Do my goals seem realistic?

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  • Whitneylol
    Whitneylol Posts: 244
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    Anyone that's discouraging dates should educate themselves on real goal setting. The dates are a necessity otherwise you'll simply "keep putting it off". Yes it's going to happen that you might not make a date, but you can't feel bad if you did everything you could. You simply reset your goals and move forward. But not setting dates is a big mistake.

    As far as being doable, they seem to be reasonable. You seem to have set yourself for a 7.5 lbs/month schedule. Just remember that the closer you get to your goal weight, the slower that weight loss gets. So I would change your final goal to either a further date or less weight loss. Maybe consider 2-3 lbs a month for the last couple months instead.

    This is what I was thinking as well! I think it's much better to set dates (but still know you aren't necessarily FAILING if you don't reach them exactly). I know MYSELF and how I work and in the past, not setting goals has allowed me to get to the weight I am. I go hard, and 100% intensity 100% of the time! Knowing I have a particular goal in place makes me get my *kitten* off the couch and onto the bike :)

    Thank you, I agree with setting the smaller goals near the end!
  • elliotth77
    elliotth77 Posts: 4 Member
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    Sure it's realistic. A healthy weight-loss goal is 1-2 pounds a week as i'm sure you know, however, you need to take into consideration the obstacles. Many people mentioned plateaus, this is a very real issue. Especially the more you lose. Your first couple of weeks might be easy, but then your body adjusts and you have to increase your frequency and intensity of the work-outs. Besides plateaus you have to ask yourself if you're willing to put forth the effort? Are you willing to workout and burn the amount of calories you need to? Is it feasible time wise, meaning do you have the time available to dedicate to working out? And last and this is one of the most important... Are you willing to eat right? This DOES NOT mean simply just coming in under your calorie goal! So many people on here just don't get that. Just because you come in under goal doesn't mean it's ok to eat like crap. I doesn't matter if calorie wise you can afford it. Yes cheating every once in a while is good. But not eating a bag of chips every day because you can and still come in under goal. Watch your sodium, it'll make you retain water.. I could go on. Research balanced diets or ask me questions if you need to.
  • csg148
    csg148 Posts: 2
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    I believe that your goals are achievable and its great to give yourself a timeline to achieve them. My wife and I both gave ourselves goal weights with timelines and we have successfully lost all or most of the weight. Without the time lines we found ourselves "cheating" quite a bit, especially on the weekends. Once we decided that we were going to lose so much weight by a certain date we held ourselves more accountable for our eating. Good luck to you!!!!
  • FrenchMob
    FrenchMob Posts: 1,167 Member
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    I believe that your goals are achievable and its great to give yourself a timeline to achieve them. My wife and I both gave ourselves goal weights with timelines and we have successfully lost all or most of the weight. Without the time lines we found ourselves "cheating" quite a bit, especially on the weekends. Once we decided that we were going to lose so much weight by a certain date we held ourselves more accountable for our eating. Good luck to you!!!!

    ...and that's how it's done. Congrats!
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,574 Member
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    Doable. Good thing you have a time limit and are specific. Most people just say "I want to lose weight" and have no plan. Kinda like a ship without a rudder.
  • crystalinda
    crystalinda Posts: 151 Member
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    Ultimately, I think it depends on you and you're motivation. I too felt like I needed to set goals to stay focused on getting in shape and not lose interest. But its hard to say that a timeline will help keep you as motivated. Looking at your goals you're basically giving yourself 3.5 months to lose 30 lbs, that's a little less than 10 pounds per month. technically its doable but it could also be really difficult depending on your metabolism, diet, workout routine, etc.

    Maybe you should try by commitiing yourself by setting non-scale goals that could yield results on the scale. Join a bootcamp and commit to that for 90 days. Try the Visalus 90-day challenge, sign up for a 5k or something like that.

    Those are all things I did to keep myself accountable and focused on my goals. I started by joining the bootcamp, it was fun and I started to see some results but then I felt like it had the potential to fall in the cracks like many of my workout routines in the past so I decided to give my work outs purpose by signing up for a 5k. That gave me extra motivation to keep working out. Then opportunities just started to present themselves and I keep finding ways to challenge myself off the scale in hopes that I will see results there later. Now my goals are more about what I can acomplish rather than how much weight I can lose and so far I've stuck to my commitments for almost 5 months and I'm well on my way to being in the best shape of my adult life!
  • Jennieam
    Jennieam Posts: 300 Member
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    As others have mentioned the goals are agressive but "doable".

    You mention that in the past you have failed due to unrealistic goals. If you are concerned that missing a particular goal on a set date will discourage you, then I would either extend the time limit, or reduce the goal weight for that day. i.e. make the goals less agressive.

    You are looking at a life change here, it doesn't matter if it takes an extra couple of months to get there.

    All the best
  • Thamantha
    Thamantha Posts: 102 Member
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    I find it comforting to leave wiggle room in my goals. So i aim to lose 1lb per week, but give myself 5 weeks to lose 4 pounds. That way if anything happens to stop regular progress I have a little lee-way. I haven't actually had any problems so far - i am ahead of schedule :)

    I agree that having concrete goals is a great idea. Whenever I am tempted to go over my calories I remind myself that (although it is not the end of the world) it would delay my progress.

    Your goals seem attainable, and there is no one-size fits all approach, but I have found that leaving wiggle room has been helpful to me.
  • PuzzleGirl65
    PuzzleGirl65 Posts: 81 Member
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    Your goals look pretty aggressive to me. I think the first couple are totally do-able if you really work at it, but after that I don't know. I'm also 5' 6" and I started at 216. I'm in 13 weeks now and have lost 28 pounds, which means if I had your same goals I would have hit the first one and I've made the second one a week early. It's that last one that's bugging me though. 15 weeks to lose 31 pounds? I keep reading that the closer you get to your goal weight the more likely it is that it will start coming off slower. If I wanted to use dates for my goals (which I don't, but I totally get why you do), I think I would set them for a pound a week. Then when I blow right by each goal I would feel fabulous. I'd rather set myself up that way than the other way. :wink:
  • ltlane
    ltlane Posts: 120
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    i would love to weigh 125-130 by august 2012... 8-10lbs a month is possible in the beginning if there is a lot to lose. right now im telling myself that it wont be as easy the closer i get to my goal weight. right now i burn nearly 700 calories an hour doing 30DS and high impact aerobics... by the time im 150, it probably wont even be half of that.... the weight loss is going to slow down :cry: ill be thankful to God to be in one-derland to be honest....
  • 27strange
    27strange Posts: 837 Member
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    I think time goals work best in the beginning when the body is more apt to naturally lose faster, but later they can be somewhat discouraging as you get closer and closer to your goal they get more difficult to meet. Time goals work for some, because they need the consistency and the impending date to keep them on track, for others they don't work because they are easy to miss which leads to discouragement. Our bodies don't naturally go off a schedule. Nothing wrong with your time goals, just don't write them in stone and beat yourself up if ya don't hit them. Ballpark time goals are best. Rewards for goals are very cool, keep using them for sure. Best of luck friend! You can achieve your ultimate goal, its doable!!
  • Whitneylol
    Whitneylol Posts: 244
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    I think time goals work best in the beginning when the body is more apt to naturally lose faster, but later they can be somewhat discouraging as you get closer and closer to your goal they get more difficult to meet. Time goals work for some, because they need the consistency and the impending date to keep them on track, for others they don't work because they are easy to miss which leads to discouragement. Our bodies don't naturally go off a schedule. Nothing wrong with your time goals, just don't write them in stone and beat yourself up if ya don't hit them. Ballpark time goals are best. Rewards for goals are very cool, keep using them for sure. Best of luck friend! You can achieve your ultimate goal, its doable!!

    I'm just now seeing this, woops!

    Thank you, such great advice from a great MFP pal!

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