I'm attaching 2 Excel charts:
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[*]Target weights and weight ranges for competitive runners and bodyfat percentages. This comes from "The Competitive Runner's Handbook" by Bob Glover and Shelly-lyn Florence Glover, and I added elite triathlete bodyfat numbers from Costil's "Physiology of Sports and Exercise" (a great book if you want to learn nuts and bolts).
[*]Carbohydrate requirements. This can be used as a guideline to estimate your nutrient needs based on the hours of training you do. Note I've assumed a 65/15/20 carb/pro/fat mix. This is quite healthy and will provide good support for your training and recovery (by comparison, 40/30/30 is not appropriate for endurance athletes, IMHO). This might be easier for you to use than to precisely calculate your RMR and add in calories burned.
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Again, I want to stress that you should strive to achieve the best you can within the framework of your lifestyle and athletic goals.

Remember, these are weights for COMPETITIVE RUNNERS. These are NOT "standard" weight ranges. However, I updated the weight chart to include Met. Life's ideal weight ranges, for comparison purposes.

As you can see, the competitive weights are the low end (even lower in some cases) of the Met. Life values. Why? Big difference in competitive athletes vs. "average" person. Personally, I think the Met. Life tables go way too high, but that's a different discussion.

So, back to what weight is right for YOU? Only you can determine that. Shoot for a bodyfat percentage that you can maintain relatively easily in light of your competitive goals and lifestyle. Some people (usually men), "cut weight" the last 8 weeks or so before a major competition. Some people allow themselves to gain weight in the off season. A few pounds is not a big deal, but remember that weight loss is stressful to your body, so the less often you need to do it, the better.

Bottom line: if you feel good and are happy with your performance and you are healthy (as determined by basic measurements like blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, reasonable bodyfat percentage), then you are probably OK where you are. If there are any medical conditions that would favor weight/bodyfat loss, though, or you want to see how your sports performance might improve, go for it.

The numbers are just numbers. This is NOT one size fits all!

OK here are my stats.
Sex: Female
Age: 48
Height: 5'3"
Current Weight: 113
Current Bodyfat %: 12.5

What was I 5 years ago (before I began triathlon)? I weighed 128 at a bodyfat of about 18%. I had been as high as 25% bodyfat.

Now, I only fluctuate maybe 2-4 lbs. and 1-2% bodyfat. My high end of bodyfat is maybe 14% now. But that's because I'm quite clean about my diet when not training heavily (see paper above). I just don't want to have to deal with trying to lose weight EVER. My bodyfat goes up slightly in the off season because my "furnace" just isn't quite so hot. But my weight goes up only a couple pounds, which in my case is enough to swing my bodyfat% a few points. It starts to come down magically as my training increases, and I was surprised this year to see I was down to 113 to soon in the season, which means I may go even lower this year--probably from the stress of having to juggle a long commute combined with splitting up my 2/day workouts.

Yes, I'm an oddity, and people think I've always looked this way, but truth is I have not. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters that are all at least 15% overweight, one is obese. I've just become OK with the notion that a lower weight is better for my joints, my budget (even as small as I am you should see me eat when I'm training 20 hours/week!), my looks, my overall health, and yes, my training/racing performance.

Now, I don't weigh myself daily. I don't have to worry. I can tell where I am by how clothes fit, and really (don't hate me), how good my abs look, because that is the first place extra fat will go after my hips.

I think what's helped me a lot is to retain muscle mass. I've lifted weights for almost 15 years straight now, and have no intention to stop, even though I only do about 1 hour a week nowadays, but combined with the sports, that seems to be enough to keep what I've got.

From my experience, it's harder for women to lose weight than men, which is again why I try and not gain any weight in the off season, other than 1-2 pounds, which I call "relaxation" weight that nobody notices anyway. Any more than that (OK so I weigh myself maybe twice a month) and the warning bells go off. But my eating habits generally take care of that.

Patience in all things! I remember almost 10 years ago when I thought, gee it would be nice to be 15% bodyfat. At the time it was a vanity thing. As I struggled to find the ideal nutrient combination for my body, I began to toss that number out the window, thinking it was impossible. But then I continued to tweak my nutrition and it was 2 years ago that I got retested after a 2-year hiatus, and was shocked that I was 13.5%! Not only that, but the guy who measured me said that whoever did it previously had to be wrong, there was no way I was carrying that much fat before. Now, that sounded nice, but I really do think I made some dramatic changes.

Lesson to be learned here: If you're going to get your bodyfat measured, make sure it's someone you know and trust. Preferably someone with an MS in exercise physiology. They should do it in the morning before you've exercised, with good hydration status. You might want them to do it again a few days later, just to be sure. A person who's not used to working with highly conditioned athletes can easily fudge the results. Best test for the money: 6- or 7-point skinfold calipers. They should be attached to a computer program that records the number when the technician clicks on the calipers. Make them print the measurements and report. You will be able to see where on your body (this is usually not a big surprise) you carry your fat (me on top of my quads, duh I'm a woman--but there is none over my scapulae).

One more topic: Let's talk about weighing yourself. I probably, on average, weigh myself once a week. If I see an alarming number, then I'll weigh myself again 1-2 days later just to see if there was an aberration. When you're in heavy training, your weight can fluctuate by 4+ pounds easily depending on your hydration status and other factors. For example, 2 weeks ago I did the Horribly Hilly Hundreds ride ([url]www.horriblyhilly.com[/url]) 200K. 10 hours of biking, 10,000+ feet of climbing. After something that insulting to your body, it does interesting things. One is that you experience edema (water retention) because many cell membranes have literally leaked out fluid. So I was all puffy for maybe 3 days, and I had an extra 4 lbs. But I know that this is what happened (and I like checking out these effects), so I waited, and magically in a few days all the weight is gone.

I only say this because you shouldn't freak out if you see the scale go up by 2-5 lbs. seemingly mysteriously. Sodium levels, hydration levels, fatigue all affect your weight. Our bodies, remember, are always trying to preserve our health, and our weight on any given day is a reflection of that. So if you see the scales tipped up, don't begin starving yourself--check back in a day or so and see what's going on. Similarly, if the scale goes down, the first thing to ask yourself is if you're dehydrated.

Also, when you taper for a major race (1/2 IM or IM), it's NORMAL for you to put on 2-5 lbs. the week of the taper, as your body, through rest, is able to hang on to more glycogen (and more glycogen means more water retention....1g carbs/glycogen stored needs 4g water to store it, if I remember correctly). So this weight gain is NOT permament--once you do the race and wait a few days, it should all be gone. However, you should not pig out during a taper--as per the paper, when training less, eat less, but never starve yourself.

Especially if you do a full or modified carb loading during a taper, you will see the weight gain, and it's good. You are probably also consuming a little more salt in an effort to retain water. So relax, you will still look great in your race photos!

Ask me another time to write about carb loading. I've tried traditional and modified regimens and can tell you how they worked for me.

OK, let's talk about carbo loading. The thought is that prior to a major competition (let's say any event where you do a taper and the event itself will take you 3+ hours; typically a marathon or 1/2 Ironman or greater distance), you should do 2 things: rest your body ("relative" rest; not laying on the couch!) and load up your muscles with glycogen (the stored form of sugars that are accessed during exercise).

Most people can store about 2,000 kcal of glycogen--slightly more in trained individuals. When you train, you access this energy, and hopefully you replace, on a daily basis, the amount you used. This is why post-workout nutrition is so important--if you are training heavily and not replenishing your glycogen stores, the next day you will suffer during your workout. Remember this when you're having a crappy workout--think about how well/poorly you ate the day before, particularly after your workout, and check whether that's the problem (it could also be lack of sleep). Bottom line is that every day is an opportunity to recover properly from your workouts, and recovery consists of rest, sleep, proper nutrition, etc.

The theory of carbo-loading is that you can supposedly "overload" your muscles with glycogen, so that when you combine the taper with ingesting lots of carbs at the right time, you will be super-loaded come race day, and this will help your performance. The old way of carbo-loading was to cut your carb intake about 1 week out from the race for about 3 days, and then change the nutrient mix to heavily favor carbs. The method I've tried is to go with 30% of calories from carbs Monday-Wednesday of the race week, and then beginning Thursday, move up to about 80% carbs. Now, the total calorie intake on any of these days is about the same, and it's only enough to maintain your weight. The idea is that you deplete the glycogen stores on Monday-Wednesday (some programs also advocate you do really intense, short workouts on these days to further promote glycogen depletion), and then your muscles are primed to suck up carbs on the subsequent days.

That method of carbo-loading can work, but I will tell you that you will be VERY CRABBY and psychologically weird Monday-Wednesday. Why? Your body has been used to a high carb intake (mine goes as high as 70-75% of total calories during really heavy training), your brain lives on sugar, and you've probably got somewhat of a sweet tooth from your regular intake of Gatorade, etc. Then, when you switch over to primarily carbs, your body is so happy to get them back, and remember, each gram of carbs gets stored with 4 grams of water, so you will feel somewhat bloated, and you may not like the feeling.

My recommendation is to only try this method on a B or C race, so you can guage how you react and then perform in the race.

More recently, after studying performance with traditional carbo-loading vs. modern (coming up!), it was found that restricting the carbs initially isn't really necessary. What you do instead, is just eat a "normal" (let's say 60-65% carbs) diet the entire race week, and since you are tapering, your body will store up to its maximum level of glycogen, and you will be as loaded on race day as if you had done the traditional method. This is what most sports nutritionists recommend nowadays. You don't go through the crabby period, but you will still probably gain a few pounds due to the water retention (which is a GOOD thing for your race-day hydration status).

Remember, you are not going to magically be able to store hundreds more glycogen calories just because you are tapering (unless you were constantly depleted) and do traditional carbo-loading.

So the theory now is just eat normally (not excessively), and you will be as topped off as you can be by race day.

Many athletes, myself included, tend to eat a higher percentage of carbs the 2-3 days prior to the race anyway as a safety measure. You also don't want to be eating much fiber those days, and for a 1/2 or full Ironman you would also want to add a little extra table salt to your meals. On the day before, you might want to drink pure Gatorade rather than water just to get an extra sodium load.

There are good race week nutrition articles at [url]http://www.cruciblefitness.com[/url].

Truth is that the refined stuff is the way to go--white bread, pasta, fruit juice, etc. If you're a purist, well, then eat a bunch of potatoes! Bottom line is to go with what you are used to, just stay away from high fiber stuff like corn, figs, strawberries, wheat bran, etc.

Have you considered consulting with a nutritionist? One who works with athletes? Ellen Coleman fits the bill. Go here: [url]http://cruciblefitness.com/coaching/nutrition/index.htm[/url]. You can also read a lot of her posts in the Crucible Fitness Forum.