your weight is under trained supervision.

Sources: sites that google turned up.