What is meant by "excess weight?"

I've often wondered about this... the long term weight loss is from 55 to 66% of excess weight depending on the surgical procedure.

My question is how is "excess weight" defined? What I mean to say is how is ideal bodyweight determined, because anything above that is excess weight, right?

Can anyone help me to understand this? Thank you.

I personally think by ideal weight they are referring to a normal BMI of 25 or less. For some they define their own ideal weight, perhaps arbitrarily at a number they view as ideal or one that they had been comfortable with in the past or a number that their doctor recommends. There doesn't seem to be an exact answer. I personally choose a normal BMI as my first goal and then a weight I had been before that I felt comfortable with as my final goal.

I always suggest that a person pick a reasonable And obtainable goal so as to not set themselves up for dissapointment.

Ah, OK, so it is somewhat arbitrary/subjective. The hard thing is determining ideal weight. For example, I used several calculators to determine my "ideal weight." Here are my ideal weight ranges based upon my height of 67 inches and large frames size using the three body weight calculators:

 

Traditional Body Weight Calculator: 144-148 lbs.

Ideal Body Weight Calculator: 158-173 lbs.

Full Body Analysis Calculator: 143-168 lbs.

 

Confusing... I guess I will take the median weight of these, which is 158 lbs. That would be a BMI of 24.7, the high side of normal. Sounds like you are right!

 

Thanks to you both for your input!

 

Excess weight is how much more you weigh than your ideal weight.  So, if your ideal weight is 100 pounds (you'd need to be really short) and you weighed 200 pounds, then your excess weight would be 100 pounds.  So, if you lost 50 of that excess weight, then you would have lost 50% of your excess weight.  62 pounds would be 62%, etc.  Your ideal weight can be based on several factors such as bmi or insurance weight charts.  As you get close to your ideal weight you might tweek what you consider to be your best weight.  I'm 5 foot 10 inches and I feel really good at my 162 pounds.  I hope this has helped and good luck.