Sometimes, you can just see it. All 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."



Those things can give you the notion that it might be time for you to lose some weight.



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



Those signs get men and women visiting the web in waves in search of answers to their weight loss problems. And one of the things they look for online is a chart to determine their ideal body 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 possibly 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. Often these sites are designed for one purpose only - to get you to purchase one of the products that is being advertised on that site.



Nothing wrong with that, business is business. But if each time you look at the ideal weight chart and there isn't any way you can ever be that weight without buying a diet 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. However, each individual person has their personal ideal weight. Not to sound silly or anything, but if you want to find out what your ideal weight is, you need to look on more than one website and take a look at the differences in what those ideal weights are.



Sometimes, there is also a difference between what the charts say you are supposed to weigh and what you think you're supposed to weigh. This happens more often than not. You look at the chart and input your height and weight 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.



Truth is, your ideal weight is probably around 160. The way you think you look and how you are feeling has a lot to do with whether 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 likely 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.



Real life 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 information you need, but that you make the final decision about your ideal bodyweight.