Incremental Goals or one big one?

KarensCanDoIt

Why is every question on this site an either/or? Set both. A major goal and smaller incremental goals so you can have victories along the way.

This is what I am doing as well. Initially I picked a number as an end goal, but my interem goals have been lower dress sizes. Now that I've reached the dress size that I thought was completely unattainable for me, I am aiming for the end goal in pounds. I'm curious what dress size that will actually put me in. But, it really depends on how I feel. I like reaching the mini-goals within the main goal.

ravengirl1611

for me I have my goals set to smaller increments - it throws my numbers off if I try to put the ultimate end goal in and it can seem pretty daunting when I look at the big picture - that and my final goal weight is negotiable - you have to put one in so I did but for me ultimately its the inches and level of fitness that Im working towards - if I get where I want to be and the scale still says 150lbs (rather than my "goal" weight of 130lbs) then I'm ok with that - I focus on each day / week at a time - if I've crept up I look at this week to see what if anything went wrong and what I can change - as long as the inches keep coming off and the weight slowly drops ( it's dropping quite slowly because Im strenght training and eating less so it doesnt fall as quickly) I'm happy - Like others I've got some non- food rewards in place for certain mini-goals met and Im still planning out my final reached my ultimate goal reward (new custom tattoo!) I'm also starting to plan the next big goal for after this one's been met.

FITFORT

For me, it has been smaller goals. In fact, when I first started, I had no idea that I'd be able to stick with it for any amount of time. So in the beginning, I didn't even have a number in mind. My goal was just "to do better tomorrow than I had done today." Gradually, I began to make mini-goals with exercise. Finally, after a couple of months, I started with a 10 pound goal. When I got that one achieved, I set another 10 pound goal. Long story short, and after LOTS of mini-goals, I'm down 41 pounds and I'm running regularly. I completed my 2nd 5K race on September 29th.

IruleMYlife

Both for me. I have my BIG goal of reaching 125. I make very small weekly goals, and slightly bigger monthly goals. Its more motivating for me to see the progress though each small goal. It reminds me that I'm making progress and will eventually reach my big goal.

allison_ortiz

I originally weighed 350lbs and thought that 225lbs was a reasonable amount of weight to lose and that I would feel healthier there so that was my original goal, but along the way I set short term goals reach 5% of my total body weight, then 10%, 15%, 20% and so on so it would give me things to look forward to along the way...then I decided to drop my final goal weight to 175lbs, and now to 150lbs, but I am still doing the percentage and I am currently between 40% and 45% total body weight lost, so I would have to say the end goal is great, but at the same time you need smaller goals that you can strive for that keep you motivated!

Start wt: 350lbs. Ht: 5'8" BMI: 55
5%: 332.5lbs. 10/17/2011
10% 315.0lbs. 11/28/2011
15% 297.5lbs. 01/28/2012
20% 280.0lbs. 03/05/2012
25% 262.5lbs. 04/23/2012
30% 245.0lbs. 06/11/2012
35% 227.5lbs. 07/31/2012
40% 210.0lbs. 09/21/2012
Current wt: 199.5lbs BMI: 30.3
45% 192.5lbs. -- / -- / ----
50% 175.0lbs. -- / -- / ----
55% 157.5lbs. -- / -- / ----
Goal wt: 150.0lbs. BMI: 22.8
60% 140.0lbs. -- / -- / ----

hamstermann

Wow, Great Job on all that success you all are having!
After reading what you're all saying, I changed my goal settings to 190. Who knows if I'll ever get there, but I'll leave that as my written goal and keep 240 as the goal in my mind for now.