How did you pick your Goal Weight?

bblue656

I used the realistic weight. started with 250 when i was at 303, now im at 250, its down to 200. Ultimately, wishful thinking is 185.

IceQueen1986

Before I knew what I was doing I wanted to be around 105-110 lbs.. Now I know what I'm doing and I'm not watching the scale anymore. Instead I watch my BF % I'm currently at 24%BF and yet I'm still about 140 lbs.. What I have however is a huge amount of muscles. I'm one of the blessed chicks that gains muscles easily so I gain fast.

My advice.. set body fat % goals instead of weight goals.

sadinplaid

Great post! Love reading everyone's responses. I started out with a goal to get back to the size I was in this one picture my husband took a couple of years ago. I remember seeing that picture and thinking "I still thought I was fat then, but I actually looked great in those jeans!" I'm 5'9", and I weighed 170 pounds in that photo. Sadly, when I was looking back at that picture and wishing I still had that frame, I'd gone up to 220 pounds. Now that I'm closing in on 170 (8 pounds to go, and those jeans are actually too big now!), I've readjusted my goal with my trainer and plan to get to 150.

TanyaHooton

I picked my goal weight because I can reasonably lose 15 lbs in 6 months (for my wedding!). I too am 5'6" - I weight 155 now and want to be 140 (though I'll take higher if my waist circumference is in the healthy range). However I once weighed 175 and I also once weighed 135, so I know it's possible for me. A weight of 139 for this height is healthy and normal.

vingogly

I started at 257lb and my original goal was around 180. I'm at 187 plus or minus a couple of pounds. My goal now is to see if I can get back down to 34 inch waist pants - I'm current at 36. The exact poundage doesn't matter to me but my guess is it'll be somewhere around 175.

leanjogreen18

I picked the middle of a healthy bmi because I will have a 5 lb range and I didn't want to be in the overweight bmi if I gained 1 lb after reaching my goal.

I haven't weighed that little since I was 20 so we will see.

Colt1835

I started at 269 and my original goal was 200. I eventually set a goal of 169 because it's an even 100 pound loss that puts me in the middle of a healthy bmi range. I don't really care if I hit 169 if I look the way I want to before I get there.

msk0307

I don't want to seem condescending,but why do you care about a goal weight?
My bigger concern would lie in 3 factors. Body fat %, Waist to hip ratio, and VO2 max. The first two are relatively easy to calculate. The VO2 max is rather difficult and shouldn't stress you out if it's too much work/confusing to figure out. But regardless we can figure out a goal weight based on your body fat %. I will use round numbers for ease of explanation. If I am a 200 lb female with 30% body fat I know that I have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean mass (bone, muscle, organs, etc). An absolutely excellent body fat % for a female is 15%. So with that being said My goal weight would be 170lbs, assuming I didn't gain or lose any lean mass in achieving that goal (which is highly unlikely.
As an exercise physiologist I hate the scale and BMI. I like to show how the numbers really work for you and can help you.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

msk0307 wrote: »

I don't want to seem condescending,but why do you care about a goal weight?
My bigger concern would lie in 3 factors. Body fat %, Waist to hip ratio, and VO2 max. The first two are relatively easy to calculate. The VO2 max is rather difficult and shouldn't stress you out if it's too much work/confusing to figure out. But regardless we can figure out a goal weight based on your body fat %. I will use round numbers for ease of explanation. If I am a 200 lb female with 30% body fat I know that I have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean mass (bone, muscle, organs, etc). An absolutely excellent body fat % for a female is 15%. So with that being said My goal weight would be 170lbs, assuming I didn't gain or lose any lean mass in achieving that goal (which is highly unlikely.
As an exercise physiologist I hate the scale and BMI. I like to show how the numbers really work for you and can help you.

Except 170 lbs. while maintaining 140 lbs. of lean mass would put you at 17.6% body fat.

SusanMFindlay

midwesterner85 wrote: »

msk0307 wrote: »

I don't want to seem condescending,but why do you care about a goal weight?
My bigger concern would lie in 3 factors. Body fat %, Waist to hip ratio, and VO2 max. The first two are relatively easy to calculate. The VO2 max is rather difficult and shouldn't stress you out if it's too much work/confusing to figure out. But regardless we can figure out a goal weight based on your body fat %. I will use round numbers for ease of explanation. If I am a 200 lb female with 30% body fat I know that I have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean mass (bone, muscle, organs, etc). An absolutely excellent body fat % for a female is 15%. So with that being said My goal weight would be 170lbs, assuming I didn't gain or lose any lean mass in achieving that goal (which is highly unlikely.
As an exercise physiologist I hate the scale and BMI. I like to show how the numbers really work for you and can help you.

Except 170 lbs. while maintaining 140 lbs. of lean mass would put you at 17.6% body fat.

True. You'd need to drop to 165 pounds to have 15% bodyfat with a lean body mass of 140 pounds.

I'm pretty sure I know where the math error happened, and it's an easy slip. But for anyone else who wants to apply this method, divide your lean body mass by (1-BF) where BF is your desired bodyfat% written as a decimal (i.e. divided by 100). For a goal of 15% bodyfat, that means (1-BF) = 1-0.15 = 0.85.

(And, as an apple shaped woman, I hate waist-to-hip ratio. )

Lesscookies1

I have a goal weight, but I'm not going off of BMI at all. I first started at 188 pounds last year, and I'm currently down to 162 pounds. I'm focusing more on waist circumference. I started at a 40 inch waist way bigger than the 35 or more waist guidelines by the National Insitute of Health, and I'm down to 29 inches now!

At this point I want to lose a few more pounds. I'm at a healthy waistline, and I'm focusing more on strength training and cardio to be more toned overall I'm 5'2, and my goal weight is 150 pounds. After I lose the last few pounds I want to eat at maintence and continue with my normal workouts I've been doing.

rsclause

At random really. I picked the highest weight that get me out of the obese or overweight category. As I made progress and saw that any weight was possible I lowered it twice more until I had no more to lose.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

midwesterner85 wrote: »

msk0307 wrote: »

I don't want to seem condescending,but why do you care about a goal weight?
My bigger concern would lie in 3 factors. Body fat %, Waist to hip ratio, and VO2 max. The first two are relatively easy to calculate. The VO2 max is rather difficult and shouldn't stress you out if it's too much work/confusing to figure out. But regardless we can figure out a goal weight based on your body fat %. I will use round numbers for ease of explanation. If I am a 200 lb female with 30% body fat I know that I have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean mass (bone, muscle, organs, etc). An absolutely excellent body fat % for a female is 15%. So with that being said My goal weight would be 170lbs, assuming I didn't gain or lose any lean mass in achieving that goal (which is highly unlikely.
As an exercise physiologist I hate the scale and BMI. I like to show how the numbers really work for you and can help you.

Except 170 lbs. while maintaining 140 lbs. of lean mass would put you at 17.6% body fat.

True. You'd need to drop to 165 pounds to have 15% bodyfat with a lean body mass of 140 pounds.

I'm pretty sure I know where the math error happened, and it's an easy slip. But for anyone else who wants to apply this method, divide your lean body mass by (1-BF) where BF is your desired bodyfat% written as a decimal (i.e. divided by 100). For a goal of 15% bodyfat, that means (1-BF) = 1-0.15 = 0.85.

(And, as an apple shaped woman, I hate waist-to-hip ratio. )

Yes, I can see the problem as well. I also agree it is an easy mistake to make. But it seems like some think it is an easy calculation to make, and yet can't make the proper calculation.

SusanMFindlay

midwesterner85 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

midwesterner85 wrote: »

msk0307 wrote: »

I don't want to seem condescending,but why do you care about a goal weight?
My bigger concern would lie in 3 factors. Body fat %, Waist to hip ratio, and VO2 max. The first two are relatively easy to calculate. The VO2 max is rather difficult and shouldn't stress you out if it's too much work/confusing to figure out. But regardless we can figure out a goal weight based on your body fat %. I will use round numbers for ease of explanation. If I am a 200 lb female with 30% body fat I know that I have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean mass (bone, muscle, organs, etc). An absolutely excellent body fat % for a female is 15%. So with that being said My goal weight would be 170lbs, assuming I didn't gain or lose any lean mass in achieving that goal (which is highly unlikely.
As an exercise physiologist I hate the scale and BMI. I like to show how the numbers really work for you and can help you.

Except 170 lbs. while maintaining 140 lbs. of lean mass would put you at 17.6% body fat.

True. You'd need to drop to 165 pounds to have 15% bodyfat with a lean body mass of 140 pounds.

I'm pretty sure I know where the math error happened, and it's an easy slip. But for anyone else who wants to apply this method, divide your lean body mass by (1-BF) where BF is your desired bodyfat% written as a decimal (i.e. divided by 100). For a goal of 15% bodyfat, that means (1-BF) = 1-0.15 = 0.85.

(And, as an apple shaped woman, I hate waist-to-hip ratio. )

Yes, I can see the problem as well. I also agree it is an easy mistake to make. But it seems like some think it is an easy calculation to make, and yet can't make the proper calculation.

The math part is easy. Getting an accurate lean body mass to plug into the equation, on the other hand,...

T1DCarnivoreRunner

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

midwesterner85 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

midwesterner85 wrote: »

msk0307 wrote: »

I don't want to seem condescending,but why do you care about a goal weight?
My bigger concern would lie in 3 factors. Body fat %, Waist to hip ratio, and VO2 max. The first two are relatively easy to calculate. The VO2 max is rather difficult and shouldn't stress you out if it's too much work/confusing to figure out. But regardless we can figure out a goal weight based on your body fat %. I will use round numbers for ease of explanation. If I am a 200 lb female with 30% body fat I know that I have 60lbs of fat and 140lbs of lean mass (bone, muscle, organs, etc). An absolutely excellent body fat % for a female is 15%. So with that being said My goal weight would be 170lbs, assuming I didn't gain or lose any lean mass in achieving that goal (which is highly unlikely.
As an exercise physiologist I hate the scale and BMI. I like to show how the numbers really work for you and can help you.

Except 170 lbs. while maintaining 140 lbs. of lean mass would put you at 17.6% body fat.

True. You'd need to drop to 165 pounds to have 15% bodyfat with a lean body mass of 140 pounds.

I'm pretty sure I know where the math error happened, and it's an easy slip. But for anyone else who wants to apply this method, divide your lean body mass by (1-BF) where BF is your desired bodyfat% written as a decimal (i.e. divided by 100). For a goal of 15% bodyfat, that means (1-BF) = 1-0.15 = 0.85.

(And, as an apple shaped woman, I hate waist-to-hip ratio. )

Yes, I can see the problem as well. I also agree it is an easy mistake to make. But it seems like some think it is an easy calculation to make, and yet can't make the proper calculation.

The math part is easy. Getting an accurate lean body mass to plug into the equation, on the other hand,...

The math part should be easy. I just couldn't help but to point out the irony that the same person suggesting it is easy to calculate couldn't seem to calculate it properly. Maybe not as easy as suggested.

cwolfman13

I started with the high end of BMI...down the road I started paying more attention to BF%.

carpe_vinum

I am 5'4" and I chose it only because that is what I weighed on the day I was married - 25 1/2 years ago. It's also a healthy BMI for my height.

DebSozo

cwolfman13 wrote: »

I started with the high end of BMI...down the road I started paying more attention to BF%.

I'm going to learn about fine tuning BF% next. (Once I make it to middle BMI).

I think my lean body mass is 118 pounds based on my "Biggest Loser" bioelectrical impedence bathroom scale. But that is based on algorithms and might not be accurate. However, it is interesting and somewhere to start, I suppose.

Grammytryingtogetfit

I picked a weight that I can remember feeling comfortable at(who remembers when that was early 20's I think) which was 130. I have since moved it to 135 thinking that this is more realistic. Currently I am at 150 and my hubby loves it! Smacks my booty all the time:):) I still feel that I could get to 135 and be happy with what I see in the mirror, but in the end I think it's going to be how I feel.

jo_nz

My first goal was to get into a healthy BMI range.
I just achieved that in the last week - yay!

Next goal is about 10lb less - seems achievable, realistic and not too far away.

Ultimately I think I would like to go about 5lb after that next goal too - that will be a weight that I used to be pre-kids, seemed pretty healthy to me at the time and still fairly well into the healthy BMI range so I know it's not likely to be too low (I was bordering on underweight as a teen/young adult and look back at old photos and think I was too thin).

I do wonder what it will look like for me now. It's been a while and my body has changed with kids, and I don't know if that's entirely reversible, but going to just take it in small steps along the way and adjust as I go.