Living the Lifestyle Friday 8/9/24

Flintwinch

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.

Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Wildcard
Wednesday-misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard

Today's Topic: Setting Goal Weight

I'm curious how each of you determine your goal weight. Do you use WW guidelines? What your doctor says? BMI? Waist Circumference? Waist/Hip Ratio? How you look? Other? And does your weight goal change as you get closer to it or, alternatively, you find it too difficult to achieve and set it higher?

Flintwinch

I reached my initial goal weight in 2016 on WW. It has gradually inched up over the past 8 years, which I blame on (1) inattention on my part (2) a change in resting metabolism with age and (3) an attitude that I could not achieve a reasonable weight goal and as long as my lab tests were okay I could live with it.

What changed was the diagnosis of heart disease, where managing it is a series of lifestyle changes, including diet, exercise, sleep quality/quantity and stress management. I'm making progress on all of them (the CPAP has helped tremendously with sleep) and have made good strides with stress management using various evidence-based techniques. I'm a lifetime exerciser, so no changes there, and the cardiologist and PCP have given me the green light to do anything I want with no limitations (recent testing with a heart monitor patch worn for 2 weeks shows no AFib) . Diet is still, as it likely always will be, a work in progress, but for health reasons I am pay much more attention to eating patterns. My goal weight now is a range based on health factors, but is subject to change. One day at a time, the tortoise rather than the hare as the story has it.

crewahl

My goal weight was set by my doctor, and it’s essentially a BMI of under 27. I probably weighed 200# at the time we set it, and it considered loose skin, the fact that my blood work was all good, and the absence of other health issues. Effectively, when at my goal weight of 180 I’m elevenmpounds overweight.

I’ve given it some thought in the past, and I’ve shared this before; it’s a riff on the concept of “you’ll know it when you see it” as it relates to goal. Spoiler alert - it may not be the BMI range or what you weighed in high school or when you got married. I call this “the four questions”, and they’re in descending order of priority,

- [ ] Are your health numbers where you want them - blood pressure, cholesterol, blood chemistry, etc.?
- [ ] Does your body support the things you want to do, and feel you should be able to do? Can you walk or run as needed? Are you challenged but not harmed by exercise?
- [ ] Are you satisfied with your food plan? Do you feel you get enough to eat? Do you enjoy your food? Do you see this as something you can keep doing?
- [ ] Are you satisfied with the way you look in clothes?

When you can answer yes to these four questions, you’ve probably found your goal weight.

steve0mania

My official WW goal weight was simply the weight that corresponded to a BMI of 25. In other words, I wanted to be in the "normal weight" range.

My personal target weight is different. When I was first losing weight via WW, I took to heart something that Brian CSURamFan said: rather than choose a goal weight, choose a way of eating that is sustainable, and see where your weight ends up. That seemed really sensible to me, and so I just kept eating in the way I was eating, and ended up at what was a sustainable weight (at least for a couple of years).

After a couple of years, however, "drift" started setting in. I wasn't as careful with my intake as I had been, I gave myself more leeway. Part of that was that I started lifting weights, and recognized that I needed more calories if I was going to build any strength. However, that looser eating style stayed with me even after I stopped lifting regularly, and of course, my weight drifted up. Over the years, I tended to run just a few pounds under my WW goal weight.

I was unhappy with that weight mainly because I felt somewhat "heavy," and had a bit of a gut too. I didn't fit into the clothes I had been wearing when I first lost weight, and so I wanted to take off at least a few pounds. Finally, it left no wiggle room to stay under a BMI of 25.

My current personal target weight is the weight at which I don't feel heavy and I have a mostly flat stomach. It's higher than the weight I lived at when I first lost weight, but it's lower than my WW target.

This should all probably be viewed with the recognition that I'm a short guy, and so 5 or10 pounds makes a significant difference in how I look.

88olds

At first it was 184 lbs, the highest acceptable WW goal for me at the time. Right now I weigh around 178 but would prefer under 175. Why? Not sure exactly. Around 173.5 was a happy weight 5 years ago when we lived in Key West. We lived in a 4th floor condo far from the elevator. Took the stairs unless we were carrying groceries. Immediately gained 5 lbs when we moved.

crewahl

88olds wrote: »

We lived in a 4th floor condo far from the elevator. Took the stairs unless we were carrying groceries. Immediately gained 5 lbs when we moved.

You know, I think you’ve struck something I actually miss about working - being in a building with 27 floors worth of stairs to climb. It’s just not the same when it’s up one, down one, up one, down one - particularly when “down” is harder on the knees. (I used to climb the stairs to the tenth floor, and the take the elevator back down to the sixth floor where I worked,)

misterhub

I have two goals - not to be obese and to be below 200 pounds. The first for health reasons. The second because it's where I feel and look the best. But, I have no real interest in getting down to WW weight. Just a comfortable weight.