How do you calculate your goal weight?

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  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    Picked my lowest adult weight, where I was a "normal" weight, but still had excess fat on me, and shaved from there.

    I have a goal range now. But ultimately how I look in the mirror is going to determine the end goal.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    Personally I determined my frame from a wrist measurement (small, medium or large frame) then just looked online for what was a lean or fit bodyfat composition for a male (around 12-15% was what I found. I then looked up what a small framed 6' tall man with 12-15% bodyfat weighed and there you go. First time I did this I calculated that I should way 155 pounds which seemed shockingly low at the time given that I am 6' tall and at that point I weighed about 195. My profile picture is me when I attained that bodyfat goal and sure enough, I was 155 pounds.

    So glad you brought this up; there is such truth here. The first time I lost a lot of weight, I was surprised that at 5'11" and in my 180s how much fat I still had left on my body. It is very easy for people to set goal weights that seem "normal", but still leave them with lots of excess fat on their frames. I think it's extremely common for many weight losers to radically overestimate their goal weights because they can't really fathom how low they might need to go in order to have truly low bodyfat levels.

    Also I assumed during my many years of being a big boy that I was just a large framed guy. Wrong. I'm a medium framed guy, verging on small framed. A lot of people are wrong about their frame size.
  • deliacm
    deliacm Posts: 66 Member
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    Personally, I think BMI calculations are a bunch of bunk unless done in a tank. Calculating what you BMI is by using height and weight only doesn't give you any where near an accurate BMI. There is no accounting in that calculation for body composition. Women that are 5'6" and 155 with a muscular build and low body fat % are going to calculate the same BMI as women that are the some height and weight with low muscle mass and a high body fat%. Pure BS unless it's been done in a float tank.
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,568 Member
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    My goal weight is a weight that I felt good and healthy at. No science just how I felt in the past before the weight gain.
  • easjer
    easjer Posts: 219 Member
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    I haven't set a final goal weight. My first goal weight is 'under 300' followed by 285. Then 250. Then 225. Then I'll re-evaluate. It's based on how I look and feel and what else is going on. I honestly think I'd probably be fine/healthy at 200. I don't know if I can get much lower than that - I know I'll never be in a healthy BMI because of my bone density and muscle mass. It's not a strict number for me, it's solely about feeling and appearance.
  • JESharp2
    JESharp2 Posts: 9
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    I use BMI (Body mass index) to determine my goal. I'm 6 foot 3 inches and 235 pounds. That makes my bmi 29.4. Overweight is considered within a range of 25-29.9. To get to a normal weight bmi, I need to weigh 199 (BMI: 24.9). My first priority is getting to 199 pounds. After that, I want to get to 185. That would put me comfortably in the range for a normal weight BMI.
    Here is a good BMI calculator and chart of BMI categories: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm
  • ramyad1
    ramyad1 Posts: 16
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    My goal weight is an adjustment that I keep doing until my belly fat and moobs have all gone. Then I know I have reached my ideal weight.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    I set a weight a few pounds below the top cutoff for "normal" BMI. That weight is hard for me to maintain, though - I tend to bounce around 5-10 pounds above that. I think I should be going by %BF, but I don't trust most of the methods used to measure it.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    Personally, I think BMI calculations are a bunch of bunk unless done in a tank. Calculating what you BMI is by using height and weight only doesn't give you any where near an accurate BMI. There is no accounting in that calculation for body composition. Women that are 5'6" and 155 with a muscular build and low body fat % are going to calculate the same BMI as women that are the some height and weight with low muscle mass and a high body fat%. Pure BS unless it's been done in a float tank.

    You're confusing BMI with body composition.

    BMI is designed to be checked on a chart, not a "tank". That's the point.

    BMI doesn't tell you body composition, but BMI isn't intended to give you that info. The 5'6", 155 lbs muscular woman with a low BF% does have the same BMI as a woman at the same height and weight with a higher body fat level, and less LBM. She just has a radically different composition.

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