Your Best Size and Shape has a Specific Weight

When someone says they want to lose weight what they’re really saying is that they want to change the look and shape of their body.

Weight loss itself isn’t much of a goal without a specific look that you think it’s going to produce.

In reality everyone that wants to lose weight is really after a specific look.

This simple thought experiment will prove my point.

Imagine an alternate world where weight didn’t add up to size…

In this world imagine someone who is 100lbs overweight, pretty big gut, big butt and big legs, flabby arms and just big all over.

Now imagine they lost 100lbs but their body stayed the same size but simply weighed less. In this imaginary world somehow dieting made you lighter without making you smaller. So your body could weigh 100lbs less but stay the same shape and size?

In this world do you think anyone would be concerned with weight loss? Ever? Not likely.

What they would really want is a way to change the size and shape of their body.

This thought experiment is to show you that ‘weight loss’ isn’t the goal, but rather changing the shape and size of the body is.

It just so happens that in the real world weight and size and shape are all connected, and we all have a specific weight range where we will look our best.

John

As you can see from the comment section in my previous post there is a huge disparity in opinion of how much I weigh.

The answer is 188lbs.

As I am writing this post (wed dec 16th) I’m 184lbs. <– normal fluctuation in water/food content.

The point of this exercise is to show you how pictures can be deceiving and how bodyweight is a difficult thing to picture for many people when viewed online or in a magazine. Things like lighting, posture/pose, and skin tone can all affect how someone will appear in a picture.

Think of magazine ads or websites that promote before and after pictures…you really can’t tell how big or small someone is without seeing them in person.

Proportions also play a big role in determining how big or small someone looks.

For a given height and bodyfat percentage each person will have a very predictable bodyweight based on weight training experience and given a known food/water intake at the time of the picture. (I was 188lbs in this picture which was taken sunday evening after a good day of eating, as of monday evening after a day of fasting I was down to about 185.5lbs)

So when people say the scale doesn’t matter they are wrong. <– incidentally this argument is usually only made by people who don’t like what the scale says (on both the high or low end)

The reality is that the scale is a very good predictor of health/size/proportion at any given height.

For those of you that asked, I don’t know my bodyfat percentage and don’t bother using any calculators to find out. I’m just interested in the look/proportions.

Thanks for participating and as I drop even further I will update more pics.

John