I have set a goal of 140 and have told myself that is an acceptable weight, but like Mkendrick, I want to be more than just an "acceptable" weight so I think for me 130 will be the number where I no longer "must lose weight." I think for me going from 140-130 would definitely be "vanity" pounds. I am not even close, but I can't wait to find out!

I completely agree with Megan. I am a little more than 11 pounds from my goal weight of 145 which is in the middle of the healthy range for my height. Now that I'm closer I don't know if I will be keeping the same goal weight because I do not want to just be average, I want to be skinny and tiny. But I still want to stay in the healthy range for my weight, just on the lower end

For me my goal weight of 150 is likely stretching into the vanity range. I picked it because I like the sound of the number, it meant losing an even 145 lbs, and I fully expect once i finish and start maintaining I might need cushioning so i built a little in. But at almost 5ft 10in with a solid german build even tho 150 is mid-range for my height I'm guessing anything below maybe 170 might start pushing me into the skinny range.

That is something I gauge as I go, once my health is looking good and I like what I see in the mirror. For me, my goal is a moving target of sorts - what my goal at 250 was is the same as it is now, numerically, but what that goal looks like on my body and in my head is different, because of where I have lost and how my body has transformed. So the real number that will look and feel the way I want it to may change.... Again, provided my health is good, I am going until I am satisfied. For me, I think that may be higher than my goal weight, we'll see!

DITTO! This is the story of my life, Ive never had any health problems. I started losing weight because I was tired of what I saw in the mirror and thats that The health benefits were none more than a bonus for me. Although Im happy that I workout regularly and it feels great it has nothing to do with why I started if this makes sense. Ive never been the kind of gal that wanted to be skinny I love my curves to death. Thats just not the look im going for because I know that I carry my weight very well. The lowest I can see myself going is 160 but my goal weight is where I want to be. After that it will be more able how I look in my cloths rather than what the scale reads.

I used to have this view point. I'd say weight loss became about health for me once I noticed that after 200 pounds my knees hurt, I got out of breath way too easily, I couldn't tie my shoes or clip my toe nails, my back hurt to do dishes, my BP reached 155/105, my fasting blood sugar was 104, and I had really bad reflux attacks. That's when it became solidly about health.

Now that my health is under control, it's slipping into vanity. Which is not a bad thing!

I base the goals on how good I feel. I know I feel the best beneath 135. I also know that number is reasonable for me based on my food intake and activity level.

I would DEFINITELY also agree that I don't want to be mediocre or acceptable. I want to be my own personal best.

I'm going for 140, but I want to see how I look at 150 before I go any further. I am fairly tall so I can naturally carry more weight without looking really fat (it also helps that I'm a pear). For me, vanity pounds would be going from 140-130.

Dhani

My have to l:l want to barrier will be at 135.
I made 136 before and looked good in clothes, although I always still felt lumpy in myself.
I suppose in a way the one pound more is sheer vanity, to prove I can do it! but once I get there I could easily lose 20lbs more and still be well within normal. I may pause and take stock.

Right now, mediocre or acceptable sounds just fine to me. Normal sounds even better!

Good question Eliana.

I've been struggling with this quite a bit recently. Right now, I'm twenty-three pounds over a normal BMI, I've been at this for fifteen months. I've reached a point where my eating is more or less on auto-pilot and I feel like I've developed a sustainable lifestyle change. But my weight just does not seem to want to budge. I am reaching the point where I believe that my weight is going to settle higher than what I had hoped and that to drop lower might take an effort of restriction of eating and time spent on exercise that might be overkill. For twenty years, while morbidly obese, I dreamed of just being able to eat a reasonable amount every day, and to feel fit and to fit into normal clothes, and now I'm there.

So, I'm not sure.... My lowest adult weight, and the only weight when I felt genuinely thin was when I weighed 145, but I only maintained that weight for about a year. When I was in high school I weighed 150-160 and in college about 150-175.

Right now, I'm still struggling to get all the way to my goal weight of 175.

In reality, I'd like to weigh 150, which is the weight at which I felt "normal" when I was young, but at 49 I just am not sure if that is really obtainable....

I've been reading this thread with great interest the last few days as it's something that's been going through my mind a lot lately.
People are telling me now that I look fabulous and surely can't have anymore weight to lose. I just keep telling them that I still have an overweight BMI. 145 will see me get to the top end of a healthy BMI, 24.9, and I'm determined to get there. After that I really don't know.
Although I am nearing my initial goal and feel fabulous mostly when dressed, naked there is a lot of loose skin and still plenty of padding, so I know that there is still weight to go.
I have three things in my head really.
1. I want to be far enough into a healthy BMI that I can maintain and make sure that I don't ever go into the overweight category after a holiday etc.
2. In the UK we tend to see our weight in stones and lbs. I NEVER thought when I started this journey that I had a hope of getting into the 10stones range (which I was for a lot of my late teens/early twenties. Now that I've got to where I am I have a new dream, to get into the 9stones range, so 139lbs or under.
3. If I can lose another 8lbs after hitting my initial goal that will take me to 137lbs, which will mean I've lost exactly half my body weight during this journey, will take me into the 9stones range and will give me a BMI of 23.5, well into the healthy range for maintenance.
So for me getting to 145lbs is for health, but any after that for me is vanity. Although it's not set in stone, once I get to 145lbs I'll see how I feel, but think I'm then going to work towards 137lbs, and re-assess again then.