Is your 'goal' a number or a look?

My goal is to be the healthiest me possible.

I do have some goal numbers --> lower body fat %, a smaller waist-to-hip ratio, and better blood test results. Certainly NOT a scale weight. You can completely reshape your body without affecting your weight much.

I want to be more toned, a stronger core, and more strength and endurance.

At first I wanted to get to a "healthy" weight for my height, once I got 5 lbs below the top, I'm trying to lose the "last ten" but since I'm lifting I'm not losing more weight? But shinking in size...
Maybe is time to focus on fat loss and forget about the # on the scale!

My goal is definitely a number: body fat percent of 20. Once there I'd like to enter a "phase 2" to get down to 13-15. Or not.

I'm certainly not paying attention to BMI. For me to not be considered "overweight" my bodyfat would have to be 1%. Even at 20% BMI would still rate me as "obese". So absurd.

I have 2 very different number goals.

The first is a number goal of losing at least 100 lbs. This'll put me at 150 and I'll evaluate from there.

The second number goal is single digit clothing. The last time I can remember single digits was as a freshman in high school. I don't know what is a good weight for me. I know what the range is for my height and I'm aiming for somewhere in the middle of that, but ultimately I want to have a nice, healthy, "toned" body in the single digit clothing. If that's 125 or 150 I really don't care. because unless I tell someone what number is on the scale, they're not going to know.

My original goal was a number - a weight - and I'm basically there now. But I was surprised at how much fat I still see on my body at this weight. I want to get rid of it! Now that I've gotten used to eating better and exercising regularly, I know I can do more. And that more is tightening things up. I don't mind if I maintain at this weight, although I'd prefer to be a few pounds lighter. But the big thing is toning for me. I want to get rid of little pockets of fat on certain areas of my body. It will probably take a while, but that's my goal now.

Ultimate goal, is to not have my lower gut resting on my thighs when I sit. Anything after that is just cherries on top!

This! :laugh:
Yes, I want this too. Mostly I want to be fitter, and healthier and enjoy being active. However being able to shop for nice clothes again instead of wearing stretchy stuff is going to be a huge plus, so maybe in the final goal it will be shape rather than what I actually weigh.

This made me smile because I was just remarking to my daughter how I enjoyed being able to wear stretchy yoga pants in public now that my saddlebags and dimples are gone.

At first it was a number - 140, but since I found a love of weight training and running its definitely a lean toned look I'm trying to achieve.

Honestly, it's sort of everything. I want to get down to a certain weight, but I also want to be thinner, firmer, have more muscle, be more defined, etc. I guess an overall feel and look is what it comes to. I don't know if I would want to weight 315 even if I was 10% body fat, so I think I want to drop a few digits, too.

My goals are to become a stronger cyclist, to be healthier, to have more energy, and to look better--not necessarily in that order!

Those are all general, though. To make them attainable, I have identified objectives connected with each of them:

- Improve the length, climbing, and average speed of my monthly cycling totals. This is quantifiable but open-ended; I care about improvement, but I don't have a specific long-term target. I have three short-term goals: ride a century next Wednesday, ride a 115K on dirt roads with 8000 feet of climbing in August, and ride a 170K in the Berkshire Hills in October.

- lower my blood pressure and cholesterol, preferably through weight control, exercise, and diet. Here my target is to get the numbers in the normal range, ideally without using medication.

- get more sleep and wake up more often feeling refreshed. This is harder to quantify, though I can qualitatively assess my mood in the morning and see how many days I feel energetic.

- aim for 12-15% body fat without looking scrawny. This is a specific target, but it's long-term, and body fat is difficult to measure precisely.

Because that last goal is difficult to quantify, and it's relatively long term, I'm starting by using weight as an easily quantifiable metric that correlates with body fat and physique, and I've set myself a short-term goal of losing at least a pound a week, with a target of 160 lbs. However, as I approach that target, I'll revise the weight goal, and possibly do a small bulk and cut if my focus on cycling has left my upper body looking like the cyclists in the Triplets of Belleville.

After reaching my goal, I'll continue to weigh myself regularly as an early warning against the kind of weight gain that crept up on me from 1997 to 2008, when I gained back the weight I had lost in the early '90s.

(edited because I accidentally hit post!)