How do you choose a goal weight?

I really have two goal weights, myself. I'm a tall, very curvaceous and large-framed woman. I have my family's build, and even when we're 16 and playing sports all year we still have CURVES. So I sort of have to allow for that, and my goal weight is 180. Now, I know at 5'7" that still is technically overweight, and I really want to get a tummy tuck done. I carry my weight evenly over my body, but it's clear I have a lot of sagging skin on my front and I know a have a muscle separation underneath, it's two inches apart and you can feel it easily. That won't fix via weight loss. But to get that all repaired, I need to be down far enough that I don't read so much as fat as I do as thick and curved, and I need to maintain at that point for six months. I'm not worried about maintaining. With the help of this website, it's no problem. I have no idea what that maintenance point will be, sitting up here at 296. At 180, I may be able to be clearer about that, but I won't know til then whether it's around 180 or closer to the 150 that I've seen posted. (I don't plan to go below 150. I like being strong and big that way.)

I am 5'10" also and have not been less than 158 since I was a freshman in highschool... Currently at 172-176 depending on the day and I'm the size I was 6 years ago at 158. Muscle mass is a complicating factor. I originally thought 160 would be my goal but honestly I feel pretty good where I am.

I chose my goal weight when I was there. I didn't know how much I wanted to lose, I just kept losing until my "reference jeans" fit.

Great advice from everyone.

For me, I need little goals, so I've been setting them in 5 lb increments. Then the goal is achievable, and not so far off and seemingly insurmountable. After reaching the goal, I reevaluate, and pick the next goal and so on. I'm a 59 yo woman, and there's no way I'll get back to my 122lbs, so I'm seeing how I look and feel as I reach each mini goal.

bold_rabbit wrote: »

misscagal wrote: »

Sorry if I missed this on the read through, but if you are settling weight based on BMI, you should also factor age in. It does matter and you don’t want to pick a BMI that’s suitable for a 22 yo versus a 52 yo.

What would be your calculation?

I'd assume that a younger person would perhaps select a higher weight due to more muscle and heavier bones, while an older person would select a lower weight.

For myself at 55, I am larger at 125 lbs than I was just 6 short years ago (pre-menopause). I'm hoping that this year, besides getting down to 122 lbs, that I can build a little muscle and perhaps get back into all the clothes that fit then at the same weight range (122-127 lbs).

I think an older person would lean towards a higher weight to protect against disease (as in, have a little extra to lose when disease occurs).

Kathi7501 wrote: »

You guys are all so awesome. I figured I'd get a good range of rational advice and no one disappointed. I'll definitely set a short goal -- I'm thinking 209 to start, since that'll be a 25-pound loss. Then maybe I'll try another 25 and see how that feels at 184. And I'm going to definitely look into the body frame calculation to get a better idea of where I land.

Thank you everyone!

While it's useful and interesting, the frame calculations based off things like wrist/elbow, can be misleading. They are body parts that usually have a thinner fat layer, even when we're overweight, so easier to measure . . . but body configurations are very individualistic.

What matters most, frame-wise, to a "good" goal weight, is the big body parts (pelvic bones, shoulders, ribcage). Those are the areas where large people are going to need geometrically more "lean meat" to wrap around the bigger bone frame, and that wrapper stuff has weight. The issue is not the weight or size of the bones themselves, but rather how much space is enclosed by them, and needs to be filled with "body stuff". And those parts are difficult to measure, when we're still overweight.

For women, breasts add a complication. A large breasted woman will weigh more, several pounds more, than an otherwise similar-sized, similarly-muscled woman of the same height and body fat in other spots. Some women have fattier breasts, and lose more weight there, while others don't change size all that much with weight loss because their breasts have relatively more non-fatty breast tissue. (You may have an idea which you are.)

As a personal example, for some reason I have pretty giant hands for a 5'5" woman (size 10 ring finger, even when I was BMI 20, around 120 pounds). My wrists match that proportion. Elbows aren't quite as dramatic, but still big. They suggest I have a medium/large frame. I don't. I have narrow hips, and no breasts (post-mastectomy, but they were always small, even when I was obese I was an A cup). Even with kind of wide shoulders - built like a 14-year-old boy, I swear, not a 64-year-old woman! - what I actually have is a small frame.

Unless you have a severely distorted body image, you will know your "good" goal weight with more certainty as you approach it. If in doubt, discuss it with your doctor (and not with people who are used to looking at a heavier you, some of whom will be kind of freaked out by your loss, which is a thing ).

Best wishes!

I started last February at 220 and am now at 170. I basically went to maintenance for the holidays so I could still enjoy feels and relaxing with my family, and this next year I want to lose another 20lbs to ultimately reach 150. When I started my goal was 160 because I was thinking in terms of BMI, but now that I've lost this much weight I realize I want to be under 160 and I feel more capable. I'd recommend not worrying too much now about where you'll end up, but just work on losing 1lb per week and get in that groove. You can always reassess later or stop when you feel comfortable.

I definitely do better with the smaller goals. Losing 50 lbs feels like a lot, losing 10 isn't a big deal. So, I break it down.

For example, I'm 5'7" and was at 189. My first goal was just to get to my driver's license weight of 175, right now I'm about 1.5 lbs away from that (I've hit that weight on the scales a couple times, but not consistently enough to call it "my weight"). After that, the goal will be to fit into the pants I wore at my lowest adult weight (though reaching it in a healthy way this time, the first time was due to depression), which should be somewhere around ~160-165.

After that, we'll see what's next. At that point I'll be on that normal/overweight edge and will have to see how I look and feel.