"How long should a man's legs be? Long enough to touch the ground."
J. D. Salinger

If you've seen my goals then you'll notice there's no mention at all of any target for weight reduction. There's a really good reason for this, so excuse me if I shout a little:

HOW MUCH YOU WEIGH IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT!

Now obviously people's weight is going to vary according to their height, but surely we can factor this out by using Body Mass Index or some such. Well you can but it's still completely misleading. You can take two people, 5' 10" tall, both 12st 7lbs. One could be 12% body fat and in great shape, the other could be 30% body fat and a complete mess. But their BMI would both be the same.

No, what matters is how much fat you're carrying around with you. And 'carrying around' is the crucial phrase because that fat is nothing more than a long-term energy store. Unless you find yourself in a situation where you are deprived for food for any length of time then you're not going to need that energy store.

Taking our examples above, Mr 12% has 21lbs of fat in his body, whilst Mr 30% has 52lbs. That's over 30lbs extra that Mr 30% is lugging around all day, for no good reason. Worse than that, he's got a lot less muscle than Mr 12% to help him carry it. Strap 15 bags of sugar around your person and see how that feels. No wonder he's tired all the time!

And, in case you think these numbers are fanciful the average body fat percentage for a 50-year old man is about 27%. 12% is comfortably achievable and that's where I'm heading.

Now, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is still going to require you to have a weekly weigh-in, so you can check how your lean body mass is doing. But really the J D Salinger answer to how much you should weigh is "enough to stop you floating off into outer space".