How to determine weight loss goal number?

I'm going with mid range of normal bmi as my target. For my height of 5'2" my normal range is 135-102. My goal is stay between 125-130. I'm losing until I achieve the look I want ( size 8 pants) and then stop and start maintenance. I'm thinking with my pear shape at 120's I should fit size 8 non-stretchy pants.I don't want to go lower than that.

My motivations may be different from yours, but I ran into the same question, and I decided that there is no pat answer! From a health point of view, anything in the normal BMI range is, well, normal. You can choose one goal and make a decision once you get there if you want to continue.

What I did was to choose a weight at the top of the BMI range, since I wanted to keep some heft. Still, I found that losing 22lbs meant buying all new clothes. (For me, that has been a chore, because I like many of my old clothes, howevermuch larger!)

My doctor has told me many times that there are many factors to good health: stress level, eating well, exercising, sun exposure, choosing the right parents, etc.

Best of luck!

Don't invest a lot of energy in figuring out a goal if it's just to put into MFP. It has zero effect on how MFP estimates your calorie goal. It only affects things like the progress ticker on your profile, if you have one. Just set it at something plausible (like suggestions above) and tweak it as needed, as you go along.

Set it to "Lose 1/2 pound per week." Then be honest in your daily activity. Don't pick Sedentary just because it is an option - nearly no one is actually sedentary.

I'm 5'7"/5'8" and 142. I'm in size ten mostly, eight in dresses.

My goal is the high end of my BMI range, and then I will reevaluate from there.

I'm basing my goal on potential weight gain when hubby and I are expecting. Women in my family usually gain 30 lbs with a single birth. My goal is to hit 169 or under so that I don't go back over 200. Obviously this isn't a perfect plan (I could end up gaining more, and if I have multiples like my Mum and Sis it's inevitible), but it *feels* doable. My doctor's goal is much more generous (200), but I'm pretty sure he's just being realistic based on my family's history, which is totally fair.

Setting specific goal unless you think you're only within a few pounds of your ideal is difficult. I originally set my goal towards the lower end of a 'healthy' bmi for my height (115 lbs at 5 ft 6 would have a bmi of 18.6), but upon getting there it was clear that it wasn't the right weight.

Like you, clothes were a motivator for me and when I'm away at uni I don't have any scales so I just lost weight until I could do them up!

I re-evaluate every couple of weeks to make sure I'm eating enough and feel healthy and so on, but now I'm at a lower weight I can fine tune my goal so at the moment it's at 105 (but subject to change as I'll probably gain as I build muscle).

I'd say start by aiming for what is generally accepted as a healthy weight for your height, but once there decide based on what feels and looks right for your body. Take pictures and measurements once a month so you can see your progress because when you see yourself every day you won't notice the tiny changes that overtime have made up your progress.

lizandhobbes wrote: »

Hi Everyone,
I am new to posting although I've been reading other people's posts for some time now. My question is, how do you know where to set your weight loss goal in terms of a number? I really just want to fit into my size 10's again (went up to a size 14). I don't know how much weight that is since I never really weighed myself before. I am currently at 152 (female, 5 foot 6). What do you all base your numbers on?

Never did...I was shooting for a certain BF% give or take...I only had some vague idea of what my weight would be and I was pretty much way off. I thought I was going to have to lose a lot more to get where I wanted to be and that wasn't the case.

Arbitrary number is arbitrary...

Also 5ft, 6in here and my original goal was 135lbs. Hit that and decided to keep going, all the way down the low end of the healthy bmi range, at 117lbs. Didn't like what I looked like at that weight though, so I intentionally added a few pounds back on and for the past few years have been maintaining between 125lbs-130lbs.

When you transition into maintenance you won't have a set weight, but instead a maintenance range of several pounds. This is because your weight will fluctuate daily due to all sorts of things and having a 3-5lb range will help you keep your sanity

As a guideline, I used the TDEE Calculator suggestion for ideal weight range of 133-138. I'm currently at 142. 5-7" female. 135 seems like it will be ideal.