How much should a homesteader weigh?

Not always true that thinner people live longer. The women on my mom's side of the family have traditionally been overweight, some quite a bit so, and regularly live into their 90's. Anecdotal evidence, but just saying...

Besides which, the average lifespan has gone up at the same time the average weight has. I'm not saying I think they're related, but if being a higher weight made that much of a difference, it seems it would counter that average lifespan more.

I think it's safer to say that SOME thinner people live longer than SOME heavier people... but some heavier people live longer than some thinner people. I think genetics and lifestyle play a bigger role (there are some people who are thin and live pretty unhealthily, and vice versa), with genetics taking the biggest share.

So you have multiple variables, and in order to analyse your situation, you need to hold at least on of those variables constant.

What would be interesting, in the context of this discussion, is to see how you would feel at the 150 pound weight with your current non-sedentary lifestyle.

__________________
"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law." -- Winston Churchill

Seems foolish to me to follow the BMI standard for weight.

When I was 19 I was 5'4" and 140 pounds of MUSCLE, I had about 2% body fat.

Now I'm three kids in, and weigh 170, a little on the heavy side for me. I think ideally, I enjoy being around 145. Not just muscle and bone, a little padding on for warmth, and cuddles. Even 155 is still pretty decent for me.

Mrs.Logan

The question wasn't if I would feel better at a lower weight and higher activity level though... the question was, how do I know I feel good now? I feel I answered that question adequately

However, if you want to get technical; many, many years ago I weighed about 125 lbs. Kept the weight off for about 5 years, too. I have to admit I enjoyed the attention, but I learned that people can be quite shallow. You see, I have been heavy since I was around 7. I lost a lot of weight over the course of a year or so, and as my weight went down, people who I knew all along started treating me differently. When I was fat, I was treated almost like I didn't exist. As the weight came off, it seemed like I was gradually becoming more visible. People who didn't talk to me when I was 175 suddenly had something to say when I was 50 lbs lighter.

After awhile, it got very tiring. You see, as a formerly fat woman who had lost a lot of weight, I had to constantly monitor what I ate and my physical activity (which was pretty darned high and included gym membership). I found myself becoming almost obsessed with balancing calories with exercise. Had I continued on that path, I have no doubt I would have developed a full-blown eating disorder. I finally decided that the constant attention to food combined with people only acknowledging me because I was an "acceptable" size just wasn't making my life very happy. Was I physically more capable back then? Definitely yes, though I'm sure age was a part of the equation. Was I happy? Nope, not in the least. I reiterate... based on my experience, I find my ideal weight as being that which I don't feel hampered by the weight. Both physically and emotionally.

EXACTLY. And my question wasn't strictly, "how do you know you feel good now," it was: How do you know you won't feel even better at the lower threshhold of your ideal weight/BMI? That's the part I don't get (not just you, Maria, but in general)...why it's about good enough instead of best possible.

All the answers seem to be all over the map and only one thing is consistent. Everyone seems to know where they would feel comfortable at or are already there, regardless of size.

Me, I'm 5'7 1/2" as of last week and am a size 8 on bottom and size 10 on top due to well, just a 10 on top.

For me, that is almost perfect in terms of endurance, size, mobility, flexibility and health. BUT, when the doc weighed me I was an astonishing 159 lbs. He didn't believe it and weighed himself to be sure it wasn't off. He told me that was 14 lbs over my healthy range. My measured body fat is 19% using their little gizmo.

On a previous 5 year physical, I was the same height and a size 4 on bottom and (modified) 8 on top and they put me on the "watch" list for eating disorders because I had too low a body fat (<6). My weight at the time....142 lbs which is at the high end of the "normal weight".

Demonstrates how very silly the idea of ideal weight actually is. Some people are built like brick poop houses and others like prairie grass.

__________________
Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

I am 6'6 and weigh 185. I am skinny but have done farmwork all my life. Roughnecked on Drilling rigs, worked as a deckhand on tugboats...had to "put out " a little harder than the heavy weights but have always gotten the job done. I have always wanted to weigh 210+ but no matter what I tried, 195 was my upper limit. I eat whatever I want as much as I want and can work hard and fast all day.

Who defines what is the "best possible" situation for an individual though? As I mentioned, for me there is an emotional as well as physical aspect to my weight. Is it better for me to be close to my "ideal weight" and unhappy, or where I am at now and happy? I've been both, and to me "good enough" was thin and unhappy, and "best possible" is where I'm at now.

I've also heard people say that some smokers live longer than some non-smokers. Don't think that justifies smoking. Sometimes, as you mentioned, good genetics can overcome other risk factors. If you have the choice, usually want to play the percentages and not count on genetics to bail you out.

Keep hearing about the diabetes epidemic, somewhat related to obesity (and junk food, pop, etc). Choosing your weight isn't that easy, especially with the junk food and labor-saving devices these days. Heck, many farmers don't move much- air conditioned cabs and all.

Daddy always said: Never trust a skinny cook

Some are just more trustworthy than others!

Boy, I lost track of this thread and there's been a lot of posts directed at my reply. I'll try to respond to at least a couple of them.

I think most of the actresses weigh below those recommendations. Checking for ribs... Hmm. Remember the Special K commercials? Pinching an inch (or more...) is actually not a bad way to estimate percent body fat.

LOL. You are correct, but then all of the formulas are designed for estimating those who fall within two standard deviations of normal hight (up to about the 95th percentile) 6'6 is WELL beyond the 95th percentile... so the formulas don't work as well.

Perhaps more meaningful would be comparing your height, weight and age to others with the same. Heres a page where you can do that.

for men: http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/av.htm
for women: http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm

The percentile at the bottom tells where you fall incomparrison to everyone else with your age and height. If you are in the 25th percentile, only 25 percent of people your age and height weigh less than you. If you are at the 75th percentile, 75% of people your age and height weigh less than you, and only 25% weigh more.

It's probably reasonable to shoot for +/- 10 percent of the 50th percentile for your height, weight and age.

You are correct. When BMI is used as a guideline, it assumes a normal amount of muscle. Since Muscle weighs more than fat, if you have very large muscles, it dispropotionately increases your BMI. Body builders etc typically have a BMI in the low 30s. but are not obese.

What you really want to know is your percent body fat, but the methods for accuartely predicting body fat are cumbersome at best. So BMI was developed as a close approximation for average people.

Are most people in the shape that Mike Tyson was back in the day? Maybe in their dreams! Tyson and people like him are world class athletes, whose physique is well out side what most of us can ever hope to achieve.


One thing that I'm surprised no one commented on is that your weight also changes with age - I'm sure we've all experienced this. When I was 16, I was 155# - a perfectly healthy, extremely active, skinny kid who could eat 4000 kcal a day and not gain an ounce. When I was 23 I weighed about 185# - probably in the best shape of my life. Now, I'm over 40 and weigh 200 - down from 207 and trying to get back to what I feel is my ideal weight of 190. It's a real struggle even running 6 to 10 miles a week and eating 2000 calories a day or less.

For anyone interested, here's an interesting site that has graphs for different people base on age, sex, ethnicity etc. : http://www.halls.md/chart/height-weight.htm

In most instances, a homesteader should weigh less than the home.

I am fat. Very fat. 6' and my weight varies between 315-330 throughout the year. My fat gets in the way, but I can work all day, and walk just as far as you want, plus one foot without dying, but I'd still be better off with a hundred pounds gone. I've always been fat, but up to five years ago I was in construction. Now that I've switch jobs I've gained some weight and lost some muscle. This is actually part of the reason I'm considering changing jobs right now.

It is hard to judge someone based on weight alone though. I've hiked people half my weight into the ground, and been hiked into the ground by people half my weight.

I can't help what the stats say. All I know is that I feel better at my average weight of 155. I've weighed the same since in high school. I'm short and wide and have more strength when I can maintain my "normal" weight. I'm weak and sickly when I drop down to 130 or below. Of course, I have heart trouble, so weak and sickly kinda goes with that, but I'm dern near dead if I go and get skinny. I think I have lots more strength because of the weight I'm able to comfortably carry.

I am 6' 2'' and weigh 150 lbs, BMI says that is underweight, I work bucking hay and outwork guys that outweigh me by 50 pounds. I have a six pack and can benchpress 190 lbs. Underweight? Yeah right.

__________________
"There is no overkill, only magnitudes of effectiveness." -- Me

VarmitSniper,

If you don't mind my asking, how old are you? You weigh about the same as I did for most of my highschool years.

By the way, your BMI is 19.3. (Which is the same as my son - he's 5'10" and 135 with a build that sounds like yours.) You wouldn't be considered under weight by the "standard" until you BMI was <18.5, which for you would be under 145.

But as I said, these are guidelines only - a simple test to see if there's anything to be concerned about. When a patient comes to my office, I use BMI as a screening tool. If they are between 20 and 23, great. If they are out side this on either end, I check to see if there's anything to be concerned about, and check to see if they are stable at that weight, or heading the wrong direction.

If a patient is outside the "normal range" of 18.5 to 25, I want to look into it more closely because it becomes more likely that there could be a health issue when their BMI is above or below those ranges. But not everyone outside those ranges does have a health problem - for example the body builder who has a high BMI, or a young man such as myself when I was a freshman with a height of 6'2 and a weight of 135 = BMI 17.3 (I gained about 10 pounds that summer, and 10 more by my Junior year)

I'm 5'4" 192 (last check) was up to 227 and have lost this weight slowly over the last 2 years. I am feeling much better, but at one time I weighed 170 and felt much better than now. I am thinking that 160 would be a balanced goal, maybe 150. I have started riding a bike on top of all the walking I do and that may change my idea of how low I would like to go. I'll reevaluate at 170.

"Ideally, one should be 6'6" and weigh 273 pounds. Hope that helps."

Zong,
I sure hope you were talking about men.

SBJ
5'3", 126 lbs.

__________________
The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring. ~Bern Williams

I am 5'8" and hovering around 203 pounds right now. I had finally got myself down below 200 this year. It took a month of being sick as a dog this past January and still taking care of the goat herd that was kidding at that time.
I'd like to get back to 175. I need extra weight to throw animals around. I load and unload a good 1000 lbs of feed every week or week and a half. I hike after cows. I outrun cows and goats, and I work a herd of over 100 head of goats. So I can do the work. Getting back to 175 would be best on my weak ankles though. They can only handle so much extra weight and extra weight is what I have. Few believe that I am over 200 pounds though when they see me.
I just used that calculator...It says I am Obese. If I am Obese there are a whole lot of people in trouble around me.... lol

__________________
Roseanna
Morning Mist Herd
Journey's End Jerseys
Jerseys, Jersey/Norwegian Reds, Beef, Boers, Nubians & crossbreeds

Well, I'm 68 yrs. old, 6'1" tall and 221#'s this morning.
Last year the Doc said I needed to get my weight down a bit.
I was at 255#'s. DSW Sharon needed to lose some weight for her double-knee replacement. She lost 45#'s........I do all the cooking.
In 6 months we were much closer to where we needed to be.

And on the plus side.....losing the weight lowered my cholestrol, and my
blood pressure to very acceptable levels.
My Doc was very happy, as was DSW Sharon's Doc.

__________________
Be Intense, always. But always take the time to
Smell the Roses, give a Hug, Really Listen, or
Jump to Defend your Friends & What you Believe in.
'Til later, Have Fun,
Old John