goal weight questions

If you were never a HEATHY adult, then I think you can do it!

Curious. When I hear people talk about their goal weight, they often choose a higher weight on the healthy spectrum for their height. They've said that at their smallest, that's what they weighed so they want to get back to that. I'm 5'3" been chubby all my life and then got bigger. I was meaty and around 145-150 in highschool. Had a terrible idea of how to eat and never did anything to get healthier. 2009 I had a little boy and ended up being 213. Now I've lost over 35lbs and (am stalled a little actually) I weigh around 156-159... some fluctuation there. I was really hoping that if I worked hard and didn't give up I could weigh around 120-130. But with what I'm hearing from people, that doesn't seem realistic. They said you could go back to your smallest weight as an adult. Like I said, I'm 5'3", 120 would still be healthy for me. My BMI thing says anywhere from 104-141 would be healthy for me. So what do you think? Am I chasing an unrealistic dream or are the people I'm talking to don't quite know as much as they think?

I think when it comes to losing weight, people should forget about "what they used to be" or "what they used to weigh". and let me tell you why.

Body composition is everything, and your weight depends on your composition. Models are stick thin, often weighing in at no more than 110-120 at heights of 5'10" and higher. However, they look sickly. No muscles. They could probably weight a bit more, and still be the same size, with very little body fat, if they added some muscles and changed their composition.

Now. for us normal folk, when you're obese, which I was, your body actually puts on a bit of muscle just trucking the *kitten* around. Seriously. So this is one reason it's super important to strength train. You want to keep as much muscle as you can so you can keep your metabolism burning the fat and the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism burns.

You want to throw out the notions of what you used to be, because your body composition is going to change. In college, I was 128lbs. I wore a size 8-10. Then I got up to 252. My body comp changed. When I lost the weight I got down to 143ish, and was a size 4/6. I also had about 22% body fat.

If I had tried to get down to what I was before, even though 128 is still in my healthy range as a five foot four and one half inch lady, I would have had to shed some muscle too.

BMI is based just on height and weight.. it doesn't consider body fat %, lean muscle mass, etc. I suggest that you get your body fat % tested then shoot for a healthy body fat %..

I'm 5'2 and bmi says I should b under 115. As a Fit, Strong, Healthy, college athlete I was 145.

Today by bf % is 34. My goal bf % as of today is 25. That should be about 165ish lbs. Once I hit that goal.. my next goal will be 145. I don't really see myself setting a goal for under 145, unless once I get there, I'm still not healthy. Then, I will.

Make sense?

Figure out your body fat %, then check your goal weight at fat2fitradio.com\tools

It's not 100% but it'll give u a good idea

HEather

OMG, I have to know, as Im trying to lose body fat of course, what do you do to weigh 165 and only have 25% body fat, and only be 5'2"???

Im five four and a half, and at 143lbs, my bf% was 22%. So I had a lean mass of something like 110lbs. I had definite muscles and lifted pretty heavy for a girl.

BMI is based just on height and weight.. it doesn't consider body fat %, lean muscle mass, etc. I suggest that you get your body fat % tested then shoot for a healthy body fat %..

I'm 5'2 and bmi says I should b under 115. As a Fit, Strong, Healthy, college athlete I was 145.

Today by bf % is 34. My goal bf % as of today is 25. That should be about 165ish lbs. Once I hit that goal.. my next goal will be 145. I don't really see myself setting a goal for under 145, unless once I get there, I'm still not healthy. Then, I will.

Make sense?

Figure out your body fat %, then check your goal weight at fat2fitradio.com\tools

It's not 100% but it'll give u a good idea

HEather

OMG, I have to know, as Im trying to lose body fat of course, what do you do to weigh 165 and only have 25% body fat, and only be 5'2"???

Im five four and a half, and at 143lbs, my bf% was 22%. So I had a lean mass of something like 110lbs. I had definite muscles and lifted pretty heavy for a girl.

Haha.. I'm not. I'm 188 5'2 and 34% body fat. I'm hoping at 169 I will be around 25% body fat... that's what my trainer and I calculated and my goal is 145 lbs to start really looking lean.

We do circuit type exercises that get your heart rate up to burn fat and strength train at the same time.

Hrm. What did you use to calculate your bf%?

I used the site you mentioned and it calculated mine at 44%, though I have a larger frame for my height. I weigh 190, 2 more lbs than you. I won't be able to get down to 25% bf until like 154 or something, and I'm taller than you....now I'm wondering if the fat2fitradio site is whack..