Your Ideal Weight

According to an old conventional standard a man should weigh 51/2 times as many pounds as he is inches taller than 3 feet 3 inches. For example: 5feet 7 inches = 154 pounds. Actually, this rule works only for people of middle height and gives an excessive result by about 10 pounds. It works reasonably however, for a man who is fully clothed. A man fully dressed, 5feet 7 inches tall, should weigh approximately 154pounds.

This method of calculation is in any event too high for a woman. Her weight proportions are different from those of a man. Her muscular development is considerably less. It reaches only 36 % of her weight, whilst for a man it is 50 %. This is all the more important since the muscles are the heaviest component of the body, after the bones. We must realize too that, although the bones are heavy, the whole human skeleton is relatively very light. Thus, the weight of a complete woman's skeleton of 5 feet 3 inches is between 11 to 13 pounds. We can never plead a heavy bone structure as an excuse for being overweight.