Hi Everyone,

I've been thinking a lot about this concept of "ideal weight" and how I will know when I get there. I don't care what the scale or the weight tables say. I am in this for long-term health, not vanity. For me, I will be at my "ideal weight" when:

1. I feel confident about how I look in (and out of) my clothes.

2. I can buy and wear pretty much anything off the rack and have it fit well.

3. I can pull out anything in my closet and wear it comfortably without worrying it it's gonna fit that day or not.

4. I do not experience any health-related problems due to being overweight.

5. I do not experience any physical limitations due to being overweight.

What is your definition and how will you know when you get there?

Thanks,

Karen

I definitely agree with 2, 4, and 5. I especially tired of worrying about if the largest size in the store will fit me or not. I'm not looking to be skinny, but I would like to no longer be obese, whether that's on the BMI or just how I and other people see me.

I agree wholeheartedly with doing this for health. I am tired of being tired because I don't eat right. While I know I will be healthier when I am at my "Ideal" weight, I will confess to a large vanity component. I am an older mother to two young children. I had my daughter when I was 37, and my son when I was 42. I'm definately old enough to be their grandmother. I not only want to be able to keep up with my kids, I want to look as good as I can so they do not see me as an embarrassment because of my weight as well as my age! I do want to look good, I do, and I'm not ashamed to admit it :-)

Agree with your list plus being strong and ripped. I am muscular but have never been a weight that shows it off. That is kind of the vanity side but the health side is first.

The biggest is to be here for my nieces and nephews.

All of the above and then some. I am 29 and I want to be at a normal weight by my 30th birthday. I want it for vanity reasons whether right or wrong. I'm tired of being over weight and not having cute clothes like others my age. I don't want to wear the same black shirt to everything like I do now. I want my hubby to be proud to say I'm his wife. (He is now but it will only get better.) I don't want to not go to the pool with my kids because I don't want to get in a swimming suit. I want my girls to follow in my foot steps while eating healthy, not horrible. (I don't want them to have to go through this some day.) I want my doctor's jaw to hit the floor when I walk in for my yearly in January. I think I could go on and on.

I agree with everything that's been said. At 60, I can add that I don't want to die of obesity related diseases. I'd like to be a normal BMI and stay there. I haven't seen normal since 1975 and it's been a huge goal of mine for decades. I want to prove to myself that I can get there and stay there.

That said, I love that now I can do pilates or yoga and not cut off my breathing. I can walk 15 miles and feel ready to keep going. A healthy BMI doesn't mean much to me if I can't live in my body and enjoy it.

Everything you said is right on. I just want to buy clothes in the regular section. I always feel embarassed for my hubby thinking about what people must be thinking.

The only thing that scares me about losing so much weight (goal is to lose 145lbs) is the loose skin issue i will have and i know i don't and will never have $20k+ to get it fixed so it saddens me a little but i'll be healthy and be able to do anything i want and go anywhere i want.

Hey Calee,
I am 59 and 5'4". I agree with you totally. You are almost there. I want to know how many months it took for you to get at your current weight? I go to gym regularly and following 17 day diet.
I am proud of you. You are the ray of hope for me.

Thank you! I have been on every diet imaginable. I hope that IP is my last one! For the last several years I've been going to Weight Watchers, but I tailor the plan to low carb. I go for accountability because I eat better over the weekend knowing that I weigh-in on Monday night. I guess I've been low carb for a few years and I exercise regularly. I just take it one day at a time and keep going. If I slip up, I get back up and get on track.

You can do it!! From what I see, people on IP are shedding the weight so quickly to follow those people and do what they do!

I didn't know how to answer that question when my coach asked what my goal was. Somewhere in my head I had decided I would 'do' something about my weight (if) I reached 200 pounds. Yeah, right! Not thinking at all. What was I thinking at 211? I am so grateful to be here. I will have this for life and desperately needed it. So I said size 12. Rethought that and said 141. I'm not sure what that means either except that it is a mark to shoot for. I really like your concepts. I think understanding all of that will be a very nice place to be. Looking forward to it.

I believe ideal weight is when you feel confident and good about yourself.

These don't work for me. Sometimes I am confident when I shouldn't be (too heavy, by medical standards) and sometimes I am not confident when I should be (at the lower end of the healthy BMI range). So I can't use this as a criteria for ideal weight.

The other suggestions all work, but provide too much of a range. So, I tend to go with the feedback of my family and what other folks tend to think is ideal at my height. Here's one source:

http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm

When I first started to lose weight it was more for medical reasons than vanity reasons. I was 28 years old an seing a Rheumatologist. I couldn't walk in the mornings because I couldn't feel my legs or feet, couldn't grip most things with my hands all day so I had to use plastic glasses with a handle and wasn't sleeping. They ran every test under the sun and came up with Fibromyalgia. I even asked my doctor if she thought I was too fat for my frame, she dismissed that idea and put me to two high powered medications. Fast forward two years and I started losing weight. Things started getting better. Fast forward another two years and I'm off all medications, sleeping peacfully and training for a 5k in October. Not saying I was right and my doctor was wrong, but I find it coincidental that once I started losing weight 99% of my problems disappeared. Now that I am feeling better, my weightloss goals are more vanity driven. I want to be that hot mom in the carpool lane at school . So to sum it up, health was my number one priority but now that I am feeling better, I want to look as good as I feel.

I want to be able to go in the dressing room and hear the sales associate say loudly, "here is the dress in a 4" and NOT "Here is the dress in a size 14"

I want to be that pretty lady in a dress and heels that guys run to open the door for. just for a day. then back to jeans and tshirt