How do you know what your final weight goal should be?

First of all congratulations! It sounds like you're enjoying your senior years in a whole new way.

You're already under a doctors care so I'm not going into that area. I would suggest changing your weight loss goal to lose .5 pounds per week, so that you don't suddenly have to find a way to eat 300 or so extra healthy calories a day. Also I've been told by many who have done weight loss surgery that there excess skin weighs somewhere on average of 25lbs. Your doctor can probably tell you more and since you have lost over 100 pounds I'd say you're probably in the same boat with many of them.

Keep exercising and fuel your body with good healthy foods and most importantly don't forget to keep working on strengthening your muscles.

I agree with the others. If you feel good go to maintenance. You may have 20 lbs of excess skin on you. If that's the case then you've met your goal. I would focus on how you feel and a reasonable percent body fat.

First & MOST IMPORTANT - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! :flowerforyou:

What a great accomplishment!

Now, to your question... when you think about your ideal weight, I think you should take into consideration your health - for instance do you have diabetes or pre-diabetes? I'm told that weight and this disease are close cousins. Do you have high blood pressure or any type of heart disease? If so, weighing less than you do today is probably in your health's best interest. Now, let's say you have none of these.... then I'd say, you should count your goal weight as the size that makes you most happy. That may be the size you are today or smaller. Have a photo taken of yourself - take a look. Do you like the way you look (REALLY?). If yes, than go on maintenance. If no, then exercise and/or diet to get to the size you want & don't worry about the scale.

The only thing I will say that may influence your decision more than a photo, is how do you feel - particularly your joints? If you feel pain in your joints, the weigh might be making it worse. I used to have severe back pain from sciatica. I still have sciatica, however, after I lost about 60 pounds the incidents of flare ups have gotten much less - and weight loose and exercise is the only thing that has changed.

Finally - you shouldn't have to starve yourself to be the size you want to be. You should be able to eat a normal diet - with good food and reasonable exercise and stay your 'goal weight'. If you have to always feel like you are on a diet, then that might not be the ideal goal weight for you.

Whatever you decide, BE HAPPY & BE PROUD because you have accomplished something absolutely wonderful!

I think that you should stop where you are comfortable, as long as you are healthy. If your doctor thinks your health will improve by losing more, then yes keep losing. I would recommend a slow down to 1 pound a week loss.

I know what weight I'm most comfortable being..I've also figured I'm not going to get down to the weight I was when I was 21.
Just pick a spot that feels good and one you think you can maintain.

I decided on my goal weight by having my body fat measured, figuring out my lean mass, and then picking a body fat percentage I wanted. Assuming that I could keep all the lean mass I currently had through strength training, I did the math to get a weight number based off that. For me, at 46 and training for my first triathlon, I wanted to be at 20% body fat. That's the high end of "athletic", low end of "fit". You might want to be 25% or something else, depending on your goals. The important thing is to listen to your body. Do you have endurance? Do you have flexibility? Do you have aerobic capacity? Can you do the things that make you happy? Are you living in your body instead of existing? If so, then you have achieved the most important part of weight loss. I have been able to kayak and bike and go on long hikes easily since the 230s. As far as I am concerned, if I never lost another pound, I'd still be a major winner. I keep working my plan because I want to be able to run, and I want to be able to bike competitively, but I'm not sitting here going "Oh, unless I have visible abs I'm a fat loser." It sounds like you are possibly in a similar place. That is a wonderful sign of mental health and wisdom. So, just think about what end results you want, work your numbers, and reset your goal if needed. Congratulations on your journey.

Edit to add: Also remember that loose skin is SKIN. Like your eyelids or the skin on the back of your hand. It is thin almost like paper. Thick loose moveable rolls with weight and thickness is not "loose skin" it is skin with fat attached. Now the good news is that kind of fat does not cause heart disease or diabetes or any of the other problems. Fat around your organs causes those. Many people think that they can't lose any more because of loose skin but they aren't actually "there" yet. I found a wonderful video from a very open and honest lady who showed what her loose skin looked like after losing from 293 to 125. Here it is. http://youtu.be/eZuKXy9K4Qw

This is a tricky subject for me also.

After 12 months of diet and exercise absolute quantification, deciding a target has been met when "you feel good etc." is a difficult mindset to switch to.

And using the BMI index seems fraught as I've read a lot of work suggesting it's based on very old population data, and takes no account of muscle mass that many people build as they typically diet & exercise / train as a pair.

Love this answer!!!:happy: