Picking a Goal Weight?

GR8Prof
GR8Prof Posts: 12 Member
in Success Stories
How did you pick your goal weight? BMI, clothing size, magic high school number, body stopped losing, nice round number lost, or another method?

I am lighter than I have been in 5 years, but I am unsure what my goal should be.
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Replies

  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    I aim for the middle of BMI and see how it goes from there.
  • JaiNicole7
    JaiNicole7 Posts: 88 Member
    My goal weight (135 lbs) is a bit of all of the above. That was my weight prior to having children, the weight and clothing size I felt best in, and my weight leaving high school. It's on the high side of "normal weight" per BMI (I'm 5'2). I take the BMI numbers with a grain of salt. When I was last 135, I was dancing-mostly ballet and modern, but I did not weight train at all. So it may end up that I will be back to that size, or as close as I can get, but weigh more. & I'm totally ok with that.
  • karsei01
    karsei01 Posts: 442 Member
    Vanity...hehe

    Well, I'm kind of broadshouldered and have realized that bmi under 25 for me means getting either less muscular or extremely lean.

    So I've combined the two:

    IF I maintain almost my musclemass, and drop from 245 lbs at 35%bodyfat till 176 lbs and maintain my mucles (actually dropping 2 lbs muscles) I will be at bmi 24.2, AND have bodyfat of 10%.

    So beachready with abs at 40.
    So far I'm down at 220, bf reduced to 26% and actually increased musclemass with aprx. 2lbs.

    Target is summer 19.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Never had one...I knew what I wanted to look like in the mirror but had no idea how the number on the scale would translate to that. I've always though some specific number on the scale as a goal was kind of arbitrary.
  • ladybug4233
    ladybug4233 Posts: 217 Member
    This has been hard for me to decide. I have reached my first goal and within the normal BMI. I have decided to loose 10 more pounds. After that I am not sure if I want to for for 5-10 more or work on maintaining.
  • mazcor536
    mazcor536 Posts: 115 Member
    My goal weight falls in the middle region of Healthy BMI. 11 stone (154lb) is my preliminary goal, 10 stone (140) is my ultimate goal, but I’m aiming to settle somewhere between them, wherever I feel comfortable (I think around 10.5 stone is dead centre for bmi for me). I don’t just have a weight goal though. I’m aiming to be in size 10-12uk, AND, I’d love to be able to run a half marathon (so a fitness goal). Whether I hit all targets, or just one, I’ll still hit a goal to be proud of!
  • 30kgin2017
    30kgin2017 Posts: 228 Member
    I would like to be a size 12 which is prob more like what I looked like at size 10 back in the day not sure what that will be weight wise now. I haven’t been a ten size since uni and I think I was around 65kg at the time. The very top of my bmi though. Right now my focus is losing weight to be able to run faster. I am embarrassed my 70yo Dad can still run faster than me. I’ve dropped 5kg and 2mins off my run time without any additional training. Weight hasn’t affected my health to date so no goals to achieve there.
  • briannadunn
    briannadunn Posts: 841 Member
    I havent been 132lbs since puberty but thats my goal and also was half my starting weight. Current is 246 for the countless time in the last 6 yrs. I have been only under 200 once on a deprivation diet. This time I am eating on whole in 30.
  • jefamer2017
    jefamer2017 Posts: 416 Member
    135 is mine because a healthy bmi is 108 to 145 for my height. So I want to be far enough away from overweight without looking skinny. Of course it may all change as I get closer to my goal.
  • lostsomeweightonce
    lostsomeweightonce Posts: 23 Member
    I can't base anything off BMI. Even when I'm low body fat my BMI isn't very good. I started with a goal to get back to my high school football weight. Got there, but noticed I still have much farther to go. Now I'm going by Bodyfat % instead. I found losing weight is great but you can end up just looking like a smaller version your current self.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    i set mine in the middle of my BMI it is hard to believe that i can actually lose 25 from there to be at the bottom of my bmi...which i think I'd be way too skinny. So i use mid range bmi and clothing size as my guide.
  • eleonora1809
    eleonora1809 Posts: 85 Member
    edited April 2018
    Yes, from BMI. I’m normal size but not in my ideal weight so time to lose a few pounds.

    But weight on the scale can be deceiving. I was 118lbs before and I feel like shi*, kind of look gaunt and unealthy too but now at 130lbs I feel lighter and great.
    I’m trying to lose fat percentage though and at least be 120lbs.
  • karsei01
    karsei01 Posts: 442 Member
    steveko89 wrote: »
    I suggest using the mirror and body fat percentage as a guide rather than scale weight.

    t9jee1mlp98q.jpg
    LEFT: 6/15/2015 - 171 lbs - 18.3 body fat
    RIGHT: 1/18/2018 - 171.6 lbs - 13.8 % body fat

    Intent of the pictures is to show how different scale weight can look based on body composition

    At that point in 2015 I had started weightlifting some with dumbbells but didn't purchase my barbell/bench until August. All told, that's about an nearly 9lb swap of muscle and fat over that span. This also wasn't a linear or level process, since 2015 I've been up as high at 185, as low as 170, and a lot of bouncing in between.

    I have a target that I garnered from an article on BuiltLean about "ideal body fat percentage". There was a chart based on the Jackson & Pollack equations that gave percentages for ages in 5 year increments. Being the data nerd that I am I plotted the chart, did a trendline and use that equation for body fat % as a function of age. That being said I've never gotten down to this "ideal" number (per my Skulpt bf analyzer), overall the trend has gone in the right direction and I keep that target in mind during my current cutting/bulking routines.

    This sounds like me. I've plotted in everything, like weight, bf, cm etc in a spreadsheat, and estimated analysis based on my goal, so have many small goals, corelations and other fun stuff to keep me on track (and to se how good I can predict)

  • h1udd
    h1udd Posts: 623 Member
    I picked a goal weight based on middle of BMI .... and I whish I hadnt .. I am now obsessed with that number .... right now I have put on 2kg .... but its mostly muscle and glycogen .... but I am annoyed I am straying from that random number despite being stronger and leaner.

    Its taking me long time to let go of that number I picked

    If I was doing it again I would recommend to myself NOT having a weight based goal .. but something more meaningful like fitting a certain bit of clothing
  • NoLimitFemme
    NoLimitFemme Posts: 118 Member
    The bmi scale has never worked for me. Much like steveko89 from the above pictures (awesome comp btw) body fat is a better measurement for me. I am 5'4 and tend to hoover about 15-20 lbs overweight based on BMI but then I have a healthy body fat% around 24%. My husband is obese based on BMI but his biceps are nearly the size of my thighs and his body fat percentage leans toward a bodybuilder percentage.
  • JDixon852019
    JDixon852019 Posts: 312 Member
    I don’t have a GW, my goal is to get my abs to show at least once and from there probably keep my body at about 22% bodyfat.

    I am same weight in both of these photos, but different bodyfat%

    4yy97ekye6dk.jpeg

    f6u8tkx8tia0.png

  • sharneseconey7376
    sharneseconey7376 Posts: 19 Member
    edited April 2018
    I picked mine based first on bmi then on the clothing size I want to wear. I wore a size 7 in high school so I am aiming for that also
  • BattyKnitter
    BattyKnitter Posts: 503 Member
    I just picked a random number in the healthy BMI range to give myself something to shoot for. I don't actually care that much where I end up on the scale, in the end I just want to like what I see in the mirror.
  • Sthsidirish
    Sthsidirish Posts: 22 Member
    edited April 2018
    My initial goal weight was determined by the 120 pounds I decided I wanted to lose. So I guess mine was determined by the fact I wanted to be able to say that when asked "how much have you lost". Along the way I started to pick clothing sizes I'd hoped to be in when I reached that goal.

    I have taken off the pounds and can fit into those clothes. Currently working on maintaining where I'm at while I decide if I want to lose more.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    I consulted a BMI chart. For my height, the middle of the 'healthy' range was about 160. What the hell? I haven't been 160 since I was 10. I'll try for it.
  • 2baninja
    2baninja Posts: 518 Member
    As of right now my goal weight is 180, that was what my Dr wants to see me at, according to bmi that would put me just into the overweight column, when I hit that, I'll reevaluate.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    Been thinking a lot about this. My first goal was to get back down to 150–overweight for me but a place I felt pretty good at. Now that I’ve done that, I want to actually achieve a normal BMI, haven’t been there since my early 20’s. So, I’m shooting for 135 (I’m 5’2.5”). and see how it goes. 14 pounds to go.
  • Vicham76
    Vicham76 Posts: 59 Member
    My initial goal is to get to 220. I know what I looked like then and knew I could trim from there. I’m at 245 now and I’m going to get a body fat calliper tool. I want to start measuring my fat % and work at that instead of weight. I think the BMI chart will have me looking lanky and gaunt at 6’ tall and 170 lbs. Need to up my muscle mass and lower my fat %!!
  • bikecheryl
    bikecheryl Posts: 1,432 Member
    It's been on my mind alot too !

    I'm 58..... 5'4" My initial goal is 160 lbs..... that puts me in the "overweight" BMI.

    The middle range would be 140 lbs.

    But seriously..... I can not fathom my body at 140lbs....... not when I was 288 lbs a year ago.

    I'm going to stick to 160 lbs when I get there, work on maintenance for 6 months and re-evaluate.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
    I went a different way and decided I wanted to be at the highest healthy weight I could with a few pounds for fluctuations.

    The reason I did this was because I want to be able to eat as many calories as I can in maintenance.

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