Goal Weight For Lifters?

Since those of us who lift weights have more muscle mass, how do we decide what a good goal weight is for us. I am 307, will have surgery in 8 days. At 5' 11", the "charts suggest 165lbs, which I haven't weighed since the 7th grade! Have any lifters reached goal and where was it compared to the "chart". Do we usually lose muscle mass too? When can we start lifting again after surgery. Thanks for answering.

Well my surgeon says based on my results so far I will probably end up around 135 - I am 5'4. Today I weight 225 and have lost 56lbs. My BF% is about 36% and I wear a womens size 14-16. I am almost 5 months out. We will see what happens. I think that 135 might be too low and I'd probably do better at being around 10 - 20lbs more than that. I would LOVE to be 16 - 18% BF and pack on the muscle weight.. Hard to imagine being that weight right now as I have also not been that small since probably 7th grade too. Maybe I will get to 135 and then be able to put back on the muscle weight and build back up. I'd toss that chart of his right out the window =P I think the other guys further out will tell you that we do lose muscle mass but most of them have been building back up the last couple years since they had surgery. I started lifting 5 weeks after my surgery but didn't get really consistent again until 3 months after. Now I am back up to doing 3x week full body workouts and 6 days a week of cardio. I am just starting to get closer to what I could lift prior to surgery. My shoulders and core are still on the weaker side but my legs seem to have bounced back right away. Best of luck!!

Forget what the charts say. BMI is a poor indicator of good health. BMI does not take into the account of muscle mass or bone structure. Do not use BMI to set your weight goal. A much better indicator is the percentage of body fat test. At 5'10" and 206# my BMI puts me at significantly overweight ...almost obese. I did a Bod Pod (http://baselinefitness.com/What_is_a_Bod_Pod.htm ) test and my percentage of body fat is about 15%...which puts me in the normal range. Most body builders use % of body fat as a benchmark. In our case, the more we lift,, the worse my BMI becomes ....however, the better our percentage of body fat becomes. Go figure. Throw out your scale and don't use BMI to measure your success. I started lifting 3 moths out from surgery. I would have started sooner but I had a hernia and was told to wait. I did do cardio right after surgery. These are my vacation pics from this summer. These are the results of lifting and running. http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=6888208&uid=3357087 Welcome to the real source for Body building and WLS information. Good luck. Keep us posted on your success.

Marcus, I was a competitive powerlifter, and at 5'9", when I weighed 187, I was 21.5% body fat. The BMI says that at that weight I would be 27.6% body fat. Although I haven't reached this goal right now, you can see by my former weight/body fat percetage that the charts are not calculated for athletes (thus the study that says by the BMI over 90% of the NFL is obese or severely overweight). KarenK

My fellow members stated the facts very well here, do not have much to add but wanted to welcome you and say congrats on your upcoming day. I lost muscle as well, I also did not get my lean body mass measured before surgery, but last time I did I was approx 225 pounds lean body mass at a little over 400 pounds. I am now (After a year of lifting) at 205 pounds lean body mass at 265 pounds. My goal (If I can keep the muscle and even put some more on) is 225, this is a dream goal of 10% body fat. BMI charts are no more than a modern version of the life insurance charts, useless for anyone with any muscle.