What is a reasonable goal?

determinedladybug

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I am doing on MFP. I started a journey to become healthier because my mom has fibromyalgia and I want to be healthy and strong for as long as possible. The truth is, I have a healthy body image. According to the scale and fitness measurements, my 30% body fat makes me overweight but I feel great and eat extremely clean and healthy. My cardiovascular health is good (I have a very healthy resting heart rate and can run for over 20 minutes at 6MPH). I also lift weights and work out regularly. My question is...what is a healthy goal? Is obsessing about my body weight helping? Just wondering how everyone else finds their motivation and goals?

beamer0821

if you feel great thats awesome!
you don't need to feel bad to want to improve your health. you mentioned 30% body fat, so you are otherwise a healthy weight range for your height? if thats the case then just work on reducing your body fat not weight. wouldn't that be the goal?

SandyBVTN

I know a lot of people don't like the BMI scale for various reasons, but for me a BMI in the "normal" range is my biggest and most important goal.

I might be a bit different than you though. I don't like how my body feels and looks at the moment and I genuinely believe that I will be happier and more confident when I am a size 8 or less.

determinedladybug

The truth is I go back and forth about my confidence. On the one hand I really like and believe in myself, on the other hand, I still haven't taken a before pick. I guess I just don't want to obsess too much and yet I find myself on MFP all the time. Even posting this I am waffling. Looks like I need to find a healthy balance

LULU4178

Nothing wrong with feeling good about yourself but wanting to feel even better! You sound like you are happy with yourself which is terrific. However if you are "on MFP all the time" you are looking for something--probably to reassure yourself that you are healthy or looking for some motivation to feel even better by changing your diet and/or exercise routine. Pictures IMO are not the measure of one thing or another.

To answer your question, I picked my goal weight based on college. I rowed crew and had to row "open weight" which is for women over 150 pounds. I want to be able to row "light weight" now which is 135 or below.

Keep on doing what you are doing!

TiberiusClaudis

Interesting question.

Healthwise, I go see the quack atleast once a year for a check up. Make sure he runs all the blood tests. So when he get that back, we usually tweak my diet. One year I was too high in iron for example.

Weightwise: That kind of depends if you are small, medium or large boned (and other genetic set points). At 186, I look good..as in healthy. I have a body building friend that is exactly my height and he looks skinny at this weight...he looks like I do at say 203...he is big boned, I'm small to medium.

Ability to do what you want: Now this is the kicker. You say you in good cardio health. In your everyday life including workouts, do you ever have problems liftings/getting out of breath..or feel restricted? If not...then guess what..you aren't pushing yourself. Because the body has a built in mech to reach a state of balance. So one should always try to up the anty.

But here's the deal plain and simple. You have an INCREDIBLE piece of machinery at your disposal for around 70 years plus or minus. You can maintain it as is, you can let it fall to pieces or you can put it into overdrive, open it up and see how far it takes you. My motto is push it the pedal to the metal while you still have time. If you can lift 100lbs this week, strive for 105 next week. If you run the mile in 12 min, strive for 11:30. Few of us ever live up to our full potential...but those few that do...are amazing. The race is only with yourself...

SandyBVTN

The truth is I go back and forth about my confidence. On the one hand I really like and believe in myself, on the other hand, I still haven't taken a before pick. I guess I just don't want to obsess too much and yet I find myself on MFP all the time. Even posting this I am waffling. Looks like I need to find a healthy balance

I think I understand what you are saying. It's so tricky, right? I mean, as confident and self-loving people who don't judge others on their bodies or size, we feel we should accept and love ourselves the same way. Especially when we can do all of these awesome physical feats and genuinely feel strong and healthy. And then, on the flip side, we don't take before pictures (I have not either).

For me, the turning point was recognizing that I am reacting to my weight by holding myself back in certain areas of my life. When I realized that I don't put myself out there with my business as much as I would like to, and when I realized that I dread seeing old friends or colleagues. Because I love myself, I can't let those things happen anymore. I deserve better and I deserve to see photos of myself on Facebook without feeling sh*tty and embarrassed.

I would never presume to think someone else needs to lose weight, unless it was for a genuine concern about a health problem or if I felt a loved one was also not living their lives fully or happily because of their size. It sounds like you are in a place where you are questioning though and I think that's a healthy thing to do.