How do you decide your target weight?

I go by what weight I feel comfortable at. It's up to you if you want to follow charts and base your weight on BMI. But I for one don't want to be as small as my suggested BMI because I would look like a crack head.

I have a guestimate, and I won't really know until I get there. So I figure, I won't worry until I get closer. If I decide to tweak my final number then, I will.

The mirror is my guide more than the scale is.

For me the scale is a great way to gather data to describe the journey.

I do remember my army days were my most fit. Daily workouts. Lots of activity. Good eating.

So I know somewhere 140 to 150 is a good place to be.

I have a guestimate, and I won't really know until I get there. So I figure, I won't worry until I get closer. If I decide to tweak my final number then, I will.

This is excellent advice and is the approach I'm taking.

I would say set your initial target somewhere around a weight you were before that you were more or less happy with. Then when you get closer you can decide if it seems right. For me, my initial target is based on top of the range of healthy BMI plus knowing that when I weighed a little above that I was happy with my weight but thought I could do with a few more pounds lost. I think I'll probably want to lose about 5kg or so below my target, but at that point I think it'll be mostly about toning rather than the number on the scale. I don't measure body fat % I just go on clothing size plus mirror!

It was really hard for me to come up with a target weight. I have never been thin so I don't have a previous happy weight to go off of. This is the smallest I've ever been. I've set different targets weight's as I've gone along and readjusted as necessary.

This time I found someone who was the same height and body shape as I am. I really like how she looks so I am aiming for her weight. It is also the ideal weight that comes up in a lot of ideal weight calculators. But if I'm trying to not get to hung up on a number and I'm just trying to get healthy.

If you can find out your lean body mass, then use the formula:

Lean body mass divided by (1- desired body fat percentage).

So say you have 150lbs of lean body mass and want to be 15% body fat.


150/.85 = 176.47lbs

So 176lbs would be the target weight.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

This is pretty much what I did. Really, I made my BF% my goal and just used the scale weight as sort of an arbitrary number to keep an eye on. Really, BF% and bodycomposition are more of my concern than an arbitrary number on a scale.

I chose lower-middle of my healthy weight range so I have room to gain muscle mass after I'm done with fat loss.

I'm shooting for <20% BF, but with some nice muscle mass. At my height (5'3") that will probably end up being anywhere from 135-150lbs. But really I will have no idea until I get down there and assess the amount of LBM I was able to hold onto while losing. I may end up doing some bulk and cut cycles to get to where I want to be. Time will tell.

It's really not so much on how much I want to weigh but how much body fat and muscle mass I want to have. I'm in the healthy BMI but I love to get it lower by reducing my body fat weight. I still want to build muscles at the same time so weight training I must do. I suppose I won't see a huge weight loss but I will like what I see in the mirror later on.

I am going to go by looks/feel more so than a hard set number as well. Currently I'm at 125 since I should be thin without being stick thin at that weight. However, if I still have a pudgy belly and workouts don't fix it then I'll go down a few more lbs. I probably won't go under 120 though.