How important are goals?

everyone's different, but when you have a lot to lose, it's sometimes nice to break it into smaller segments, makes it seem less daunting. I've set goals and fallen short, I've also set goals and met them way early! Whatever works for you, really. :flowerforyou:

well you don't have a TON to lose, so don't be too ambitious, but make yourself work for it. I choose important days and decide how much I'd like to lose by that day (such as a birthday or an anniversary). Working in 5 lb increments might work for you. give yourself 6 weeks of so for each increment and set small rewards for meeting your goal.

I have over 100 pounds to lose altogether. I have to literally lose a person. But if I wrote that down, I'd look at it and say, oh god, that's too much. But I set my first goal at 191 which is significant in that it would get my BMI to under 30. (Right now it's over 40.) I can do that, it'll probably be a year, but I can do that. Then once I hit that, I'll decide what my next goal will be based on how I look and feel. 150 is not unreasonable if I weigh 191. Considering I started out at 297 top weight - that would be freakin' incredible!

I like MFP's weight loss goals of 1.5 pounds a week. That's achievable. And your body changes, so I know that if I've lost 6 pounds a month (even if there was a week in there I didn't lose) I've still been successful. I can do that.

My fitness goals started out 30 mins cardio 3x/wk. I knew I could do that, even on a bad week. Turns out I can do way more than that, and I just changed it to 45 mins min 5x/wk. I still am doing it at least 50 mins 6-7x/wk so not only am I meeting my goal, I am exceeding it. It feels good. My goal is to burn 300 calories per cardio workout. So soon when I start on the elliptical (doing treadmill) I can drop the time because you burn it so much faster there.

For eating, my goal is to stay within calories and carbs as carbs have a real bad effect on me. I am trying to eat healthy. I learned over the weekend that those small fries are not worth the calories (I had no idea how many calories were in them!). So it is constantly a learning process as well.

It totally depends on how your mind works. If you have been a yo-yo dieter and have lots to lose, then maybe you need to start small. Some people do it in 20 pounds increments, or even 5 or 10. There is no WRONG way - unless it causes you to fail.

I think that the smaller goals are helpful also. My goal is to lose twenty more pounds by the end of May (I've lost a total of 11 pounds since Jan 1, but didn't join the site until recently). That would put me at a 30 pound loss total by summer vacation. I would really like to lose more than that by the end of May, but I'm trying to be realistic. Weight loss for me is a slow process. Total, I would like to lose 50-60 more pounds so that I will be pretty much on target for my healthy weight.

I think having small goals, with rewards to go along with each one, encourages me a lot more. A large goal just seems daunting to me..