Need help- How did you choose your goal weight?

I've never really picked a GW. It was just trial and error for me. I've been 100 pounds, 200 pounds, and everything in between. Based on my body structure, health, happiness and overall 'feeling', I've decided that for me, 106 pounds is best; but it's not really 106, more like 108 - 106 allows me to eat a little more on some days, a little less on other days and kind of balance between the two. When I was at my heaviest I wanted to be 120, when I got to 120 (because I'm so tiny framed) I decided I'd just keep going until I was happy with my body but still felt good. Just pick a good number for you and when you get there reevaluate. You may be surprised to find you want to be heavier, and that's super pleasant!

Mid point of healthy BMI.

I used a calculator to estimate what my weight would be at a certain BF% with the idea that I would hopefully lose very little muscle mass along the way. It worked out pretty well. I ended up at a slightly higher scale weight than I thought I would at my goal BF%.

Just having a goal weight is really not the best approach...scale weight is made up of too many things besides fat to be the only measure and only goal.

I thought about all of the weights I have been throughout the course of my life, and the fact that now I have a baby and will be 30 in a few months. I realized that I will never be down to where I was in high school (135) because my metabolism is slowing down and I am not playing sports every day for 3 hours a day. I decided to look at a weight I have been before and felt confident at. Currently I am 173, and would like to be 145 or 155. I think 20 pounds is attainable, and I have stopped looking at the BMI chart because it does not factor in your activity level, your body type/composition and muscle mass.

I just met with a registered dietitian, and on my health insurance I get 5 visits per calendar year, so I am trying her recommendations for my weight loss. My overall goal is to make the lifestyle change and stick with it so that I can teach the healthy habits to my son. The added benefit of my skinny clothes fitting again will just be a wonderful feeling.

I'm 5'9 and my (tentative) goal weight is 150. That puts me at a healthy BMI. I don't know if I will get that low. Especially considering I would like to have a bit of muscle definition. I know in high school I weighed around 160. I was in sports, swimming and soccer. Maybe when I get to that weight I will be happy but right now I'm just going for 150 and see what happens.

We both had the same starting weight (287), but I am only 5'2"

Like you, I have a really hard time deciding what my ultimate goal weight should be, so I decided to break it down into smaller chunks - about two years ago, I was able to get down to 210, and even that felt really, really good, so that is my first "mini" goal. Once I get there, I will set the next one.

According to the BMI chart (which we all know isn't the be-all, end-all when it comes to determining a healthy weight), a healthy weight range for my height is 101-136 - which seems impossible/unrealistic to me right now. My current "ultimate" goal weight - if I had to put a number on it - would be 150. Like a lot of other posters have said, I think I'll know when I get there.

Hi

I choose a weight that felt comfortable for me - I want to maintain at my goal and not feel that I am under/overweight. I am 5ft 8 ins and at 85 kgs - I can wear size 14 UK and appear actually slimmer. So I am happy with 85kgs - it is high on many of the medical charts that I read but it's what I feel comfortable at.

I started at 20stone/280lbs and I chose my goal as 10stone/140lbs (Yes, I'm in it for the long haul haha!)

There are three (increasingly more logical) reasons for this:
1. because it is half my starting weight, so it sounds satisfying, and for some reason 10stone is always a weight which has sounded good to me (illogical, but true!)
2. it's easy mathematically to know when I hit halfway etc. (17.5st, 15st and 12.5st are mini goals in my head)
3. because at my height (5ft4in) my 'healthy' bmi range is 7st 10/108lbs - 10st 6/146lbs so 10stone is near the top of the range without teetering on the edge. This is the most important reason!

However, as my goal is near the top of healthy it may be that I still want to lose a few pounds or even a stone or two when I get there, but for now, getting to 'healthy' is the main goal and I can deal with aesthetic concerns when I get there!

So I don't think your goal necessarily needs to be the actual end goal - your current goal could be to get to your previous lower weight and then you could reassess when you get there if you want to.
I preferred to set a big goal that I can slowly work towards but I don't see why you can't set smaller, more manageable goals and reset when you achieve each one if that works better for you.

I chose mine based on when I think I looked best. I'm 5'5" and my goal is 170. Before I was pregnant with my daughter I was 165 (size 8-10) and with my frame and muscle mass, I had started to look gaunt in my face which just didn't look good. So, I don't care what any chart says, I know were my body needs to be.

I picked 145lbs because that's where I look and feel the best.

It doesn't actually matter if you're right about your goal weight at first. Mine was originally 130lb (I have lost weight before) but when I got to 140lb I realized I was already quite thin. So, you can always adjust your expectations later.

Great question! I am eager to see other responses. I based my goal weight off of the high end of the healthy BMI range. In actuality, I think it is likely that I would be satisfied with my appearance at a few pounds heavier (just based off of my bone structure and how other people who are a similar body type to me look at 20 lbs heavier than my goal weight. And it is likely that my weight loss journey will get interrupted by a pregnancy somewhere along the way and that might change my goals as I go. I think the hard thing about goal weight is that we're often shooting for something we've never experienced. I can't remember ever being my goal weight -- I have no idea what size I would be at that weight, how I would look, how I would feel, how hungry I would be in order to maintain that weight, etc.

Pick a goal that you would like to realize and then see how things go.

I just wanted to add to my previous post, that your goal weight doesn't have to be the ideal weight for your height, age etc. if you don't want to. My goal weight falls within the healthy BMI range, because that was my purpose in losing weight, considering that I wasn't extremely far from it. But it's still a weight at which I look chubby and I like it. No need to get thin if I don't want to. Not all people on this Earth are thin, and even health is something that can be so easily influenced day by day that I'd rather focus on working on it instead of deciding where to settle.

I am also 5'7.
At first, my goal was 140-143.
But now considering 135.
I looked my best at that weight, in photos anyway, 20 years ago.
It will sure be nice to get there one of these days.

I started out with the highest healthy BMI. I had a long way to go to that goal (80 pounds), so that was a good start. Now That I have reached that goal, I've thought back to when I felt healthiest and strongest, but added about 10 pounds because I'm a lot older now!

I gave myself realistic goals for loss and didnt worry if it was my final goal. I started at 158 and my first goal was 140! then I set it to 135, then 128, then 123, then 121. Now I have just reset to 115. I want to add it is over a YEAR later. I expect it might take me a year to lose the last five pounds. I am fine with that. It has worked because I have not tried to do it too fast or too much or too soon.
I did not accept that I was obese(literally) for my height until a few weeks ago. In my case, I did not want to look at it and mfp and the community hae all helped me so much.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Good luck.