Sometimes, you can just see it. Those love handles hanging around your stomach like a saggy spare tire, those extra wiggly rows of fat below your chin and around your neck. The buttocks that seem to not fit back into those pants that "must have shrunk while hanging in your closet."



All those things can give you the notion that it might be time for you to lose a couple pounds.



But sometimes, the signs don't seem to be so clear. True enough if you step on the talking scale and it actually starts to cry, you know its time to get yourself in gear to lose a few of those extra few pounds. However, many times, it is something more subtle. A glance from someone passing by, or just how you feel any time you look in the potato chip bag and its empty, and you just bought it yesterday at the warehouse store.



Those signs get people visiting the internet in waves on the lookout for answers to their weight loss problems. And one of the things they look for on the internet is a chart to determine their ideal weight.



These are in no short supply online, and along with weight loss calculators can give you an idea of your weight loss goal and just how fast you can reach it. But there are a couple of downsides to using these kinds of tools, especially online.



One problem is that you need to consider the website that ideal weight chart or calculator is on. Many times these sites are designed for one purpose only - to get you to buy one of the products that is being advertised on that site.



Nothing wrong with this, business is business. But if every time you look at the ideal weight chart and there isn't any way you can ever be that weight without buying a dietary plan or supplement that just happens to be for sale on their site, you might like to give it a second thought.



There are ideal weights for various people. But in fact, each individual person has their personal ideal weight. Not to sound silly or anything, but if you want to discover what your ideal weight is, you want to look on more than one website and look at the differences in what those ideal weights are.



Sometimes, there is also a disparity between what the charts say you are supposed to weigh and what you think you are supposed to weigh. This happens more often than not. You look at the chart and input your weight and height and then check the results, but the number does not seem low enough to you. You're sure that if the chart says 160, that it must be drastically wrong and your real ideal weight is around 135.



The fact is, your ideal weight is probably around 160. How you think you look and how you feel has a lot to do with if you think the charts and calculators are accurate. 



You also need to be conscious that the charts give a range. That if you step on the scale 15 times a day, your weight will probably be different each time. And that the charts often give only a single number.



Much easier to say that your ideal weight is around 160 pounds or 125 pounds or whatever it is, than to view those numbers as something exact that you need to accomplish or else. That is not how your body works and you may wind up with a lot of resentment towards yourself if you think like that and don't accomplish your main goal.



The real world is not the Biggest Loser. That is a TV show. You are you and your body will react a lot better if you view it as your friend instead of something that won't measure up to a chart you found on the internet. So make sure that you get the right information, but that you make the ultimate decision about your ideal bodyweight.