How to Figure Out Your Ideal Healthy Body Weight

Welcome to the Cabral Concept, where board-certified naturopath and integrative health practitioner

Dr. Stephen Cabral shares how he was diagnosed at the age of 17 with a life-altering illness

and given no hope for recovery.

He was only after studying and traveling all over the world if he discover how to combine

ancient Ayurvedic healing practices with state-of-the-art naturopathic and functional medicine

to fully rebalance the body and re-energize it with life.

It's time to discover how to get well, lose weight, and finally feel alive again.

And now here's your host Dr. Stephen Cabral.

Welcome back everyone, great to have you here today.

Today is typically a training Thursday or conversations with Cabral, but we interrupt our regularly

scheduled podcast to bring you a podcast, yes, still on Body Transformation, but one that's

going to help you understand your unique and ideal body weight.

This is really important because I think a lot of times by the media and in our society,

our culture, we've been led to believe that there's one specific body type for all people.

Like everyone is supposed to weigh this amount of weight if they're 5'2, 5'4, 5'8, 6'

feet, whatever it might be.

But we know that that's not the truth.

Again, ancient Ayurvedic medicine has taught us this 6,000 plus years ago with the Vata,

Pitta, and the Kafa.

And if you've never heard about these body types before, well, they match up alone

behold with all of the somato types, the ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph, I explain

what all those body types are over at StephenCabral.com forward slash podcasts.

Just swipe through the graphics at the top, you'll click on Ayurvedic podcasts, go back

to the beginning, you'll be able to see all about the different body types.

But today I'm actually going to bring you into the science of your unique body type.

I'm going to share with you three different calculators that will all be available completely

for free at StephenCabral.com forward slash 1973.

What this is going to do is it's going to give you your body fat percentage without having

to use any calipers, okay, without any hydrostatic weighing, like underwater weighing, it's going

to calculate your BMI without you having to figure out your height over your weight

times your height.

And you're also not going to have to figure out what your ideal weight should be.

So this is going to help you calculate that.

And I thought it was pretty eye-opening because I'm going to go through all my specific stats

today.

So I'm going to be really open and honest with you with all my stats.

And it's really interesting because when I look at my height, I can have a 40-pound

swing for someone my height and they're still within the healthy range.

Which means that, again, just like you, you could have a friend that, let's say, one of

your friends is 120 pounds and maybe you're 160 pounds.

But at five foot eight, that's perfectly healthy and acceptable.

So it's kind of like knowing your height and also your body fat and where you fall for

BMI.

So this probably won't make a lot of sense until I pull it all together, which is what

I want to do for you right now.

So if possible, if you're not driving, if you're not, you know, making dinner, whatever

it is, it would be great to head over to stevencrabrawl.com forward slash 1973 and follow along

as I do this because I'm actually going to pull all of these up for you.

So the very first one we're going to do is body mass index.

Now again, you'll see why body mass index is not the end all, be all that a lot of personal

trainers and fitness professionals will tell you.

And I'll tell you the same.

Again, I was in the same boat, you know, that I started in this industry as a young 18-year

old personal trainer, you know, cutting my teeth in like the world's gym and the plan of

fitness and the ballies, gyms, all those different places, you know, and eventually kind

of working my way up.

But we always said, hey, don't listen to BMI, it's all about your body fat.

But here's the truth.

The more that I've studied medicine, actual health, BMI does matter.

And that's because when your BMI is above a 24.9, there are serious health risks.

There really are stroke, cancer, diabetes, and much more.

Otherwise I said BMI does matter.

It honestly does.

It's one marker.

It's not the end all, be all.

You're about to see with me.

And I'm going to take you through the statistics.

So all this calculator asks you to do is you're going to type in your age, your gender,

your height, your weight, and it's going to press, and then you press calculate.

That's it.

So I'm going to give you, as we move through it, what, honestly, the age and the gender

doesn't matter as much.

It really doesn't.

It's going to matter for your body fat to a greater degree because it's different from

men and women, but not your BMI.

So I'm five feet, eight inches tall.

People when they meet me, they always thought, oh, I thought you were six feet.

I thought you were so much taller.

And I'm always like, I'm so sorry to disappoint you.

And I'll always joke around, of course.

But I'm five foot eight and I weigh about 164 pounds.

And for me, my weight that my body likes to be at is between like 158 and 168, 167 pounds.

If I'm, if I weigh more than that, I'm carrying around kind of a too much weight really for

my frame and body.

And if I'm under the 158, 156, I feel too light and my body actually feels weaker.

So for me, the sweet spot is always a red around 160, 165 pounds.

I feel light.

I feel lean.

I feel healthy.

I feel energetic.

I kind of have the wrong sweet spot.

So for me, right now on today's weight, I'm just giving you this week's weight.

Sometimes it's 163, sometimes it's 167, today's 164.

And so when I calculate that, five foot eight, 164 pounds, I am low and behold 24.9 for

my BMI.

Now if I was 1.1 more percent higher, I would actually be considered then overweight.

So it's, but I'm not overweight.

But what I can assure you is this is that BMI still matters.

Like for my height, I really shouldn't be too much over, again, 164, 165 pounds.

And my body also tells me that as well, you don't feel as well at that point.

So this is an important statistic, however, in the fitness field, we typically say, well,

your body fat percentage really trumps your BMI.

And that's true because your waist will be smaller.

Your neck will typically not have as much body fat on it, which really lead to greater

health-based issues.

So if you're like me and you're at the high end of the BMI, the next thing to do is

look at your body fat percentage.

Now I do body fat caliper testing as well.

I used to use an 11 point, but now I just use the 3 point Jackson Pollock method, which

is just, for men, it's the chest right here in the pectoral muscle.

It's about right where your front deltoid is.

I'm not going to go through all this today.

I do that in the past.

I could probably link it up.

It's like, it's like way back in the day, episode 100 or so.

We go over body fat testing.

I'll see if we can even find that episode.

For women, it's the tricep.

It's the supriiliac rate above that hip bone.

And then it's a mid quadricep for men, chest, the abdominal body fat area as well, but

one inch beside the belly button.

And then it's mid thigh as well.

So I take my body fat, so I know my body fat.

Again, I'm not super obsessed.

I'm not even obsessed at all about it.

I was for sure in my 20s, but I'm certainly not now.

I just want to be healthy.

I want to be lean.

I want to feel energetic.

That's really what it's all about.

Okay.

So my BMI is at the top.

It's 24.9.

Okay.

So that to me, signals, listen, you don't want to really gain much more weight even if

you have a good body fat percentage.

And I still believe that for overall longevity based health.

But now let's look at my body fat percentage.

So if you aren't able to use calipers, this is the best method I've seen to date.

And again, let me mention one more time.

Healthy BMI is between 19 and 24.9.

Calculate yours.

Make sure you're within that zone.

If you're under 19, you're probably a little underweight unless you're very, very slim

vata and you're still healthy.

If you're over 24.9, then you're typically carrying a little bit more weight than your

body should have.

And if you're over 29 for your BMI, that is considered obese.

And at that point, no matter what you're frame, you really need to get that weight down.

And that's really important because this is from a health based, science based perspective

where your chance for cardiovascular, risk, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer goes

up.

And again, those are all the top four leading causes of death.

All right.

So now let's go over the body fat calculator.

And again, if you don't have calipers, check this out.

This is, this is really fantastic.

Best one that I've seen to date and it's called the US Navy method.

I'm linking it up right below for free.

So type in your weight, mind's 164 pounds.

Type in your height, 5 foot 8.

Type in your neck.

So you want to type in your neck based measurement.

And they do it by feet and inches.

I know that's strange.

So basically a foot is 12 inches.

And then put in the additional inches after that, right?

So it's like, if your neck is 15 inches, put in 12 inches, and then three more, right?

For 15.

Now, don't go by your shirt size, right?

My dress shirt is a 16, right, to a 16 and a half depending on what company I go with.

But my actual neck, if I don't, because I'm not going to choke myself out of my shirt,

my actual neck is closer to a 15 and a half, okay?

And then put in your waist.

So your waist size is in feet and in inches.

So most people are going to start at two feet, that's 24 inches.

And then you'll add whatever it is on top of that.

So I put my waist in at 30 inches, okay?

And all you have to do is take either a string or a floppy tape measure and put it around

your belly button, right around your waist.

And then from there, what you want to do is if it's a string, just do it over a tape

measure.

Okay, how long do that come out to be?

Super simple.

Okay.

164 pounds, height 5 foot 8, neck about 15, 15, half inches, waist 29, 30 inches.

I just put in 30 inches.

And then we press calculate.

And let's see what we have.

Calculation is 9.8% body fat, which is pretty much exactly where I try to maintain.

I try to maintain between 9 and 12% body fat year round, closer to 9% for the summer,

and closer to 12% for the winter, what I'm not as focused on the bean as lean.

And just maybe lifting a little bit more weight, really focus more on that.

But that's neither here nor there.

So really simple way.

And again, this is pretty much really on point if you give accurate measurements.

So just make sure your measurements are correct, correct.

So it shows that my body fat mass is 16 pounds of body fat in my body.

My lean mass is 148 pounds.

That doesn't mean that's how much muscle I have.

That means nonfat, means bone and everything else, okay, bone muscle, et cetera, okay.

And then my body fat to gain, to reach a deal, 10.1 pounds.

All this is, again, neither here nor there.

And they would give a BMI method for calculation, which would be 23.6.

So this is interesting.

I just want to share with you, that's why I'm doing this podcast.

If you look at this calculator and loan, it would give you the wrong BMI, all right?

So what it's doing is it's giving you a new BMI based on your fitness level.

Because it's saying I'm in the athlete category.

And although I'm flattered, I'm not an athlete, you know, that's certainly not my cards.

So when we look at this, it's saying, okay, I have a true BMI of 24.9.

But based on my lower body fat percentage, they're putting me at a 23.6 BMI.

That is much healthier, right?

So it's a nice adjusted BMI.

And you can use this if your body fat is a little bit lower.

Now, what should your body fat be?

Well, for men, typical body fat should be somewhere between 14 and 18%.

Okay?

It's a great body fat range to be in.

You're going to be in a lean percentage there.

But there's nothing wrong with going up to 18 to 20%.

Really?

But as long as your race tip ratio is okay, and I'll link up a previous podcast on that,

BMI is okay, all of that.

For women, it's 18 to 22, typically, okay?

So 18 to 22 for women, 14 to 18 for men is considered more of the athletic fit based

category.

But again, women can be 22 to 26% and men can be right around the 20%.

So just keep that in mind.

This will give you all of the different charts.

It basically says, you know, if you look at their charts,

I gave you the science base.

They're giving you their American Council on Exercise, which is my very first certification

when I was 18 years old, essential fat for women don't go below 13%, men don't go below

5%.

For athletes, 6 to 13% for men, 14 to 20% for women, fitness, healthy, 14 to 18, 14 to

17 for men.

That's why I put that in there for women, 21 to 24, and average is 25 to 31, 18 to 25.

But we don't want to be average, like that's not it, because you're still that not

in your healthy BMI category, okay?

So I put all that in there for you, and again, you're going to be able to calculate

your own.

Now, the last calculator is potentially the most interesting, because I had never seen

this one before, never seen this calculator before, and it's giving you your ideal body

weight, which to me is kind of strange and interesting all at the same time.

So let's check out this one.

And it'll be your last link at StephenCrabble.com, forward slash 1973.

All right, so the ideal weight calculator computes your ideal body weight, ranges based

on your height, your gender, and age.

The idea of the finding of the ideal body weight calculator uses a formula that's been

sought after by many experts for a long time.

Currently, there persists several formulas, and our ideal weight calculator provides results

for side to side comparisons.

So they've done four different formulas over the years for your ideal weight, and I didn't

know about this.

And again, I've been studying health and fitness for a bit now for 25 years.

But there is one created by Robinson in 1983, another by Miller in 1983, before that was

by Divine in 1974, and one previous to that in 1964 was Hamwey.

And each time they've actually changed it just a bit, but there is a reference range.

So this is it.

All you need to do, type in your age, type in your gender, type in your height.

And mine, this is what I talked about in the beginning of the show, my healthy ideal range,

that's why this is your unique range, is somewhere between 121.7 pounds, and 164.4.

Very interesting.

It is literally a 40, almost a 43 pound swing, which is what they talk about, again, an

Ayurvedic medicine.

You have more of the endomorphic body type, and then you have more of the Vata body type.

The Vata body type is going to be more nearest the 121.30 range.

The calf of body type is going to be more near the 151.60 range.

Why am I more near the 160 range towards the top end?

Only there's a couple reasons why.

My body type is not a pure Vata-based body type.

Yes, I'll lose more weight than I will gain it.

However, my body structure really can't go below 150 pounds.

I've been there, and it's not healthy for my body.

So I'm never going to have the frame.

I have decent sized legs, I have decent sized, you know, upper body muscles that are not

going to allow me to get to that spot, you know, I could get down to the 150, but I

could never get down to the 121.30, I would be very, very sick.

But other people, that would be a healthy range for them.

For example, how would you consider this?

This is always funny to me.

It's my wife's uncle, so there's obviously no relation.

I don't know what that makes it to me, but he's basically the same height as I am, just

an inch or so shorter, and he weighs about 130 pounds, 135 pounds, and it's a great weight

for him.

He looks super healthy, super fit.

I would not be able to be that weight, okay?

But I also exercise.

So if I had an exercise, if I don't lift any weights, maybe my body would get down to

150, 100, like, yeah, the low 150s.

So again, lower BMI, but I also probably wouldn't have lower body fat because I'd have less

muscle, which means less metabolism.

So I just want to share with you that when you look up your unique results with this

ideal body weight, don't feel bad if you're more at the higher end or lower end because

there isn't one weight for every person.

I'm towards the higher end, but as long as I keep my body fat lower and I keep my waist

size lower, I'm not going to deal with the health issues of being towards the higher end

of the BMI.

So I hope that this is helpful again.

It's always meant to empower people, but empower people also through ancient Ayurvedic

wisdom, but blended with now modern science.

So do feel free to share all of this with anybody that you believe it could serve.

And of course, if you weren't at your computer at the time or phone, when you get a moment,

head on over to stevencrabrawl.com forward slash 1973 to be able to calculate your three

different numbers.

Take care, everyone.

And feel free to let me know what you guys looked like inside the comments, read on Instagram

or YouTube.

Take care.

And I'll talk with you soon.

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