I know (especially as women) it's easy to obsess about the number that appears on the scale. Sure, it matters but it's not the only factor. In fact I'd argue that two other numbers would be more important over the scale.
The first being body fat percentage. This is the percentage of fat your body is composed of versus the percentage of lean body mass (bones, muscle, organs).
Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential Fat 10-12% 2-4%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Acceptable 25-31% 18-25%
Obese 32%+ 25%+
Body fat percentage can be changed through strength training and eating clean. Make it a point to know your body fat percentage and use this to analyze where you need to be. Overall you're going to be healthy and not just thin. It also mean that your metabolism is working for you at maximum effort. The lower this number the more calories you're burning at a resting state.
The second number is your waist circumference. What's important here is that your waist (around your belly button) is less than half your height in inches. For example a woman that's 5'5" (65 inches) tall needs to have a waist circumference less than 32.5.
I think a big mistake we can make is analyzing one area when there's so many facets that make up being a healthy, good-looking person....because after all, healthy is very attractive.
Don't get me wrong these are great numbers to use as guidelines but also realize where you're at. Maybe your body fat percentage is over 40%. It may seem daunting to think about how far you have to go but listen up, it's actually a fairly easy task to lower that number in a reasonable amount of time with proper strength training and eating clean things can be turned around in 2011.
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