How do you pick your goal weight?

2

Replies

  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    I actually chose my weight from age 14, when I felt pretty good about my body.

    Full disclosure, though, at 14 I was already 5'8", somewhat overweight and curvy, I was not a skinny little teenager by any means. I know for a lot of my friends returning to their early teen weights would be crazy, like 92 lb!
  • flippy1234
    flippy1234 Posts: 686 Member
    My goal weight has everything to do with health and my waist. Smaller the waist, better on the heart. Simple as that for me.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    It is based on when I looked and felt my best!

    My goal is actually in the top end of the healthy BMI range. Any lower is too skinny for me.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,981 Member
    I wasn't sure what I wanted to weigh so I chose a range of 5lbs from when I previously felt good to tentatively reach. I don't mind being more if it's muscle gain. Right in the middle of it is where I'd be 100lbs down from my highest so I'd like to hit it even if I decide to increase. I'm 3lbs away so I'm almost there. My stomach is being stubborn to go so I may have to re-evaluate weight loss or recomp.
  • Cat_A_89
    Cat_A_89 Posts: 93 Member
    I also used bmi but want to have some muscle so my goal is about 5/10 over my "healthy weight" but I'll see how I feel when I get there
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,487 Member
    I had a 30lbs blip in my late 40’s early 50’s so I just wanted to get back to the weight I had been most of my adult life, since 14yo.

    The weight I always thought/think of me at is 7st 7lbs (105lbs, 47.5kg).

    When I started I had no idea about BMI, I just wanted to return to ‘me’. Turns out my maintenance 100-105 is at the bottom of the BMI scale for my height, 5’1, but as it was my ‘usual’ weight I like being there, and have had no problem maintaining it for 10yr.

    Cheers, h.

    BTW: No way do I think everyone my height should be my weight.
  • tigrig
    tigrig Posts: 663 Member
    Kinda did some pseudo math with my body fat percentage. I want to hit 10-12 percent and 205 should put me there or at least be close
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    I usually stop at around 18% body fat, which is where I feel like I look best. 5 years ago that was 145. 20 years ago that was 135.
  • etherealanwar
    etherealanwar Posts: 465 Member
    My goal weight is the weight I was back in Highschool which I remember being in the 120's so I worked off of that and set it at 125 lbs. This is actually the middle of the bmi range for me at 5'4". I am 8 lbs away from this weight now and will evaluate whether I want to lose more once I reach it.
  • AwesomeOpossum74
    AwesomeOpossum74 Posts: 106 Member
    Middle-high BMI. I was 160lbs in my late teens. At 6'3", I was a rail. Didn't want to go back to that, so have maintained at 185 for the time-being. Undecided if I care to adjust.
  • elc43
    elc43 Posts: 14 Member
    If I listened to my Dr.'s recommendation I'd look sickly. Unrealistic.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    I picked my weight at my previous physical peak which is at the upper level of healthy BMI.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    wmd1979 wrote: »
    elc43 wrote: »
    If I listened to my Dr.'s recommendation I'd look sickly. Unrealistic.

    I have heard so many people say this, and assuming your doctors recommendation is based on BMI, the vast majority of the time, it simply isn't true. There are very few outliers when it comes to BMI. It seems that quite a few people today tend to think that they are at a healthy weight when they really are not.

    My doctor had the opposite issue. At my heaviest weight of 145 lbs at 5’0” tall my doctor couldn’t understand why I wanted to lose weight since she said I looked fine. SMH.

    Sometimes BMI doesn’t really suit everyone though. I know some people who are my height and weigh 100 lbs and somehow it works for their body, but not me. My lowest adult weight of 115lbs I have been twice and stopped menstruating both times and was a size 2. I was indeed too skinny as I lost all my curves.

    At 120lb, I wear a size 4 which is certainly not chubby or big in any way. Even at 130, I wear a size 6 and have a 27” waist, even though technically this is overweight for me.

  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
    If it's not medically suggested, then pick a weight you think feels good, then adjust accordingly as you approach it, or if you've already achieved it. I personally choose to aim for a visual body fat percentage where I think I look good naked.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,870 Member
    Expanding on a partial answer earlier: At age 59-60, my first provisional "ultimate goal weight" was 130, a weight I'd been at in my 20s, but then felt was a bit above optimal, because "everyone says we should carry a few more pounds when we're older".

    When I got near 130, I could see that that wasn't where I really preferred to be, and revised downward a couple of times, with a final goal (which I overshot) of 120, even though I'm not completely devoid of muscle. That's BMI 20, at my 5'5" height.

    Like Haitch, I wouldn't say that's right for everyone my height/age (I'd firmly say it isn't!), but I'm built more like a 14-year-old boy than a (now) 63-year-old woman: Broad shoulders and big hands/wrists but narrow hips, and no breasts (post bilateral mastecomies). In other threads with photos, some folks have fussed about ribs showing on my upper chest, but that starts happening when I still have a bunch of excess stomach/hip/thigh weight, and an overweight BMI: Just how my body works. (I need to do more bench press. :lol: .)

    Right now, in year 4 of maintenance, sitting at (sigh) BMI 22-point-something, without the heart or inclination for a big cut, slightly undereating maintenance calories most days. (Libra says I'll reach goal weight in 2032 . . . I'll be happy if I even live that long at any kind of reasonable weight, and I might change my mind along the way about the definition of "reasonable" :lol: .)
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Like Haitch, I wouldn't say that's right for everyone my height/age (I'd firmly say it isn't!), but I'm built more like a 14-year-old boy than a (now) 63-year-old woman: Broad shoulders and big hands/wrists but narrow hips, and no breasts (post bilateral mastecomies). In other threads with photos, some folks have fussed about ribs showing on my upper chest, but that starts happening when I still have a bunch of excess stomach/hip/thigh weight, and an overweight BMI: Just how my body works. (I need to do more bench press. :lol: .)

    Ugh. The ribs thing is so freaky. I'm *at least* 20 lbs over weight (40 if I go by the recommendation of my fitness hardware.) and I can see all the muscle striations and ribs around my sternum. *shudder* And 12" under that I can see a muffin top over my jeans. WHY BODY? WHY?

    LOL.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,870 Member
    ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Like Haitch, I wouldn't say that's right for everyone my height/age (I'd firmly say it isn't!), but I'm built more like a 14-year-old boy than a (now) 63-year-old woman: Broad shoulders and big hands/wrists but narrow hips, and no breasts (post bilateral mastecomies). In other threads with photos, some folks have fussed about ribs showing on my upper chest, but that starts happening when I still have a bunch of excess stomach/hip/thigh weight, and an overweight BMI: Just how my body works. (I need to do more bench press. :lol: .)

    Ugh. The ribs thing is so freaky. I'm *at least* 20 lbs over weight (40 if I go by the recommendation of my fitness hardware.) and I can see all the muscle striations and ribs around my sternum. *shudder* And 12" under that I can see a muffin top over my jeans. WHY BODY? WHY?

    LOL.

    FWIW, I don't lose noticeably more from my upper body once the ribs start to show; the lower bits keep depleting as I might hope. Yup, bodies are weird. Hang in there! ;)

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