If you are eating a good diet and getting a good amount of exercise, I kinda think your body will decide what your ideal weight is. Some people will naturally be heavier than others and I don’t think that’s wrong.
The BMI index is a “one size fits all” calculation that puts a number on a piece of paper. Who’s to say how that number was arrived at anyway or whether it fits you at all?
Be healthy and enjoy life. BMI or weight are just numbers that may or may not meet someone else’s ideas of what you should be.
Highfive , standing applause
Great to see that you’re happy with those important results and don’t track weight, BMI, and stuff that has no impact on how you actually feel! For me, it took months, but I finally stopped obsessing about my weight because keto made me feel so good: no more stiffness, better workouts, more energy, reduced T2D meds, no hunger,… AND keto coffee☕!
Watch the waistline, not the weight! It will all happen in time.
Good luck everyone!
Dave
Holding steady at 82kg
I’m just about there, still a few bits I’d like to have less of a wobble but not actively trying to lose weight anymore and haven’t been for a while - actually building muscle nicely instead. Stopped tracking mid-July but still test ketones / glucose here and there to make sure I’m doing OK but don’t stress over anything these days.
*** edited to add - just done a BMI calculator and it’s 21 ***
I am in maintenance mode. Took me 9 months of keto/LCHF/fasting to reach that goal Here is a link with a short summary of my journey.I consider myself at my Phinney weight. I get to eat great food, I’m not hungry/hangry all the time, I’m healthy and happy.
I’m down to looking pretty good by middle aged men standards. I’m 6’5". BMI for me is a completely stupid number. To have a BMI of 22, the middle of the “normal range”, I’d have to weigh 185lbs. Then I’d only be a bit overweight for a professional cyclist…
Anyhow at the begining I was dropping 3.5lbs/wk. I had some interuptions this summer which probably cost me a month or so of losing… Such is life. Upon getting squared away I’m now dropping ~2 or so lbs/wk. To achieve this I’ve upped my cardio finally after mostly dealing with an injury and more importantly I now fast on do 36hr fasts on Mon and Fri. This seems to be working. However, after I drop another 22lbs I’ll be at my lowest weight in my adult life (when I was in great cycling shape)., I’ll see if I can drop more and what changes will be required to meet this. I may need to play with a few things along the way like fasted cycling (bike riding) or something of the sort to continue to drive my basal insulin level down.
Hard to know what my ideal weight is. Probably higher than it is now as I’d like to have a lot more muscle.
Currently I’m focused on achieving a better body fat %. On July 21st I got a dexa scan and was at 29%. I’m planning to get another on Oct. 21st and I’m aiming for 12% body fat (and a little more muscle) and expect to get close. I’ve been fasting a lot and think I am on track, but it is taking increasing effort and more fasting to sustain the same rate of progress.
Yes - I’m here! Female, 5’7" and 135 pounds (a scale number I haven’t seen since the late 1980s.) I had only 15lbs to lose from my start of keto, but for decades that last 10 pounds had eluded me. It took approximately 7 months, but I have been maintaining it - easily - for almost as long.
What I have experienced since getting near the target is increased hunger (but not carb cravings - just need for more energy), decreased ability/desire to fast, plus the myriad of good things people talk about when they are extolling keto. All true in my experience.
I fluctuate from 121-123 so I’m within my ideal range which is 104-136 lbs. I have jiggly bits in my thighs and upper arms mostly, a little on my belly, and according to Army tape measurements, I have 27% BF. My BMI is 22.2.
My current weight is easy to maintain so I don’t care if I lose anymore weight at this point. My goal is to build bone mass (my last dexa showed borderline osteopaenia), and increase flexibility, strength and stamina. At my age (55), I have no illusions about being a model. My goal is to be happy, healthy and active.
BMI is a good reference in the absence of pretty much any other data but the list of what’s wrong with it is long and referenced by others in their responses. Often, to lower BMI, we’d have to lose muscle, now, that might be desirable if your goal is a very lean look VS a muscled look and, when it comes to longevity, lean might trump muscled (something on my mind a lot lately). Bottom line, others have said it well, focus on how you look to yourself in the mirror, how you feel, how your favorite shorts fit, things of that nature, they will eventually become your guide more-so than the scale or BMI, I’ll admit, it takes awhile to get to that point (when you trust your pants and mirror to guide you). Good luck in your efforts, the mid-section is a tough area, IF and HITT might help.
These are the hardest areas to lose in and the last to go IMHO. It takes many months to for me to even see change in these areas, IF seems to work really well for them.
Seconded! Great advice.
Hell yeah! Nothing like the complete lack of stress about weight/BMI/calories/ranges/blah blah blah, how much do you enjoy the flexibility this WOE offers?
Good on you! I stay at/below my Phinney weight as well, knowing that if I do exceed it, a stricter keto diet will get me right back to it. Eating keto on the regular has so many other benefits, I can’t say enough good things about it (to my wife’s chagrin) :wink
Same experience here. I can drop the beer weight pretty much at will, then to really get below 10%, it takes a lot of work, it’s a very slow process, that’s for sure, I think it might be on the level of years worth of work, not the days/weeks/minutes we impatient animals seem to desire change to occur in :smile
Your work to increase bone mass is going to be sooooo good for you! Sarcopenia (loss of muscle as we age) is a real challenge and adding weight bearing exercises can counteract that, they don’t have to be heavy weights, a couple of 5 pounders will often suffice, especially starting out. Good luck!
Hell of a writeup, thanks for taking the time to respond to everyone in a big post like that, very cool.
I agree with BMI - it’s an okay-ish starting point, but if you use BMI for everyone you run into problems with larger athletes and the like.
I appreciate the feedback about my belly, that’s my plan is to pretty much alternate weeks with IF and extended fasting. I usually try to shoot for 5 days one week, then either OMAD or alternative day fasting the next. I haven’t been too strict on how long I fast for, just that when I’m eating more often, I tend to do it later in the day to give myself a leg-up on evening cravings and extend the little fasts as long as I can.
I am about 8 lbs from 3rd revised-down goal. When I started 5:2 (the Fast Diet) 3 years ago, I was 185 (was over 200 not long before that), then went LC and eventually keto, on and off. Finally, earlier this year, I came into my “homestretch”, figured out what I needed to make it work for me, and now I am the same weight I was when I was in FIFTH GRADE! And I am 55 years old! I can wear nice clothes, my “skinny” sister hands me down clothes that don’t fit her any more, and I am never sick like all the other overweight (most obese) people at work (one who had a massive heart attack and was shocked 4 times…does he eat any different now!!! No!)
Am I happy?! You bet!
Forgot the final numbers: 129 lbs. 5’6" 21% bf
I set an ideal girth of 36" (half my height) when I started keto. Even though I met that goal months ago, I clearly have some flab left on my belly (especially the sides). I don’t really know if I’ll ever shed that flab. I eat one keto meal per day and exercise at least 12 minutes a day. I’m satisfied with where I am and uninterested in making major adjustments to tackle the last bit of flab around my middle. I guess I just hope that if I keep doing what I’m doing, my insulin levels will sink low enough for those fat stores to be metabolized, but I’m not taking extraordinary measures to bring that about.
Hi - congrats on your progress. I am close to my goal weight, and just not budging. I feel like maybe I’m chasing a unicorn body and I’ll always just have a mule body. But, hey, I’m healthier and happier, so I’m focusing on that instead of the last 5 lbs and where the scale is. Still nags at me seeing the scale sit where it was, so I’m still slowly working on it.
I am 5’10" 157# BMI 22.5
Started out at ~190 # January of 2015.
Most of that extra weight dropped of within the first 6 months or so.
Now just leaning out a little bit more doing some IF here and there since my set weight is just a little higher than I would otherwise like. Getting a little bit of abdominal definition finally. Guessing my ultimate goal weight (or equivalent body fat amount) would be around 152# to 155#.
I use it every time I lose…but I disregard their printed out explanation. It favors "low fat"
I will continue Keto and intermittent fasting…regardless.
, standing applause 
