Deciding on a goal weight

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Replies

  • gustafgirl
    gustafgirl Posts: 45 Member
    edited August 2017
    After 4 children and gaining weight over the years, I finally realized that even when I got back down to the ideal weight (I mean the number I set for myself) I didn't look the same. I have since learned to stop comparing my health to a number on a scale and the mirror. I am healthier than before, fee as though I'm in my twenties again. I do try to keep my body fat percentage in the normal healthy range. I never in a million years thought I would ever be under double digits in size, but I went from a size 20, to a very comfortable size 8. In short, numbers are deceiving, when you feel good in your skin and your health is good, that's a win!! Maintain that!!

    From the looks of things you are well on your way!! Your hard work is paying off! This really is a lifelong journey, you will know once you get there, what feels and looks good. I got down lower than I expected and honestly didn't feel as good, but gained back ten pounds and get great and liked how I looked. Keep up the good work!!!!
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Never had one...arbitrary number is arbitrary.

    This! ^ My goal weight is when I'm satisfied with how I look within reason. It is integrated with my exercise program. I didn't pick an arbitrary number ahead of time. I don't know what it will be.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    everher wrote: »
    estherdragonbat wrote: »
    For now, it's 10 lbs below the top of my BMI range. When I'm within 20 lbs of that (I.E. less than 10 lbs away from a healthy BMI), I mean to consult my doctor for advice about where I probably want to end up. My reasons for my 'working' goal:
    • I am aware that I have some low-level stress and anxiety issues. I know that if I'm 0.2lbs under the top of my BMI range, I'll be fine and if I'm 0.2lbs over, I'll panic and worry that the weight is creeping back. Even though intellectually, I know that weight fluctuates depending on time of day, time of month, how long ago one ate, exercised, eliminated, etc. I know it, but I think I'll still stress. By setting the bar 10lbs into the range, I believe I'll still be within the range, no matter what the fluctuations.
    • Everyone says that the last 10 lbs are the hardest. If I get frustrated and want to just quit, I'll still be at a healthy weight. I will now stick my fingers in my ears, in case anyone wants to tell me that it's the last 10 lbs before healthy BMI, not last 10 lbs before goal that are going to be troublesome. This is one time where I don't want to know the actual facts. I want to delude myself... and maybe I'll be that outlier who doesn't struggle at the end. (Mental game: If I assume the last 10 lbs will be the hardest, on some level I will loosen up my logging, exercise a drop less, etc. and then blame it on my being in the last 10 lbs. If I act like it's actually going to be the 10 lbs after... maybe I'll still struggle, but I think I'll be able to keep from self-sabotaging.)

    Time will tell!

    If it makes you feel better, I'm 7 lbs away now from a healthy BMI and it isn't any harder than it has been before. I'm not sure if even the last 10 lbs will be hard. I think it just depends on how lean a person is trying to go. Like if I wanted to go to the bottom of the healthy BMI range for my height I'm sure that would be a lot harder than me stopping mid range.

    Good to know!
  • Tweaking_Time
    Tweaking_Time Posts: 733 Member
    When I hit goal, I was thrilled with my body shape and hitting goal - FINALLY - after 18 long months.

    Over the next few months my body shape changed. I guess it was catching up to my 18 month transition. I decided to lose 10 more pounds and had to open another MFP account as Tweaking_Time because I was very stupid and cancelled my old account when I hit goal.

    Moral of my story - DON'T CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT WHEN YOU HIT GOAL! And over the next few months a little fine tuning may be in order.

    Congrats on your success! Excellent work!!
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    @bizgirl26 My goal was decided by my doctor for medical reasons.
  • lottathought
    lottathought Posts: 19 Member
    edited August 2017
    I am wrestling with this same issue.
    I started at 283 lbs and I am now at 178 lbs. ( I am 6'1") I have now had more than 1 person tell me it is time to stop. ( And I have also thought that they are just used to seeing me heavier)
    I am currently at my highschool weight.
    I think that you and I are asking ourselves the exact same question. What is my actual IDEAL weight?
    I am not talking about the weight on a chart...or a weight you might have been as a kid. What I am asking is...what is the weight that is most healthy for me? Of course that number will be different for each person. That is why I can not simply look at a chart.
    Yes, I am in a good BMI range .....but I did not come this far to leave any excess on the table. So where is the actual line of too far? I have believed that it is likely a bell curve..and when I pass the prime number, I will start feeling worse in some way. The thing that I do not know is what to look for when that time comes. What are symptoms that indicate that you have lost too much weight?
  • jesspen91
    jesspen91 Posts: 1,383 Member
    My original goal was 9.5st (133lbs) because it was a round number that was safely in the healthy BMI category (I'm 5 ft 3). However, now that I have hit that goal I feel I still need to lose some fat so I have adjusted my goal by another 5lbs to see how I feel when I get there. I have been maintaining between 131 and 135 for a few months now so I don't know when I will reach my new goal but as I am a healthy weight I am in no particular rush. It would just be nice.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    lottathought wrote: »
    I am wrestling with this same issue.
    I started at 283 lbs and I am now at 178 lbs. ( I am 6'1") I have now had more than 1 person tell me it is time to stop. ( And I have also thought that they are just used to seeing me heavier)
    I am currently at my highschool weight.
    I think that you and I are asking ourselves the exact same question. What is my actual IDEAL weight?
    I am not talking about the weight on a chart...or a weight you might have been as a kid. What I am asking is...what is the weight that is most healthy for me? Of course that number will be different for each person. That is why I can not simply look at a chart.
    Yes, I am in a good BMI range .....but I did not come this far to leave any excess on the table. So where is the actual line of too far? I have believed that it is likely a bell curve..and when I pass the prime number, I will start feeling worse in some way. The thing that I do not know is what to look for when that time comes. What are symptoms that indicate that you have lost too much weight?

    To some degree, I get the idea of optimization. On the on the other hand, perfectionism isn't great either. If you are at a good BMI, have good blood markers and have a reasonably well developed muscle structure, you are as good as there. I don't think there is any single real ideal weight. It's within a range.
  • SandraNancy
    SandraNancy Posts: 127 Member
    I don't have a goal weight so much as I have goal measurements. I'm 5'7 like you, and I suppose I'd be considered pear-shaped. My goal measurements are 32-26-35. I started at 150 lbs, with measurements at 33-28-38. After 8 weeks I'm at 139 lbs, with measurements at 32-26.5-36.

    I've been 135 lbs before and liked that weight, but if I woke up tomorrow at 138 and had the measurements I wanted, 138 would be my goal weight. As some of the other posters have mentioned, weight can be misleading when you get smaller. You could be a toned 150 lbs and be a size 4 or a puffier 150 lbs and be a size 8, which is why I find measurements to be a better goal (at least for me).

    Congrats on all your success so far!
  • KatieNicole95
    KatieNicole95 Posts: 133 Member
    For me - I have made actually 4 milestone goal weights to reach. The final goal weight is actually still considered overweight for my height - BUT, I was very happy with my size and shape at this weight before. I may possibly not be happy there once I get there but for now, that's the goal.
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
    I've had several goals. The first one was 5 lbs loss, to see if I could do it. The next one was 15 lbs because I thought that might look good, then as I approached that I realized that I might actually be able to have abs, so I went for 40 lbs so I could get to a body fat goal, did that. Now I'm fluctuating between two body fat percentages (while I bulk and cut) rather than a weight goal. I'm gonna get me those abs...grrrr.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    My starting wt this time around was 196.

    My initial goal wt was the wt I had maintained most of my adult life - 170.

    When I reached 170, I didn't like what I saw -
    - still looked overweight - - and reset the goal to 160, my college wt.

    Reached 160 and dropped as low as 154. Been mostly at 158 recently. Desired range is 155-160.

    Like the way that I look at this wt.

    Can wear 32" pants again, have a 6 pack and lots of muscular definition w/only 8.9%BF (measured hydrostatically).

    So, no need to do any more except maintain what it took 15 months to achieve.
  • KaroshiQueen
    KaroshiQueen Posts: 213 Member
    Since I am barely 5'2", the normal BMI range for my height is 100 - 135 lbs. I recall being about 120 lbs at age 18 and I think I looked pretty good then - although maybe a little curvy. I have browsed the bodies at mybodygallery dot com and based on what I saw, I feel that I would probably look my best around 110. While this is certainly an ambitious goal since I am currently 206, I think it would be a reasonable and healthy weight for my frame. There is a certain "look" and "style" I am going for and I think I would need to be around 110 to successfully pull it off and be happy with my image.
  • anacline
    anacline Posts: 13 Member
    I'm 5'5" and decided to get my weight down to 125 as that's what my doctor recommended to me when I was 18. Worst. Decision. Ever. At 125 pounds I was 14% body fat and felt like I was dying. I would faint nearly every day at random times. The doctor that requested I lost the weight completely ignored me when I told him this though. As did the 3 college clinic doctors I saw afterwards... Though I'm pretty sure they just assumed I was pregnant. So when I had the water submersion test to find my body fat 14% I immediately worked on gaining weight. I stopped fainting at arround 140-150 ish pounds but gained a bit more than I wanted... Ok a lot more. So for now I'm going to aim for 150 and work on slowly upping my calories until I find maintenance calories, whatever weight I happen to fall at while trying to find maintenance between 140 and 150 will be my goal weight. Probably 145. I was a pants size 4 at old navy at that weight last time I dieted. I may not be that size again as I seem to have gained a lot of my weight in my hips. But big hips are good in my opinion.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I don't have a particular goal, but I have a rough BMI/number goal I believe might be appropriate based on how my mom and sister look since their build is close to mine, but I'll only know when I get there.
  • FeelingAlive
    FeelingAlive Posts: 117 Member
    I have never been a healthy weight before so I have no idea what I prefer my ideal weight to be. I set my goal for 60kg (132lbs), which is on the higher end of the BMI spectrum (I'm 1.6m or 5'3''). I think once I reached it I will probably go for 55kg (121lbs), but it is still a long way to go and I don't want to feel discouraged with how much I still have to lose. Once I reach 60kg I'll slowly ease into maintenance and see how I handle things.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    I am in maintenance now but on my journey my goals shifted as I lost weight.
    My initial goal was fitting back into my clothes, then it was a favourite skirt I no longer wore. The it was to log for 2 years and see where I was then. It turns out at that point I tuned a corner or something. I knew I was still overweight but also that the journey was going well and was relatively easy to do. Additionally my main reason for my goal better health/fitness was also happening as I felt I wanted to do more.
    It was then that I saw BMI enter as a goal. My first BMI goal was being in the healthy range.
    I started investigating it a bit more and my ultimate goal was and is to be smack bang in the middle of my BMI range. My BMI now is 22.5 and I am happy with where I am. My range is 1kg up or down from my maintenance weight of 56kg
  • Ree13x
    Ree13x Posts: 46 Member
    I picked a time in my life when I was a healthy active adult (I was 22 at the time and was an extremely active archaeology student meaning I did lots of fieldwork. I am now 29 and work at a desk) I decided I wanted to fit back into the same clothing I wore during that period, so I approximated what I used to weigh. Because this was something that happened for me with my natural adult metabolism and simply lots of exercise and a good diet, it should be a reasonable healthy goal for my height and build.
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
    BMI is a less than an ideal indicator of overall fitness. It is antiquated. I am a 50yo male, stand 6'0" and weigh 212lbs. I am very fit, very athletic and very active. But, if you plug in my numbers to any BMI calculator I am essentially obese! That is a joke! Anyway, just my spin on that 'indicator'.

    Many people have given you a good set of guidelines. I would suggest that instead of picking a number on the scale (not an invalid way of doing this....just as good a starting point as any other, to be honest - I have an issue with using a number on a scale in general as it usually leads to a bad relationship with food and a "tied to a random number on a scale" feeling of success | failure....just my experience) that you go by how you feel.

    How is your energy level? How is your body composition? How do YOU think that you look?

    Do you feel like you are starving? Or, do you feel like you are constantly eating? Do you get "hangry"?

    Adherence is key. Mind set is more important. If you are forcing yourself to do something that you hate then you are likely setting yourself up for failure. Meaning, that you are going to stop doing this.

    How long have you been doing this? How has your adherence been? Would a little break be in order? Sometimes taking a break is a very very positive thing. And gives you that clarity that you need to successfully continue.

    And, I ask - how realistic is your current goal? Only you can answer that.....but it is a good question to ask yourself.

    Congrats on the great work....
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