Wiggle room SOOOOO CONFUSED..

Are you close to your goal weight? Close enough to be worried about that at this point?

I think that it's generally unwise to be too focused on the end goal and spend effort worrying about the ultimate goal weight number. Better to think about what you are eating tomorrow and how will work in some physical activity. The future will take care of itself.

Set micro-goals for yourself. Don't try to eat that elephant in one bite. You just started - work on the first X lbs that you know you can tackle. Then work on the next X lbs, and then so on.

This is something it has never occurred to me to worry about.

1) My normal BMI range is quite broad. As long as I'm somewhere within my normal BMI range, I'm happy. And I am there.

2) I would like to be in the lower half of my normal BMI range. And I'm almost there.

3) I will likely aim for somewhere in the middle of the lower half of my normal BMI range ... just because that seems like a decent place to aim for.

But it's not a big deal. And I didn't decide to aim for the lower half of my normal BMI range until after I hit my first goal of being within my normal BMI range.

jojorocksforeva wrote: »

SO confused on how much wiggle room i should give myself weither it be below my goal weight or above it i think 5 lbs is good but maybe that's too much do you believe in wiggle room and how much do you give yourself.

jojorocksforeva wrote: »

Also if your goal weight is lets say 140 you still try to be at your 140 but you give your self eh 4lbs so if you go to 141 it won't be a big deal but you try to be at your goal weight and once you go over 144 than you start working really hard again to lose again.

According to your other thread about goal weight, you're just starting and you're at 298 lbs.

If that is the case, don't worry about whether your goal should be 140 or 142 or 144.

For right now, aim for, say ... 250 lbs. When you get there ... aim for 200 lbs. When you get there, aim for whatever the top end of your normal BMI range is. When you get there, then look at 140 or whatever number you want to get to. Or something like that. One step at a time.

It's nice to look ahead, but it can also be quite daunting. Taking it in smaller steps can give you a sense of achievement each time you reach a goal.

Like I said above, my first mini-goal was to exit "overweight" and enter "normal" on my BMI scale. I had a small "yay!" moment when I got there and it spurred me on a bit. My next goal was to hit a point I had been 4 years ago. And I actually thought I might stop there. But then I realised I could keep going.

I have no particular number in mind ... I'll just see where I am at the end of September and decide what I want to do then. Perhaps I'll stop. Perhaps I'll keep going to the end of October. One step at a time.

jojorocksforeva wrote: »

Goal weight is not 140 was just giving it as an

Machka9 wrote: »

jojorocksforeva wrote: »

SO confused on how much wiggle room i should give myself weither it be below my goal weight or above it i think 5 lbs is good but maybe that's too much do you believe in wiggle room and how much do you give yourself.

jojorocksforeva wrote: »

Also if your goal weight is lets say 140 you still try to be at your 140 but you give your self eh 4lbs so if you go to 141 it won't be a big deal but you try to be at your goal weight and once you go over 144 than you start working really hard again to lose again.

According to your other thread about goal weight, you're just starting and you're at 298 lbs.

If that is the case, don't worry about whether your goal should be 140 or 142 or 144.

For right now, aim for, say ... 250 lbs. When you get there ... aim for 200 lbs. When you get there, aim for whatever the top end of your normal BMI range is. When you get there, then look at 140 or whatever number you want to get to. Or something like that. One step at a time.

It's nice to look ahead, but it can also be quite daunting. Taking it in smaller steps can give you a sense of achievement each time you reach a goal.

Like I said above, my first mini-goal was to exit "overweight" and enter "normal" on my BMI scale. I had a small "yay!" moment when I got there and it spurred me on a bit. My next goal was to hit a point I had been 4 years ago. And I actually thought I might stop there. But then I realised I could keep going.

I have no particular number in mind ... I'll just see where I am at the end of September and decide what I want to do then. Perhaps I'll stop. Perhaps I'll keep going to the end of October. One step at a time.

goal weight is not 140 was just using that as an examle.

You're missing the point. The point is ... don't worry about "wiggle room".

You might give it a thought when you get within about 5 or 10 lbs of whatever your goal is, but for now, just start the process.

WinoGelato wrote: »

Don't major in the minors. You understand that maintenance is a range, same thing with your maintenance calories. When you get close to that point it may take weeks or months to find the calorie balance to keep you within your acceptable "wiggle room" of your goal.

This is really good advice along with many others here. I think that you are thinking about end-points when you have only just begun that can end up being daunting.....and could possibly derail you.

If you have a lot to lose it will take a long time and it will be really helpful if you can just try to do the whole weight loss thing 1 single day at a time. Taking your focus away to look far, far into the future doesn't necessarily give you enough 'head space' so to speak in the reality of patience and persistence you are going to have to find in the months ahead.

I answered the other thread you started about Goal weight as it seemed a bit of fun.... I can only speak from my experience of starting at 278 lbs I found the concept of getting to a healthy BMI just to be overwhelming. All I wanted day to day, week to week then month to month was to see the scale go down, accurately log my calories and get my endurance up with exercise....an end point was just TOO far away.

....but that's just me. Maybe you find this mental process to be inspiring and uplifting. In regards to you idea of wiggle room.

ncboiler89 wrote: »

jojorocksforeva wrote: »

Also if your goal weight is lets say 140 you still try to be at your 140 but you give your self eh 4lbs so if you go to 141 it won't be a big deal but you try to be at your goal weight and once you go over 144 than you start working really hard again to lose again.

Get to your goal weight and eat at maintenance and be done with it. You should have a very good idea what your maintenance level is by that time. Continue to weigh yourself of course because you need to keep tabs on your logging and activity level.

This is a perfect answer to the question. With most people using the guide of within 5 lbs of goal weight.

All the best.

Personally I don't see the point in having an exact number for a goal weight, I picked 140 because it's bang in the middle of my healthy weight range but I have no idea how I will look or feel when I get there. If you're happy with how you look and feel then eat as accurately as possible at maintenance and don't worry about your weight being a few lbs over or under. I doubt you would be able to tell the difference anyway.