Ideal weight

How do I find my ideal weight?  Every calculator I find tells me that 150-155 is normal - I would be frail at that weight.  At my best weight (20s), I was between 158-162 lbs and felt good and had 10-15% body fat.  How much difference does muscle mass make? 

45 yr old male, 5'9" currently 174 lbs (target of 165 lbs)

Thanks

There is no ideal weight, but there is a normal, healthy BMI range of 20 - 25.  A 5'9" man can be anything between 135 and 170lbs and that would be OK  If you're broad framed or very muscular you could be at the upper end of that range... if you're small framed you'd be at the lower end.    Good news, you're only a few lbs off.

Thanks, thats good to know! 

That seems like a pretty good target to me! My family (men) are both 5'9'' and weight 135 to 145... but my family is relatively small framed... You may have a medium or large frame which requires more meat - just make sure the meat is... muscle and not you know what!

While some people believe in the BMI - I purely believe that whatever weight makes you feel healthy and happy is the perfect weight for you! Good luck!

I'm a 6' guy (42 years old next month), and I started at 207.  I'm now down to 175, and will likely stop at 170 before trying to start put on weight.  According to my BMI, I'm currently at 23.8, I think.

When I started, I figured being at the top of my "healthy" BMI would be my target, even though I had no real target in mind.  That would have been 185 or so.  I just set myself 2 week goals to get there.  But what I found at 185 was I still had a healthy set of love handles, and more pudge around the waistline than I liked.  I think I still was around a 34 or 35" waist, as well.  So I kept going. 

Now, 10 pounds lighter, I'm wearing a 32" pair of jeans, which is the same size I wore more than 15 years ago.  And a suit I had from 1992 is fitting me again; no idea if it's in style, though. :)

And if it helps, I'm just under 15% body fat according to a hand-held body fat measuring device.  It's measuring me consistently, which is all I was looking for.  I think based on some of the on-line calculators, I'm about two percent below that. 

Don't know if this helps or not... Personally, I figure so long as you're in a "healthy" range, every thing else is more cosmetic/vanity.  Lower body fat = more muscle definition.  And some people like the lean runner's build, some people like the swimmer/gymnast build, and others are more into the body-builder look.  For me, I'm looking more for the swimmer's build.  I'm expecting that will mean getting my body fat to closer to 12%, and then building up my weight back to around 185 or 190.  Which will actually put me outside of a "healthy" BMI range.  But I'm expecting that to be a pretty long process, so I'll have time to re-evaluate as I get closer.

Clint