How do you set your goal?

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janejaneyjane
janejaneyjane Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
Do you put the whole end result as your goal, or set it in stages?

I'm doing my goal as stages. My first goal is to get to 9stone (126lbs) which is 7lbs away, this isn't my long term goal but personally I feel that I will work better and feel more motivated if I do smaller stages then seeing one big number to get to.

How do you do your goals, and why? Just interested in hearing other peoples strategies.

Replies

  • lcfairbairn74
    lcfairbairn74 Posts: 412 Member
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    I put my end goal in as my goal. Then I added in mini goals into the 'About Me' section of my profile, which I check off when I reach them!
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
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    My weight loss journey is a 3 year plan. Last year, I became very active and lost 40 or so pounds - not even paying attention to food. Toward the end of the year and beginning of this year, I added 'intentional exercise' and food tracking. Now down 67 pounds. I aim to hit my 'fat-loss' goal of 90 pounds by late fall this year and begin the body re-compostion phase through the winter and into next year. Started at 245 lbs in January 2012 and imagine I will end up next year about 155-160 with 19-20% BF.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    I call that approach STOGs - Short Term Obtainable Goals. I learned it for managing software projects. If you ever let someone work on a task with a 4 week estimate and ask them how they are doing each week, they will inevitably tell you 25%, 50%, 75% and (drum roll please) 99%. After 5 weeks, it may still be 99%. The problem is that it's really a big binary thing that is either done or not and you can't let people just estimate. You need to break it into smaller pieces that are either done or not. Tracking weight does not have that issue; the percentage will always be accurate. You can certainly celebrate milestones, but I advise against taking breaks from the diet. That would keep you from establishing a new habit IMO.

    I picked my target using BMI. I am aiming to be under 25. Barely, but under.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    I have done mine in stages. When I first started out, I wanted to just get back to a certain weight, which meant losing about 12lbs. Got there, needed some smaller jeans (yay!), but realized I still had fat to lose. Reset my goal for another 5lbs. Reached it, and went for another 5lbs. I stopped and started with the tracking and exercising a few times, so gained & lost & gained a bit here and there.

    Finally decided I was done with stopping and starting, and that I didn't care so much about the goal weight, but about losing the fat, and keeping my lean muscle. Started eating according this info in this topic: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974889-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet and the fat started coming off faster than ever before. Along the way I dropped below the goal I had previously set, and then some more. I had to buy new clothes again (going broke now! LOL) due to dropping more sizes.

    At this point I've hit a couple of pounds below the goal weight I had set through the info in that thread, but am still focusing on lowering body fat percentage.

    I liked doing things in stages, having short term, attainable goals - seemed to keep me going with each small victory. :smile:
  • MommaChocoLatte
    MommaChocoLatte Posts: 389 Member
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    Seeing the big number doesn't bother me so much any more because I know I will get there.. Ive done it before, I'll do it again. My final goal weight is what I ultimately want to weigh but I also set mini goals and reward myself as I get to them. I am about to reach my halfway point and going to buy myself a pretty new dress Ive been eyeballing.
  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
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    My goal is set as my end goal (though as I get closer to it it's looking like I may need to lose more), then I have mini goals in my online 'diary' on a different site.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    My goal is set as my end goal (though as I get closer to it it's looking like I may need to lose more),

    You are not alone there. When I first set my goal, I thought for sure I would look trim. When I was a younger man my chest and shoulders were more muscular and at 175 I didn't jiggle. Now I fear at 170 I will still have a small pot belly. But I am going to cross the first finish line before I change it. My other option would be to weight train to get the big muscles back, but I would rather run and be lean now.

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