HOW do you determine UGW? I'm 5' 1.5" and 40 yrs old.

mimiteh35
mimiteh35 Posts: 486 Member
in Getting Started
I honestly have NO idea where to even decide! This is long so if you don't want to read it all, at least skip to the end lol.

I'm 40 yrs old, 5' 1.5", and I've been overweight most of my adult life, at least since my mid 20s. I don't think I've been below 175 since my mid 20s. In college and a little after I was about 135-140 and was told I was overweight and needed to lose weight, I was active in dance team with practices 5 days a week for 3 hrs a day plus performances/competitions one day a week usually with a practice before for about an hour. So, that's a lot of moving. I didn't eat great, but I was young and up until then I never considered myself fat until I was told I needed to lose weight by the dance team instructor, though I was good enough on the team to be one of the captains of the team, they hounded me about my weight. Looking back, i WISH I was as fat as they made me think I was then! After I graduated college and stopped dancing, I ate the same and over the next few years gained weight. I never weighed myself so I don't even know how big I got, but I know when I had my son at 27, my highest pregnancy weight was 222. I lost some, gained some since then, and only one other time tried to lose and got as low as 180 and was excited I could fit into a size 16/18, some 14s depending on the cut. I worked out 3-4 days a week at Curves and used WW Points for my eating guide back then. I then got to a financial point where I couldn't afford WW or Curves, and had to get a 2nd job to make ends meet/pay off my debts. Slowly gained weight again because I ate out like crazy because of a 1 hr drive one way to work, 2 jobs, coming home in the evenings and having to run my son to football practices and soccer practices, etc.

By Dec. 31, 2012 I was 39 yrs old and I started working on weight loss again because I saw a pic of myself on Christmas eve and realized I was just ROUND. I weighed 226.4 at that point, size 22/24 or 2XX or 3XX tops, and size 22/24 or 24 pants, depending on the cut. Plus, several doctors visits over the last year my doctor mentioned my heart rate was pretty high and I should lose weight or go on BP pills, and with a family history of diabetes need to really consider losing weight or being on pills. The very last doctor visit at that weight, he prescribed me medication! I told him I would work on weight loss and I started that week. Time to start getting healthy!

I had no set ultimate goal weight because I didn't know how to decide, and still don't, so I decided to just aim for losing 40 lbs by my 40th birthday. I almost gave up several times because I couldn't see any weight loss, it was very slow, and no one else seemed to notice I had lost any weight either, until I got to the 30 lb mark, then peopled started noticing, and so it made me pull out my "old clothes" and some of it that I hdn't been able to weaer in a few years was fitting great or even getting too big! I lost a total of 32.6 lbs in 1 year. Not a lot but I was proud.

Then the holidays hit and I binged on sweets and baked goods, I still tracked, but I stopped working out as much. I ended up gaining back 9 lbs of the 32.6 lbs I lost. I have since started back up on working out and eating better, though still working on the eating, and have lost 5 of the lbs I gained back, so I'm on my way again! :)

Anyway, the point of this whole friggin message was, I really think having a goal to work towards will help me get there. I first had a goal of 40 lbs by my 40th bday, I got as far as 32.6 lbs and while I didn't make that goal, it made me happy! Then without a followup goal, I kinda lost my way. So, I'm thinking 40 more lbs in 40 weeks will be a good goal, that will be the end of 2014. BUT, how do I decide on my ultimate goal? The last time I weighed below 175 I was about 25-ish? That was before kids. I see so many on here with goals of 120 and 115, and I haven't been that small since I was in middle school, so that doesn't seem realistic to me, but I also haven't been 140 lbs since college, before kids.

My fiance thinks I should aim for somewhere like 150 and slowly go from there, like say 150, then see how I feel when I hit 150, and if I feel like I could lose some more, then set my goal at losing another 10 lbs, and then see how I feel from there, etc...

Does that sound reasonable, or does 150 sound too high considering my height of 5' 1.5"?? I would consider myself large frame, but I honestly don't know how to even figure that out.

Replies

  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    My goal has always been fluid My main plan is to get into a healthy BMI range that at that point reassess to and how much more I may or may not need to lose. I think having a set number is a little dangerous as you can get obsessed over that one figure. As weight can fluctuate up to 5 pounds on some days when do you take that you have reached your goal weight. The morning, the afternoon? My advice would be don't get too obsessed over one number maybe have a figure in your head but be prepared to adjust that depending on how it goes when you are nearer. Think as your overall goal as Health not weightloss. Anyone can lose weight but not everyone can get healthy while losing weight and stay healthy

    Good luck
  • GiveMeCoffee
    GiveMeCoffee Posts: 3,556 Member
    My goal is not based on the number on the scale, its a body type, health and fitness level that I want to achieve. It's not important to me to see 150 lbs but it is important to see all my blood work come back normal, my ability to lift more, run farther, bike longer and being able to keep up with my granddaughter.
  • muddyevil
    muddyevil Posts: 31
    I don't have that specific figure either - I know I would like to get into a healthy BMI range but to me that seems impossible. I know it sounds very very shallow, but I want to look good. If I look good - but ensure that I choose the right paths to get there - I know that I will be healthy.

    I would say healthy BMI is a good place to start - but know that it is really really unreliable. Also know that if you're exercising a lot, then you're not gonna lose pounds necessarily, you'll just have all your weight in the right place!
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I knew the "lightest" I had been in the last 20 years (pre baby) so I chose that as my UGW...165...then when I hit it I decided I wanted to be prebaby weight....

    Those are the only weight goals I set....

    Most of my goals have to do with clothing size, bf% and the weight I lift instead of the weight of the scale.
  • michelleneli
    michelleneli Posts: 132 Member
    I've noticed in the success posts that women can look quite different at the same weight depending how much exercise they're doing. To me, I think it's a good idea to aim for 150 lbs. and then if you want something different, change your goal.:smile:

    Michelle
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    I have looked at several charts online and the recommendations for me were a bit low. I think I will aim for about 10lbs more than the recommendation of 137 or I will get to that amount and do more weight training to tone up a bit.
  • sun_fish
    sun_fish Posts: 864 Member
    Like you, I got caught up in trying to figure out my UGW. At some point, I decided to focus less on the number the scale told me, and think about getting to a certain body fat percentage, but I still didn't know what that should be. I eventually realized that was just another number to obsess over. I finally decided to stop obsessing about numbers, and just lose until I could look in the mirror and say "yeah, that's it".
  • RUNNING_AMOK_1958
    RUNNING_AMOK_1958 Posts: 268 Member
    It depends on your build. I'm 5'1" and 55 years old and have weighed from 113-174. Right now I weigh 129. I'm happy where I am, but probably could lose a couple more pounds. I'm getting to the point where if I lose any more I start looking older, which I don't want. When you're as short as we are 5 pounds makes a huge difference, especially when you get down below 140. I think 150 is too high. I would shoot for 140, then reassess. You can always change your goal as you go along. Nothing says it has to be set in stone. By the way I got down to 113 three years ago and it was too low. I was frail and looked older. I didn't think so at the time, but I feel and look so much better now at 129.
  • daniellemm1
    daniellemm1 Posts: 465 Member
    We are about the same height and according to those darn BMI charts I should be 152 to get into overweight and 126 to get into the normal range. I started at 260 (big) and am now at 169 and though I look decent in clothes I still have quite a bit of fat that I am working on losing. Ideally I think I will be happy after losing 20 more pounds, so 150, and then I will reevaluate based on how I feel. At that point I will probably focus less on the weight loss aspect and instead on running further and faster and lifting heavier.

    I've seen so many pics of girls about my height who look so different at different weights so I'm trying not to get hung up on any specific weight.
  • mollybuck
    mollybuck Posts: 64 Member
    You are making yourself crazy. Take it slow in small steps. 40 pounds in 40 weeks is a sensible weight loss, but maybe you should set more short term goals at first, things that you know that are possible that are not overwhelming. I started with giving up take out food on the way home from work, and that just snowballed into a full blown lifestyle makeover. Just with making that one "sacrifice" of missing the McDonald's drive through it started to really "click " for me. I don't so much think of my goal as much as I have been concentrating on daily achievements. And I have not been beating myself up about my occasional "failure" as I did in the past. I log it an move on, something I never did in the past. Good luck!

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