Goal weight question

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gronkcupid
gronkcupid Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Since your fluctuates within a few pounds, which weight do you count as reaching your goal? The higher, the lower, or the average?

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  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
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    In terms of losing weight to reach a certain goal, I would say the higher weight. In the full realisation that I may hit it one day and then jump up the next day. For me I've reached the target, but staying there (at or slightly below) is a whole other project.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    Basically as long as I am within that range wearing clothes and in the middle of the day I'm good with it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,034 Member
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    I think the answer to that is a personality test.

    Whether you "count yourself as at goal" when you hit the top end of the range is totally subjective, I think. The only meaningful question there is whether to keep a little calorie deficit in the picture to go to the middle or bottom of the range, IMO, or are going to go back to presumed maintenance calories when hitting the top end of the range.

    People who hate upward scale fluctuations *a lot* should probably lose to the bottom of the range, just to leave a bigger gap below what they think of as the top of the maintenance range to allow for normal water weight and digestive contents fluctuations (i.e., scale gains that aren't fat, but are going to happen sometimes).

    People who are less stressed by the fluctuations can maybe go for the middle of the range, think in terms of taking corrective action if they go over the top end of the range for X days in a row or something.

    Personally, I'm way too relaxed about the whole question. I lost slowly by intention for the last few pounds, formed some ideas about benchmarks I'd use to know I was at goal (feelings and appearance, not a number on the scale). I literally woke up one morning and decided I was there - some odd number on the scale, don't remember for sure what it was? - and started trying to dial in maintenance calories more precisely.

    These days (year 5+ of maintaining a healthy weight, after previous *decades* of overweight/obesity), I'm even sloppier about it. I just don't want to buy new clothes. I hate to shop. If my jeans start getting snug enough that my Winter long underwear are taking up a good bit of the ease, it's time to lose a few pounds (ultra slowly). Other than that, most of the time I try to stay around my target weight, plus or minus a pound or three, but don't freak out immediately if outside that range - I care more about whether there's a trend or not.
  • Beverly2Hansen
    Beverly2Hansen Posts: 378 Member
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    5 lbs beneath my goal weight is usually my preference. So say I want to be my idea of the perfect weight. I would prefer to weight that at night so I need wiggle room from morning to evening or it's not possible. I don't want to barely touch down at my goal weight once per day and struggle to keep it I want to firmly live there.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
    Since most people have a maintenance weight range of about 5 pounds, I'd say once you are comfortably averaging around your goal weight, then you're there. For me, I didn't have a "moment" that I declared that I reached my goal...it was kind of a slower realisation that I was happy where I landed and could sustain it.

    The exact same thing happened to me. I was kinda sorta maintaining for a good while. I don't even know the exact day I started maintaining. I did have a weight goal, but I was taking a lot of extended diet breaks because I didn't really care about losing more. I was technically still dieting, but not really. Then I thought: hey, I'm maintaining at a happy weight. Okay, I guess I'm done with dieting.

    As for my current range, I don't even have a particular range. I think it is about 7 pounds? It's basically between "it's getting harder to stay within calories" and "moving is starting to feel less comfortable". When I reach the harder to maintain point I eat more, when moving gets less comfortable I eat less. Those two points don't always correspond to an exact weight. Sometimes it's a bit higher and sometimes it's a bit lower.
  • russellholtslander1
    russellholtslander1 Posts: 285 Member
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    I am a5'6" guy.. and looking to lose weigh, not gain much muscle, so a BMI of 25, puts me at 155.

    That's top of the healthy spectrum, but since I am 263 now.. that's great. So some date in the future I hit 155, and I'll consider myself at goal. I should be able to get below 155, but that would just be a bonus.

    If the next day, I weigh 156, I will still be at goal. I think a number is fine, to aim for, but there is a chance our " number" isn't even attainable. You might have too much muscle, and end up 10 lbs. above the number you have as a goal. I powerlifted at 19, and was 183 lbs., and had 32" pants.. felt pretty slim, could see 4 abs. So I can imagine being 30 lbs. lighter, now that I lift very light, and less often, and do more cardio.

    But if my weight loss stalls at 163, and I am looking fit.. that will be my goal. Many of us are simply guessing at a number.

    When you reach a healthy weight, and decide you hit the goal.. I would simply consider myself at goal if I was 5 lbs. up or down. Set a point where maybe you say.. I'm 8 lbs. UP.. need to clean up my diet.. but it's not like gaining weight sneaks up on you quickly.. it's many days of eating extra in a row. Just stay close, and eat good food most of the time.

    I wouldn't worry about a few lbs. The real goal is being healthy.

  • thaliay1
    thaliay1 Posts: 8 Member
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    I am going by BMI. If I am at 25-27 it's OK, but when I hit 27, I hope to rein it in for the future.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    There is a conflict in that you pick a single goal weight but weight naturally fluctuates.

    When I hit my goal of 175lbs being a very goal oriented person I celebrated that moment (tick, virtual pat on the back...) and immediately set myself a new goal to maintain in a range with 175lbs as the top end.

    The first goal had a definite end point for me but weight maintenance is ongoing.

    This is how I've worked. My goal weight has crept down some over time - ie: Multiple goals but always knew I'd have to see where I was/how I looked and felt and adjust, but ultimately weight is not static and my goal 'weight' is not going to be static either or I'm always going to be above or below it.

    I'm 130 right now. That's about the middle of where I'm okay - 125-132. Above OR BELOW and I need to change some things.
  • coryhart4389
    coryhart4389 Posts: 73 Member
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    I hit my goal weight August 21 and it felt amazing, having not been that weight since maybe 1982. Since then I've been 7 lbs heavier during the last month, however my diet, exercise and tracking have been "spot on". My goals now don't involve the scale much and more about the tape measure and pictures. It feels great to not worry about what the scale reads.
  • Fatgonegirl
    Fatgonegirl Posts: 126 Member
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    I have recently lost weight and originally set my target as 9st 12lbs (62.6kg, 138lbs). Over the summer this reduced by 9lbs (4.08kg) to 9st 3lbs (58.51kg, 129lbs) and I have chosen this as my target in the range of 9st (57.15kg, 126lbs) - 9st 4lbs (58.97kg, 130lbs). I am very happy at this weight which is the lowest I have been for over 20 years. I did think of setting a target of 9st +/- 2lbs (1kg) because 9st is a nice round number and it was my weight through my late teens & 20s but that seemed to be obsessive and I am tired of being in deficit.

    So to answer the OP's question, I consider the middle of an asymmetrical range as my target. That's not overthinking it, is it? :)

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