How did YOU determine your Goal Weight

The absolute best way to determine what your goal weight should be is a DEXA body scan. As people have pointed out, BMI is highly flawed and although it might give you a good starting point, it's not much more useful than knowing that you have to lose "some weight" (which you already know). There is nothing wrong with the "low end" of BMI ranges; where some people say "if I weighed that, I'd look like a skeleton) - and some people would; the problem with it is that it's encompassing all sorts of body builds and muscle composition and so on. So really, pretty useless.

A DEXA scan is a safe, non-invasive body scan which measures the weight (and density) of your bones; the weight of your internal organs, muscle, and fat. We know with a very good degree of accuracy what appropriate fat percentages are; so your organs + muscle + bones + miscellaneous + healthy percentage of fat = your ideal weight; to state the obvious (follow through); your current weight, minus all of that, is what you have to lose.

DEXAs are also very motivating because you see the healthy "you" underneath. For many people, an important step in the self-esteem and self-confidence journey is learning to be comfortable in their own skin, regardless of their size; in fact, that is perhaps THE most important step for everyone - to realise that your worth is not tied to your weight! However, once you've reached that step, there is another step to go: the weight you feel "comfortable" at may not be the weight that is healthiest for you. There are a lot of very real, very valid psychological and emotional ties which may keep us tied to a certain weight; but for the sake of our health and well-being, we need to (at the appropriate time) identify those and move on from them.

While it may be, for you, a very important and valid step to realise "Not only am I never going to weight what I did when I was 16, I don't *want* to!" - we have to identify the *why* of that: is it because we feel it's unattainable, or would our weight at 16 actually be unhealthy for us?

For instance, I thought for a long time that my high-school weight was where I needed to be: not out of any twisted desire for over-thin-ness, but because I was actually quite fit in high school and had a good figure (I mean, I had a chest and a bum, (normal sized), so I knew that my weight in high school wasn't lower *because* I "had no figure back then". I hadn't grown in height since then, either, so I figured it was reasonable.

It wasn't until I got one of my later DEXA scans where my physiologist and I were able to put together that I'd actually gained muscle since high school (which I really hadn't expected, as I was quite active in HS). Consequently, my ideal weight is about 15-20 kg higher than it was in HS (that's 33 - 44 lb for the Americans ) Nevertheless, this ideal weight doesn't leave me with the common-definition of "curvy" (aka, kind of chubby our rounded); there's no extra weight to be concerned with (particularly abdominal fat).

A really interesting exercise for me was getting my mum to come and have a DEXA scan as well; we're the same height (actually, she's a little taller, about an inch), and have similar builds (and let's just say what we all know; the talk about "big bones" is, generally speaking, big BS!) - anyway: so when we compared our scans, her body fat was good (11%, which is fine for an athletic woman), but she actually has 15 kg less muscle than I have (also, it showed a warning-level of bone density loss, which is another excellent reason to get the scans and stay on top of them). So, even with her extra inch in height, if I were her weight, plus my extra muscle weight, give or take a couple kg, I'd be in the right place. Anyway, it was just fun to see the scans side by side - motivating, too!

Bottom line: body fat % (as measured by a water-volume test; electric impedance measures like Tanita scales are good, but not as accurate), or a DEXA scan are the only really accurate way to go, and DEXA scans, as I said, have the advantage of being really motivating. A bit confronting, maybe, to see yourself and all your fat out there (you get a glorious colour picture!) - but then you see the "you" underneath it all, and it's pretty cool. If you know you're within 5-10 kg or 10-15 pounds of your ideal, you don't "need" it (although I'd still recommend it because it's ultra cool; also, it's excellent because you can measure your muscle growth!); but then, if you're that close to your goal weight, you're probably not lurking on this thread!

However, if you're not in a position to readily get a DEXA scan, as one of the other posters said - just take it a bit at a time. Set yourself a goal which is very unlikely to be "too much" - say, start with the first 5 kg or 10 pounds; make that "goal number 1", get there, and then set the next goal. Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, anyway!

My goal is to get back to my prepregnancy weight. It's only been 18 years...

I think for me, it's more of a "let's see how my body looks" type of thing and of course not being under weight.

Mine is 5 lbs more than when I graduated from high school, but I might change it later. It will depend on how I look as I lose more weight.

My favorite weight was 135 in my 30's. I am 5'7.
But now, at age 55, I am working towards 140 as my goal.
Or close to it...we will see.

Initially it was using the classic formula of My_Height_in_cm - 110cm = Perfect_weight_in_KG, so for my case is 171-110 = 61kg.

Later on I had a friend who was the same height, relatively the same built as me and I asked her how much she was weighing as she had the body that I did wish I had - she said 59kg, so I decided that maybe at the result given to me by my old school formula I will look quite great.

But then again, in the past few years, I've realized that weight is not all that important because I might be at a greater weight but have the same body size as someone who is much lighter than I am due to difference in muscle mass. So, right now I'm semi-aiming at that weight, but also aiming at those skinny jeans size 6 that I bought many moons ago that I want to squeeze in and in which I know I will look quite alright :P

I used that formula, and for me it comes out left than 100 pounds!! :O Nuh-uh. Never

My current goal weight is actually ten pounds heavier than my original goal weight and twenty pounds heavier than I should weigh according to the "experts".

I picked it because what I really want to do is get to my current goal and hold it for a year while I work on getting stronger and more flexible. After a year maintaining that weight, I'll decide if I really need to lose another ten or not.

There's no magic number or formula and nothing is set in stone. I may change my mind tomorrow, but for now this is how I plan on proceeding.

I have a large frame and my whole family is large (my dad weighed 350-400lb my entire life) and my dr gave me a goal of 180-190. I kinda want to prove him wrong and go less so I said 170 but like I told my husband last night, I will see when I get anywhere near there how I feel and if I want to lose more then I will work on it and stop when Im comfortable.

When I first started I didn't even have a goal weight. Once I was working out for a couple of months and saw the diffference on the scale, I thought WoW I can do this! Then I started setting attainable,small 5-7 lb goals. Once I hit the 30 lb lost mark I felt happy & confident so stopped losing. I maintained this for a little over a year, and now I'm ready to get moving again with a goal of losing 10. I've already seen 4 lbs come off so I upped it to 15. Atttainable, short term goals.

I put 140 because that puts me in my healthy BMI range not that I think that matters all that much, but really I have a goal size I want to be a size 8 pant and a size 10 shirt/dress. I know when I was an adolescent with very little fat and no boobs I was still an 8/10 because of my frame. At a size 12 I can already see my hip bones (underneath my tummy) so I know I'm not going to try for a size 4 when that is not my body.