Hey guys! This is sort of a combo rant/query. I was shopping last night at Ann Taylor and was in the fitting room with my stuff. 8's and 10's. When I first started dieting I was a tight 16 and always said that if I could be a 10 I'd be done. I'd be happy and I wouldn't want to lose anymore because in my mind a 10 is perfect for a woman at 6'. Well, as I stood in my South Florida dressing room, home for the first time in near 3 years. I felt enormous. It was not fun. I had not felt this way since before i was well over 200 lbs and it was sort of discourage because I'm 12 lbs off my goal, my body fat percentage is in the high end of lean range, and I thought I was done. I've been feeling this way a lot lately and want to move the goal to 150. For those of you at goal or close to goal, did you find this something you've dealt with? I know at one point my goal was 185 but the closer I got, the more I was like uh, no thanks. Anyways, what is your experience with this?
I find that I didn't really track my weight growing up. I was never obese (like I was when I started this journey) but it just wasn't important to weigh myself once a year. As long as I fit a size 8-10 I was happy. It wasn't until I started shopping in Plus Sizes that I wanted to cry.
That's when I realized there was a problem. I TOO said "If I get down to a ten I'll be happy"! But now that I'm wearing a ten in some items (note: some) I know that this is not where I want to be. I am also beginning to wonder if my ultimate goal of 140 is not a big high and thinking about lowering it to 135 or 130 as I get closer.
I personally, have no idea what my body will look like at 140. I could LOVE it but being I'm pretty big on exercising and definitely want to show off all of my hard work I have a hard time imagining that at 140lbs and 5'4 height I'll be able to show it off with all of the fat that may POSSIBLY still be on me.
So in answer to your question, I guess you find out as you move down. I think the big thing her is that we have no idea what our bodies will look like at certain weights...until we get there. I am holding out on 140 as a goal but if I get there and find I can maintain it pretty well, I'm going to drop it to 135 and possibly 130 and who knows...maybe even 125 to see what I look like. =)
Red-While I am not at my goal, nor even near it I understand your struggle here. My goal in the beginning was to just fit into a 9 and then I'd be happy. The size 9 was, in my eyes, perfect as it is found everywhere in any store I wanted to go. I would be stuck with having to go to plus size stores anymore wearing hideous clothes that I hate. As I lose another few lbs my mind wants to say screw that! I want to be a 6, maybe a 4. I want to be able to feel comfortable and while a 9 would still be comfortable I want to be in something I have NEVER been in so I can know it what it is like to be there. I might change my mind again as I go along but I say keep striving for what you want to be. If you get to a smaller size or you reach 150 and you are happy then I say don't mess with a good thing. I think we will all struggle with wanting to do just a little bit more. I would urge you to get some vanity shots done, whether professionally or not as you and watch your own progress. We can look in the mirror and see something completely different than what the camera sees. Mirror are misinformed I like to think. Pictures help you see you in a different perspective.
Anyway, the progress you have done is absolutely fantastic and I hope to be more in your shoes here within the next year! Great job girl!
I have 8-9 more lbs to go before I've got a "normal" BMI, and then another 5 after that to meet my goal, and I'm really thinking I'm going to drop it. The last time I was around this size was in middle school, and I have no idea what I'll look like even smaller, but unless I beat the remaining flabbiness into submission within the next ~14lbs, I'll probably drop to 130lbs or so.
Last edited by KenzideRhae; 12-12-2010 at 08:11 PM.
I'm 160 and I'm a size 9 right now. Thought I look great in clothing (and sometimes I have a belly and imagine how super sexy i would look if I was pregnant lmfao don't ask) but I want to be able to stand in front of the mirror naked and go, yea I'm hot so until I get to that point and I know I can. I used to be 140 and my body looked amazing naked. I have 130 for my goal, might be a little difficult to maintain, but we'll see I might just stop and maintain when I'm at 140.
I am the queen of adjusting and readjusting goals!
When I started, I wanted to be 170. I had no idea what that would look or feel like and it sounded safe and far enough away from 200.
Then I got to 170 and that was clearly not good enough, so I went for 160, which is just barely into the normal BMI range from my height. Hit 160 and that, again, wasn't enough!
I went through 150 and now am on the road to 140. It's gotten harder and harder the lower I go and I've definitely been struggling lately. I have a feeling that 140 will also not satisfy my weight loss hunger and I will shoot for 134, which will be 80 pounds lost. I hope tha when I get there, I will be able to be satisfied and build some sort of confidence, because I don't think I should go lower than that.
I think it's normal. And if anything, I think it helps. If I had set my sights on 140 from the beginning, I might have been too overwhelmed. As it is, I've taken it 10 pounds at a time and it's kept me motivated without feeling helpless.
I've definitely done this. I've been overweight my entire adult life and didn't have a point of reference for what was thin for my body, so when I started out my goal weight was 135, at which I imagined I'd feel skinny and awesome.
But as I got closer I realized that at 135 I was still going be pretty padded for my frame and height, so I dropped my goal to 128, which was a huge mental adjustment. Now I'm right around my goal, and wear a size 6 most of the time, and on the one hand I'm still totally amazed when I see a weight in the 120s when weigh myself in the morning, but I definitely don't feel thin.
Losing the last 5 lbs was really hard, so I definitely want to give my body and brain some time to adjust to being this weight, but if I'm still unsatisfied in six months or so I'll probably try to take off another 5-10 lbs.
I'm thinking of lowering my goal to 130. I want to see what I look like at 135 before I decide too. I also think it may be a mental win to achieve my goal-even if I immediately change it.
I don't think that there is anything wrong with changing your goal. I personally do not remember/know what I'll look like at 135. So really, how am I supposed to chose a number when I don't know what the end result will be? I say wait until you reach goal and then determine whether you want to go or stop from there.
Also, I have been a size 10 most of my adult life (though I've been as high as a 12). So I totally get not being comfortable at that number. Go with what you feel comfortable at.
In order to be a "normal" weight, I'd have to be 145. I'm 166 now, and I can't imagine what it would be like to lose 20 more lbs. So some days I say, I'll get to 160, and be done, or 150, or 155.
Honestly, I'm just kind of evaluating as I go. I don't see that there's anything wrong with changing your mind - its all about what makes you happy
I'm your height (i generally round up ) and have definately been in your shoes.
When I was 215, I thought 180 was barely attainable but would be perfect.
When I got to 180, I thought that 170 would be super perfect!
When I got to 170, I thought that toning up would look even better at 160.
So ya, it constantly changes. What I found is that between 170 and 186 (what I am again), there's not much change in clothing sizes personally. It's just how you look in the same stuff that changes a bit but mostly only in our own heads.
I bet you look great and that you'll feel wonderful at your next target. And when you get there, you'll make a new target and have the perk of feeling great about yourself at the same time.
p.s. in regards to setting 150 as a goal, that's constantly a question I ask myself too. It seems like it's a whole different world to even consider being below 160 lbs so I can't envision it as a goal. I find it safer for me to just aim for 170, secretly aim for 160, and not even bother with what I should aim for from there.
when i first started my goal was 155. i thought that was a stretch and somedays i never thought i would get there. well a year later i did get there and i was still pretty heavy, but much better off than when i first started. i was an 8/10 at that size. i was not satisfied with the way i look and i am still not even at 145-147. it is very frustrating to have come so far, but still feel like you have so far to go. i am a size 4/6 (just depending on the brand of clothes) and naked i still feel huge. i still have a lot of excess fat on my belly and i could stand to lose some inches in my arms and legs. my problem area really is my belly- i don't know that i will be satisfied until that is gone. my fear is that i will just have excess skin. we will see, hoping it really starts to flatten out in the next 10-15 lbs. i have pretty much lost my back fat so maybe the belly is next haha.
I think modifying goals is normal and necessary, to some degree. For any goal - scale, size, body fat % - it's generally impossible to know how we're going to feel at that benchmark until we get there. I've struggled with this, since everything under 170 was pretty much new territory.
However - and this is what I'm wrestling with now - I have found that I no longer see myself clearly, and I am having difficulty figuring out when I'll be satisfied with my weight loss. So what I'm trying to do for myself is establish some definite "yellow lights" that will help me from becoming obsessed or going too low. I'm also trying to figure out how to see myself more clearly so that I don't just feel fat, but I can really determine if I need to lose weight. I currently do.
The 140 in my ticker is certainly NOT set in stone! I haven't been 140 since I was in high school. Sure, I can look at pictures of myself then and think wow, I looked great! BUT I have a very different body now after having a kid so I'm not sure how 140 will look on me. My big goal is a healthy BMI of 155. That's what I was in college and I remember being happy there (although it wouldn't have hurt me to loose a few pounds).
I don't really have a set size in mind, though, because I think vanity sizing has made clothing changed too much. In high school at 140lbs I was usually in a size 8 and could sometimes MAYBE wear a size 6. Now at just over 200lbs I can wear size 12 pants and I have a hard time believing it's going to take 60lbs to make me loose 2 more sizes so I figure there's got to be some vanity sizing going on here. 6 was always my former ideal so maybe it's now a 2 or a 4?
My goal is set at 145 (License weight) but like runningfromfat, I haven't seen that weight since high school and I know my body has changed shape. A week ago I hit 159, and tried on size 10 pants, they fit great and I felt happy. This week no weight change but somehow an inch fell off my waist and I found myself contemplating something I hadn't been since freshman year of HS- single-digit sized. I'm afraid to go to a store and try one yet, especially since my upper frame is still a 12-14 (damn bust!) but it made me think. I'd had this mentality that said "you are a size-10 framed person, so do what you can to be healthy and deal with the size, 'cause that's it"
The secret voice in my head says "maybe, if you changed that goal from 145 to 135, you could wear single digit sizes on top as well..."
Does/did anyone adjust their goals often?
) and have definately been in your shoes.
6 was always my former ideal so maybe it's now a 2 or a 4? 
