Anyone accept a weight that wasn't their "ultimate goal"?

I think you stated it really well, OP. Especially: "I am in maintenance and at this stage in my life this is good enough."

I finally got over pneumonia & felt good for about 2 weeks & got back to working out some, but was still a bit tired, so last Monday, I got sick again (like a cold/flu)& am back on anti biotics. Dr said to take it easy for 2 weeks & let my body heal. I know exercise is 20% of wt loss, but it sure helped & made my body "tighter" & so looked slimmer all the time I was working out. I feel great food wise eating the amount of calories to maintain so exercise was more or less my deficit

Ya, my workouts give me 50% more calories than I would have without them. That's a massive difference for me! Eating at my non-working-out TDEE I find nearly impossible (desk job, with not enough walking to change much means ~1200-1300 calories a day if I'm looking to lose), but working out gives me the ability to eat "real" meals that are actually filling and stick with me LOL.

bee_bee8 wrote: »

I have no science to support this so take it with a grain of salt, but I think sometimes our bodies just have a 'preferred weight' at which point losing becomes much more difficult. I lost upwards of 40 lbs fairly easily (well, it was hard but it was doable) but I've been averaging between 130-135 for months and months and months. At my height I could weigh as little as 110 and still be in a healthy range (115 was my original goal), but it's very tough to get there. I've worked my *kitten* off before and gotten in the 125-130 range a couple times, but I just get too hungry and end up back between 130-135. I struggled with it for a while but I'm mostly ok with it now. I haven't completely abandoned my goal weight but I'm happy and healthy where I am now.

I fully agree with this. I know nothing is to be deemed impossible as far as setting in stone that you "absolutely can't lose" x, y, z. I know that many folks will say that yes you can in fact lose that last little bit. But I agree with this poster because I have always noticed a point in which my body is "happy" aka my body's "preferred weight." I think that it is hard to recognize it at first that your body is telling you, "hey, I like it here, please don't make me lose any more weight!" Maybe the number one reason it is hard to recognize is because it wasn't your original goal and that can be disppointing, or in my case, it is above a range on the BMI chart, etc. But one of the healthiest things we can do, IMO, is listen to our bodies...eat well, train hard, go out of our comfort zones, experiment with food and exercise, eat that slice of cake, eat an entire head of lettuce, whatever it is, if we stop an listen to our bodies for a while, I think new or revised goals will come out of it. For me, I am beginning to wonder if my body will be happiest at 5 pounds higher than my original goal, and it is HARD to think that that means that I won't have reached the original goal. I hate that feeling, but that just means to me that I am listening to my body and I can set a revised goal or a new goal for later. Maybe in 6 months those last 5 pounds will fall off, but I will know in the mean time that I am eating well, exercising well, and enjoying life.

OP, you are incredible just for being a Mom and still focusing on you. I say enjoy life at 140 with the mentality that your body is telling you this is good for now, you have done enough hard work, and see what happens or new goal you may have in the future!

Yea but it keeps going down. I started at 228 and have gained and lost 50+ pounds probably 9 times in my life. I’m terrified that I will gain it all back again, so my first goal was 180.

I got there and wasn’t happy with how I felt and how clothes fit so I set another goal of 168. I got there and didn’t like being overweight BMI range (I’m 5’8” and 51) and I was in between sizes (10 too big and 8 was a little tight) so I set another goal of 163.

I’m down to 162 as of this morning (12.5 months after I started) and I’m pretty happy with how much energy I have and how clothes fit, but don’t want to be overweight when I weigh at the doctor’s office. I’m thinking of setting a new goal of 158....maybe. I want to maintain so bad, so I want it to be something I can live with. I bumped up my calories another 100 last week and I still lost 1.2 lbs this week. I’m afraid to eat at maintenance and gain weight or eat at a small 250 calorie deficit. I need to figure this out. Good thing I have a husband who loves me and is very supportive. He thinks I should start moving into maintenance now and lose the rest at .5 a week. It’s hard. I’ve always been overweight, so being normal, even at the high end is a great accomplishment. I don’t want to get greedy and fail to keep the weight off.

I hit original GW of 135 and stayed there for a year, but this year I decided I want to take off a little more and am aiming for 130 by May - I've got about 2lbs to go I think. Just the very few pounds off so far have started to slim my middle more which couldn't be nicer, I see some definition there. The only reason I'd reach lower would be to see if the inner thighs might be next, but at that point I'm just being excessively finicky. Depending on what 130 looks like I need to have a good think and either stay there or try to put that 5lbs back on in muscle and reassess again.