The more you weigh when you first start trying...

Realistically, if you've been carrying a LOT of extra weight (like me) for a long time (like me) you have additional muscle mass, increased bone density,etc that makes weighing less not overly realistic.

I fall into the latter category as well, lol. Maybe we just can't even fathom being that low? I know I've been saying I'll be happy at 180 (I'm 5'8") but who knows? I will say, that I see women my height at weights lower than my "goal" talking about losing and I think how happy I'll be to have their bodies lol.

For me...My goal weight is 170 because it puts me in a healthy BMI.While I know many women at my height (5 9.5) on here are trying to get in the 140s. Even when I was in my best shape I was 155lbs. Its been many years and two kids later so I set my goal higher.

THAT SAID now that I am getting closer to that goal I am seeing myself wanting to get EVEN LOWER.

I think many times people are setting higher goal weights so that the journey ahead doesn't look AS out of reach. They set mini goals the whole way through to make it so that they can push to each goal without feeling overwhelmed with the bigger picture.

ALSO a large part of it is that they either have never been at that weight as a adult and don't know whether its realistic. Or they don't know what that weight would "look like" on them so they can't set their "actually goal weight" until they are closer to that goal.

I started at 232 and I'm 143.6 today I am also 5'5" and I still have about 15 pounds to go. I have a muffin top that needs a new home!

For me personally, I haven't really thought of it in terms of my "ULTIMATE GOAL" because It would seem far harder to lose 100lbs instead of breaking it down into increments, like first goal, 30lbs, second goal, another 20lbs and so on until I'm at a healthy weight. Not only is it easier, but also you want what you don't have, the grass is always greener I suppose.

I also think that there might be a muscle factor. I bet that you at 140 will have more muscle and less fat than most people at 140, since you'll have been working out

I'm also 5'5" and my goal weight is around 135, that's the lowest I want to go. I've been 120-125 before and I looked awful because I'm naturally curvy and at that low my face looked sunk in and just yucky...that's about the ONLY thing I don't like about losing weight is my face changes, I like having a fuller face...but that's just me I guess, lol.

Oh I got off-topic, ok so before I was always wanting to lose weight, and that's WHEN I always weighed what i now my goal of around 135, i wanted to be 125, but now that I weigh more I would be VERY happy to be 135-140 again, heck, even 150 will have me doing cartwheels!!!

Realistically, if you've been carrying a LOT of extra weight (like me) for a long time (like me) you have additional muscle mass, increased bone density,etc that makes weighing less not overly realistic.

This. I'm 5'8" and theoretically I should get down to 135-165. Problem is that I have ~140 pounds of lean body mass already, and I'm striving to maintain as much of that as possible (lifting, ftw!), so my goal weight is 175-180, which would be a healthy body fat level for me. When I get there I may decide I want to go lower, but honestly, to get much lower than 170 I would have to start losing significant amounts of muscle as I lose weight and that's not part of the getting healthy plan I've got going.

for me its because i have never been smaller than about 15 or 20 pounds above my goal weight so i dont know what i will look/feel like at that point. i plan to reach my goal and then reevaluate from there. nothings set it stone...im just giving it a guess

Most people who are obese or morbidly obese think they are "big boned" or "thick" or have a large frame. In the end, when you get a low body fat, most people fall within a very small distribution of weight based on height.

People underestimate their fatness.

Some people are okay with remaining fat, but just being less fat.

It's probably a combination of many things and/or different things for different people. For me presonally I have alot of muscle and I always have. The problem with this is that when I was a teenager I was very fit and healthy. I was a state competative swimmer and early bloomer. I always felt fat and was told I was fat... even though looking back my BF% was probably pretty awesome. The effect that had on me as a teenager was to completely give up all sport at the age of 16 because I felt like 'what's the use, even with all my achievements I'll never be good enough". So then of course my weight went through the roof.

So I wonder if its the chicken before the egg? Maybe some of is who are naturally more muscled and broad are more likley to get big in the first place? Personally I just wish we could broaden the idea of what is 'normal' or 'ok' for women. No one seems to question the fact that some men are big, muscular and broad... they just put them up the front of the football team. Or that some men are small and quick. Yet for women we seem to have a tiny window of what is ok and the rest is just fat.

I'm doing the mini-goals thing someone else mentioned. My first goal is 40 lbs down; then it will most likely be another 30 or 35 depending on how my build is. I've not been at a healthy weight since I was 9 or 10 years old, so I have no idea what will work best for my body. I'm sure as hell excited to find out, though!

My starting weight was 16 stone (224lbs). My goal weight was initially 11.5 stone (161lbs). This was based on what I thought could be achieved without seeming TOO daunting, and also put me in 'overweight' rather than 'obese'. Then, I would see how I looked and felt and take it from there.

161 came, and I still definitely stood to lose some weight. Now it's just a work in progress basically; setting smaller targets and seeing how I feel and look (back in the day, for example, I remember thinking 161 would look too thin).

My next target was 10.5 (147lbs), as that put me in the 'healthy' BMI. I'm at that now, and my next target is 10 stone (140lbs) as I still have some weight to lose. I have leftover flab on my stomach, and everywhere else is pretty much how I want it to be. I don't think I would look scrawny at all at 140, especially as I now carry a fair bit of muscle.

Who knows? I may get to 140 and then aim for 133. But we'll see

I think because saying 30 lbs doesn't seem as horrid as a 100, I look at 100 and don't see an end in sight, I look at 30 and say " I can do this"

Me personally, my goal weight is 145, but once I get there, I may lower it... I'm going in with the mindset, that its not a number that is set in stone... I can and probably will lower it as I get closer... We'll just have to wait and see! :-)