Goal: cut weight in HALF. Is this reasonable?

Hi, 5'9" 22-year old male here. In making continual (tangible!) steps towards weight loss I signed up for an account yesterday. I also bought a fancy digital scale. My initial goal weight I entered was 130 because I want to be pretty skinny before trying to build muscle, and I thought this was a loss of about 90-100 lbs. But when I got on the scale, it turned out I was 261.8 lbs! So going down to 130 would basically make me half the size! Just curious, does this sound like a reasonable weight for an average-height guy, or did I estimate way too low? I basically want to just look down and see a flat stomach.

130 is awfully skinny. Just make your goal the flat stomach instead of the weight.

You will achieve the flat stomach way before you get to 130. If not, you probably haven't lost weight in a healthy way.

130 is pretty low based on your height. I would suggest getting down to 161.8 (100 lbs lost) and see where you want to go from there.

Average for your height is 140-170 ish

I agree with this. I personally think it's better to start with smaller goals because they're more achievable and as you hit them you can reassess where you want to be depending on how you look, feel, etc. at that time.

My partner was 130 before he started gaining weight with the idea of bulking, and at about your height he was very lean! He's lucky to have broad shoulders and good muscles as it was, so he didn't look scrawny, but it did make him look about 18 instead of in his 20's. I'd say aim for 140 or thereabouts, but everyone's different, just see how you go! :flowerforyou:

Alright, changed it to 161.8 . Thanks guys. Also in response to:

"You will achieve the flat stomach way before you get to 130. If not, you probably haven't lost weight in a healthy way."

A few years back I went from 220 to about 170 over the course of a year, not really with a goal of weight loss but just from being a busy college student. I would usually just drink a soda + bag of chips in the morning, and eat a sub or something around 10 PM. Is this why I still felt "fat" even though I had lost about 50 lbs? I didn't feel starved or dead inside or anything, even went to the gym sometimes.

I can believe you still had some belly fat at 170. I was a similar size to you when I started losing weight. I was a couple of inches taller and about 13 pounds heavier, 5'11 and 274.

Now I am 185 and I still have 10 - 12 pounds of belly fat I want to get rid of. I can see myself getting into the high 160s before it is gone, but not lower than that.

I suspect if you eat healthy and lose the weight that you will achieve your goal maybe in the 150s, but not at 130. I would make sure you eat a lot of protein and do some weights once or twice a week to retain as much muscle mass as possible, but I understand your main goal is to lose all the fat, because that is exactly the way I approached it too.