Calculating Your Ideal Weight, Your First Real Step Toward Creating Permanent Fat Loss!
Chapter 3 -- Part Five

In this Calculating Your Ideal Weight article you will discover why this should be the first "major" step that you take in your weight loss journey -- toward creating permanent fat loss!

But, before you can actually calculate your ideal body weight there are a few other small steps that you have to take.

The reason for this is simple: Most of our body fat is stored directly beneath our skin. When moving toward reaching your ideal body weight -- this subcutaneous fat is what you should measure on a weekly basis. By focusing on lowering your body fat percentage -- you will be able to create permanent fat loss -- in the fastest time possible!

Using a skinfold caliper you will measure your body fat percentage and write this number in your weekly weight loss chart. You will learn how to design this chart in the next chapter!

There are many different brands of calipers currently being sold. I would recommend that you look into buying the Accu-Measure caliper or the Creative Health Slim Guide Skinfold Caliper.

These are two inexpensive options that can be bought online for around $20. Of course, you can look into buying the more expensive calipers, but to track the weekly results that you create in your weight loss program -- these calipers will work just fine.

Your other option is to get your body fat measured by an experienced tester. This is the most expensive option, and plus you have to travel to get this done on a weekly basis.

Using an inexpensive caliper in your home is a better option for most people, and can help you save both -- your money and your time.

The most important part of measuring your body fat is to see the progress on a weekly basis. And this is why you must use the same method of measuring, every week.

Calculating Your Ideal Weight: How To Calculate Your Lean Body Mass (LBM) And Your Total Body Fat Weight (TBFW)

Lean body mass (LBM) is all of your body tissue excluding total body fat weight (TBFW). Lean body tissue includes your muscle, bones, water and all the other fat-free tissue. By tracking your LBM you can tell if you lost, gained or maintained muscle during your weight loss program.

To separate your total body weight into pounds of fat and pounds of muscle is very simple. You multiply your body fat percentage by your weight. After that you subtract the pounds of body fat from your total body weight.

For example you total body weight is 200 pounds. Your body fat percentage is 20%. This would be 200 times 0.20 which will equal to 40 pounds body fat.

Then you take your total body weight of 200 pounds and subtract the pounds of body fat, which is 40 pounds. This would be 200 pounds minus 40 pounds which will equal to 160 pounds.

So your total body weight is 200 pounds, your lean body mass is 160 pounds, and your total body fat weight is 40 pounds.

Calculating Your Ideal Body Weight!

This is the target that you should really aim for! To hit this target, you must first do the following calculation, and find out exactly what this number will be!

To determine & help calculating your ideal weight you have to know your current total body weight, your current body fat percentage, your current total body fat weight, your current lean body mass, and the desired body fat percentage you want to reach in the near future.

For this example below I will use a total body weight of 200 lbs and a 20% (0.20) body fat percentage.

In this example we will use 10% body fat as your future target body fat percentage. So using these numbers this is what we will get:

1) Your total body fat weight would be (200 lbs x 0.20) = 40 pounds

2) Your lean body mass would be (200 lbs minus 40 lbs) = 160 pounds

3) Your main target body fat percentage is 10% (0.10)

4) Determine your percentage of lean body mass at your target body fat percentage by subtracting your desired body fat percentage from one: (1 minus 0.10 = 0.90)

5) Divide your current LBM by your percentage of LBM at your target body fat percentage to yield your ideal weight: (160 lbs divide by 0.90 = 177.8 lbs)

6) Your ideal weight when you reach 10% body fat will be 177.8 lbs, meaning that from 200 pounds you lost a total of 22.2 pounds of body fat, while maintaining your 160 pounds of lean body mass!

If you use weight training to maintain your muscle creating a result like this during your weight loss program is very realistic!

Lean Body Mass And Water Fluctuations

In the first four weeks of your weight loss program, there could be some water fluctuations in your body. Since water is part of your lean body mass, these water fluctuations will show up in your LBM calculations.

If you are following the guidelines of this program, during these four weeks you should not panic if you see drops in your LBM. After the first four weeks everything should stabilize and the decreases in your lean body mass will be minimal. If you continue to see a large drop in lean body mass after four weeks, then, this should be a cause for concern.

Losing one to two pounds of body fat per week should be plan maximum, because in reality, it is very difficult for anyone to lose more than 2 pounds of body fat per week. The only exception is people that are extremely overweight.

And, even if you have a lot of unwanted body fat to lose, after four weeks your fat loss should stabilize, and you will be able to "realistically" lose only around 2 pounds of body fat on a weekly basis!

My weight loss system has been designed to help you lose up to two pounds of body fat every week, with very small decreases in your lean body mass.

Calculating Your Ideal Weight......small drops in LBM are a natural part of any effective weight loss program, and should be expected. This is where the use of weight training will help you to maintain your muscle mass as much as possible, and will help you to keep moving toward creating the body of your dreams!

From this page you can go back to the Main Body Composition Section, where you will find all the other articles from the third chapter!

The Ultimate Fat Loss System

In my book The Secret To Permanent Fat Loss you will find a simple, easy to follow "step-by-step" weight loss approach for creating the body of your dreams.

If you want to create irreversible, long-term weight loss success in the fastest time that is humanly possible -- this is the ultimate fat loss system that you will find -- for making this goal a complete reality!

Inside The Secret To Permanent Fat Loss you will discover exactly how you can create the “non-stop” motivation fuel that is necessary for you to use proper nutrition and exercise in order to reach and then maintain your ideal body weight for life!