One thing to remember is your lean body mass goes down with your weight. At my heighest weight, I think my lean body mass was estimated around 190 lbs. Uhh trust me, that isn't the case :) Despite doing weights during my entire weight loss, my lean body mass has definitely gone down. I haven't had an estimate done in a while so I'm not sure what it is noow.

You will lose some muscle but most of all you will shed excess cells/tissues that your body will no longer need to support your higher body weight.

Well, I would never let a MALE trainer do the fat-pinching machine! She let me listen to my headphones and the whole time I pretended I was a rockstar in my mind :).

While I do realize that lean body mass does go down, my goal for right now is 175 and then I will see what my body is like at that weight. I would be happy at a size 8/10! Part of losing lean body weight is I am worried about losing too much bone density and come menopause/osteoporosis time I would rather have a strong bone density than be thin. I am perfectly fine with being a little below the average size ;)

I should say I don't think there is anything wrong with setting a certain goal and see what happens. That is how I did it. My goal is 182 so... :)

Hey, it is ALWAYS great to have an initial goal in mind. So you ROCK! And I just want to give you a big shout out for getting further testing. So it shows how dedicated you are to your program.

And as you go along this amazing journey, you may find that your ideas change, and you learn other stuff along the way that you might want to implement. I think we ALL have had this experience, and where we planned to go isn't exactly where we've wound up! Not a WORSE place, but just a DIFFERENT place. Which is why the journey is so interesting!

Let us know how you are doing!

Kira

175 is a high weight for 5'4", I am 5'9" and that was still overweight for me.

That's why I got a body fat test with those horrible caliper things vs BMI test because everybody has different bone density, muscle density, etc. One person's 175 might be different than another's, hence getting personally tested as opposed to the generalized BMI.

Thanks for all the support! I want to make sure I am doing it right and what works for me is instead of focusing on the weight the BMI tells me I SHOULD be, I want to be at a weight where I feel comfortable and happy. And of course, having the supervision of a doctor and trainer to make sure I'm doing it right. :)

peachykeen62

I think your on the right track nothing wrong with aiming a bit higher then you originally planed because you can reevaluate when you get there if it's right... and yeah lean mass does go down even if you lift weights. You won't know till you get there.

Besides if you revalaute at 175 and do decide to go down lower the goal will look less daunting. :)

Well if you want some comparison of where you might be at 175lbs and 5'4" with an hourglass figure I might be able to help little, although I've no idea what my body fat percentage is. I'm exactly there at the moment and I set my goal at 170 as I've always 'weighed heavy' for my size. My current proportions are 38/32/42. Waist:height ratio 0.5 and waist:hip 0.76 which are both considered 'heart healthy' measurements. Size wise I'm wearing the equivalent of US10s and 12s. I still need to get 12s in pants to accommodate my booty. I'm not quite where I want to be yet although not far off. I know I don't want to lose another 30lbs. Once I'm a comfortable size 10, then I think I'll be done.

Kitty