Overestimating what you should weigh?

hsnider29

When I lost weight a few years ago by eating 1200 calories and little to no exercise I got down to 118lbs. I'm 5'0 and had weighed between 135-148 my entire adult life. Even at 118 I was skinny fat, if you will. I had always thought that 120lbs was my magical number.

Now on round two of weight loss after having a baby I'm not so concerned with the scale number but am focusing on strength training and eating my exercise calories. I'm still pretty sure that I'm going to have to weigh around 112lbs to have about 18% body fat.

Has anyone else overestimated their goal weight or gotten to their goal and found you didn't quite have the body or wear the size you were expecting?

ingeh

Im 5"5 and my goal was 126lbs or 9st. Iv now thought maybe thats too light so im going for a 1st goal of 140lbs and seeing how I feel then. I was 9st11lbs a few years back and happy-ish so around that weight or a little less would be great. Im just going to wait and see as I getting closer to my 1st goal.

matthewdill83

Id have to imagine it happens a lot.. You will have a lot of people who have been either slightly overweight or above that for most of their life.. They wont know what a healthy them looks like.. I have a goal weight in mind. Once I hit it, I will evaluate how I feel and look and go from there..

hsnider29

Id have to imagine it happens a lot.. You will have a lot of people who have been either slightly overweight or above that for most of their life.. They wont know what a healthy them looks like.. I have a goal weight in mind. Once I hit it, I will evaluate how I feel and look and go from there..

I think your right, it is disappointing though!

Pebble321

I underestimated - my weight goal (and top of healthy BMI range) for my height is 68kg (147 pounds) and I was really hoping that if I made it here i would fit onto a size 12 (us 8).
I'm currently 71kg (156) and astounded to be wearing a size 10 - 12, so I'm working on maintaining here for a while, I don't think I need to go much lower.
I guess it just reinforces that scales don't tell the whole story!

downtome

My mother keeps telling me that when i get to 180 i will look AMAZING but all my life before marriage and babies i weighed 165lbs and looked good. Now, i'm being a bit cocky and i have this number of 155lbs in my head for my goal! When i get to 165lbs i will re-evalute how i look and feel and see if i want to go down futher. I have no ideal why 155 is stuck in my head, i just keep telling myself that is where i want to be no matter what, probably because i have never been there and want to prove to myself and everyone else that i can and will do it! Whatever looks good on me down the road, i know that i will want to be able to maintain it for the rest of my boring life without utterly struggling! LOL
Denise

stevwil41

When I first started this whole thing (pre MFP) I picked 210 as a goal simply because I remember the last time I weighed that and thought I looked pretty good and wasn't too thin. I don't find too thin to be attractive on anyone. That goal sort of changed from 210 to being able to wear a large shirt and having a 36" waist. That's going to put me around 200ish I believe. What I found ridiculous was my bmi when I actually did the calculations. At 6'1 my healthy range is somewhere between 141 and 189 and I think that's total crap. I absolutely wouldn't want to weigh any less than 185 or 190 at the very minimum. With my frame I'd look gaunt at much less than that.

matthewdill83

When I first started this whole thing (pre MFP) I picked 210 as a goal simply because I remember the last time I weighed that and thought I looked pretty good and wasn't too thin. I don't find too thin to be attractive on anyone. That goal sort of changed from 210 to being able to wear a large shirt and having a 36" waist. That's going to put me around 200ish I believe. What I found ridiculous was my bmi when I actually did the calculations. At 6'1 my healthy range is somewhere between 141 and 189 and I think that's total crap. I absolutely wouldn't want to weigh any less than 185 or 190 at the very minimum. With my frame I'd look gaunt at much less than that.

Agreed, Im on that 6'1 6'2 border, and there is no way Im getting down to 190.. I plan on putting on some muscles, and ive always been built thick.. I feel like im built like a linebacker, which would put me at that 235 range.. I picked 225 as my goal weight, but we will see..

ebaymommy

I'm 5'5" and my original goal weight was 125. I started around 155 and in my adult life I'd never been under 133-135. I picked 125 sort of randomly, it was always that "I don't know if I can get there" number. Anyway, I did get there and found that my goals were not quite what I had originally started for.

I had started just for a weight, but as I reached my goal I realized how much I love to run and had done a couple full marathons. My times kept getting faster as the weight came off. I revised my goal to run a sub-4 hour marathon and try to qualify for Boston (someday) and to lower my Body Fat percentage.

I'm currently at 123lbs and heading for 115 as my new goal along with my BF% and running goals.

castadiva

This just proves the point about BMI - it's a flawed measurement that can only really tell you where you are in relation to 'average'. It makes no allowance for variations in frame, muscle mass or physical condition. For me to be in the 'healthy' range for my height, I'd have to be skin and bones and not much more. With a large frame and quite a lot of muscle, I'll be doing well to sit in the mid-'overweight' range. I think a less formulaic goal is better - when I have no longer feel self-conscious about my body, feel healthy and energised, that's the right weight for me.


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