Finding your ideal weight

[Crankin]

I don't think that is being obsessive, for an athlete. When my son was racing, he was about 5'7"-5'8" (he was still growing). He got down to about 130 at one point, by really restricting his food intake and becoming vegetarian. He looked awful! I had phone calls from well meaning friends who wanted me to take him to the hospital; they didn't understand the whole thing. He was an awesome climber to begin with and this helped even more. But, he could only sustain this for about a year. Now that he's in the military, he runs and swims fairly obsessively, but he also lifts weights and does Kung Fu almost daily (does the word obsessive stand out here?). He's now about 5' 9", but he weighs about 170! He has about 5% body fat and there isn't one ounce of fat on his body. It's interesting that when he does ride (usually when he visits us), he is still super fast and can sprint up a hill at about 20 mph.

[smilingcat]

One thing people haven't mentioned is that for different sports, we have different optimal weight. When I was running back in college, I felt fast at 106lb. But on a bike, I just didn't have the strength. When I gave up running and switched to 100% cycling, I felt strongest at around 120-125lb. At 116lb, I didn't have the strength nor the stamina to complete a 100 mile event.

In fact as I've gotten older, I felt the strongest in my early 40's. And its been declining ever since. I'm okay with that too.

We women concentrate too much on "lose weight" you also lose strength and stamina too. It has to be a balance of power and your weight as the article put it.

Men concentrate more on anaerobic strength and not so much on weight. Just my observation.

[OakLeaf]

Yes, very true. It's so interesting to me to watch the Olympic running events, and to see the very different body types among the sprinters vs. the middle distance specialists vs. the endurance runners. A motorcycle racer I'm a fan of just stepped up from Superbike to MotoGP, and dropped a bunch of muscle in preparation for the switch. I'm sure every sport that has different disciplines is the same.

[Zen]

I found my ideal weight in 2004. Unfortunately I've misplaced it somewhere.

[GLC1968]

I found my ideal weight in 2004. Unfortunately I've misplaced it somewhere.

Hey, me too!

Really great article here about body types for women athletes:

http://www.stumptuous.com/why-dont-y...-fitness-model


Check out the photos about halfway down of olympic athletes' bodies. The photos are a little dated, but still cool.

[shootingstar]

Ok. I looked at 1-2 photos. I thought I knew my ideal weight before I saw these photos.

Now I am a tad confused. Some of these women must be awfully lean and muscular.

For instance, 2 gymnasts:

4'8" -85 lbs. (or is it 95 lbs.)
5'7"- 100 lbs. ?????? Really?

I am 5'1'- 97-98 lbs. (I haven't weighed myself. Not tonight-- I had borscht soup, 6 perogies, 2 inch Ukranian sausage, sauerkraut. A church fundraising dinner.) Based on the above comparative stats. for the athletes, I'm "perfect" weight weakling. Does that make sense?

Oh well. These chicks are much younger than I. Age must be considered too in the whole equation. For instance, 5'7" woman at 100 lbs. and if she was 55 yrs. old (instead of 26 yrs. old or so), it might look abit different/gaunt on an older woman.

[lph]

Hey, me too!

Really great article here about body types for women athletes:

http://www.stumptuous.com/why-dont-y...-fitness-model

Hey, that was a really good article! Funny too. I bet men don't have to deal with the "if you work out this hard why don't you look like a model"-kind of crap. I loved the visualization of how weight really has very little to do with height until you factor in body type and desired achievement in sport.

[OakLeaf]

That's a great set of pictures.

I haven't spent a lot of time poking around Stumptuous, but I love her attitude.