I chose my goal weight before I started dieting for a few reasons. It's a heavier goal than I've had in the past.

My reasoning is I don't want to be skinny. I just don't want to be out of proportion. I have a bigger frame and dieting beyond a certain point becomes somewhat redundant. I have a big head and truly feel the need to balance it out. Lol.

Dropping below a certain number feels like it'd be too hard to maintain emotionally, even though it's a difference of a couple of hundred cals in practise. It also feels a bit too close for comfort to when I was ED. I'm trying to be moderate with my food and attitude these days so the goal goes along with that.

I guess a lot of my identity is tied up with being bigger too, and in some ways that's hard to let go of. I also think I make a much better medium sized girl than a skinny one.

So my goal is on the higher end of my BMI. Does anyone else have a higher weight loss goal or is anyone aiming for smaller rather than slim?

I definitely feel the same way. I wouldn't mind still being "overweight" as long as I had more energy and felt good about myself. I could definitely look and feel great at a larger size. What is weird about me is that at 340 pounds, I could comfortably wear an XL shirt. At 300, I can comfortably wear a large. I couldn't imagine what I would be like at 170. I probably won't ever want to get down that low. I'd be more than happy (and would probably feel quite skinny) at 220.

I say do what makes you happy. I'm ecstatic at my weight loss but I'm no where near skinny or slim. If you get to your goal, then you can re-evaluate if that is the right place for you or if you would like to lose more.

Yup! I don't think I could ever be at the lower end of a "healthy" BMI for my height (5'10"). At my smallest, I was between 155-160 (BMI of 22-23). At the time, I was working on a horse farm so i was teaching and riding in super hot weather. Super hot weather makes you not hungry, so i didn't eat much either! I'm not going to be too disappointed if i can't get that low!

My goal right now is 200, which was my wedding weight (BMI 29). With my body shape and height, i believe i will always be on the higher scale of the BMI and that's okay! Healthy is more important to me right now.

In the end i would like to be around 170, which would just be overweight on the BMI scale.

Kat

I'm with you guys. Let's face it: some meat on the bones is sexy...For me, being big isn't the issue...it's the nasty rolls that are popping out of my clothes. LOL. I'm at 216 right now and trust me, if I had the smooth lines that I'm looking for...I could care less about how much I weigh .

Monique

I have quite a low goal weight just now, but I think I'll just see how I go towards my goal. I have really wide-set shoulders (my grandad is always telling me to stop doing weights because I've got a "back like a chimney sweep" ... even though I don't do weights at all ) and I think I'll look ridiculous if there isn't anything there. I'm never going to be a size 8 (US 4) with my frame, but I'm happy with that.

My GW right now is 150, which I believe is still overweight for my height (5'2). I remember when I was around 13 my body was smooth and my stomach was flat, but I wasn't skinny. I was around 130-140 I think, not sure, but of course at that age my body also wasn't fully developed.

If I get to 150 and want to go lower, I'll do that. But I think right now 150 is a good, solid goal. I'll be able to fit into normal clothes, hopefully slim down my fingers and feet, and feel better about myself.

Who knows, maybe you'll want to change your goal. You won't know until you get there. Good luck!

I picked my goal weight based on what is supposed to be about the middle of the healthy BMI for a 5'4 female with a large frame. But of course everyones bodies are different and that might not be what's best for me. I have no clue what I'd look and feel like at 150, I have no clue what I'd look and feel like at 175. I might get to 175 and be completely happy, I might get to 150 and find that I could actually lose more to be happy. I'm not looking to be skinny, I'm going for healthy and just happy with the way I look. I've always known that my husband admires an athletic built on a woman so I'd love to eventually get things toned up and not just be smaller, but be really fit as well. I agree with Monique. Curves are sexy and I sure wouldn't mind having some, and with my hips I probably will.

I picked 120 based on BMI, and just because I am so short I thought it should be around that area. However, lately, I have been thinking if I get to 140, and I never lose another pound, I would be happy maintaining that weight. I just need some of this weight off me for psychological and physical reasons. My weight has affected so many aspects of my life. I am just ready to work on being a better and healthier person. So, it is not really important to me if I am slim or thin. I think that would just be an extra bonus if I look great too.

Of course, I want to lose all the weight I can to get to a healthy BMI range. However, I would be ecstatic 20lbs above my current goal weight.

My goal weight is picked because it's within a healthy BMI but I don't know where I will actually end up. I don't know if 150 is sustainable or if 140 is sustainable or even something lower. I haven't been any of those weights as an adult, so it's hard for me to know what my body/mind will feel comfortable with.

I think until we get there, we won't know, right? I'm not even thinking about it now!

As the motto under my username suggests, I'd be okay with being called a "midsize b&%$^tch" rather than a "skinny b&%$^tch."

When I think about my goals lately, they're focused on certain body parts & sections, and on what weights & body-weight exercises & Pilates might be able to do for them. I'm thinking of things like muscle definition. But even more that, I'm focused on particular attainments like deadlifts & unassisted pullups & a certain consecutive number of pushups. I'm also toying with setting a goal achieving particular time for running a 5K.

I did skinny-as-possible years ago. It literally drove me crazy. I mean, I wasn't well, mentally. This is no longer about "how low can she go." Not to knock it, it works for many, but if I start focusing on that, it leads to unhealthy behaviors. I start thinking "by any means possible" & the implications of that just aren't good for me in the long term.

I based my goal weight on my lowest, healthy weight as a teen. I was still very overweight for my bmi, and yet I looked fabulous. Curvy, muscular, very healthy. I could have lost ten or fifteen pounds, appearance-wise, and looked even better, but with an extremely active lifestyle my body wouldn't go lower, so I am not sure if it is feasible to shoot for 145 instead of 160, especially now that I've had three children!

I don't want to be skinny or even slim. I want to be healthy, fit, strong, and attractive at my size. if being skinny requires I carry a huge calorie deficit I have trouble sticking to and cannot eat enough to supplement muscle growth for strength training, its not for me.

Same here.

I don't have a goal weight, because I have absolutely no idea what weight will look best and feel best on me.

The BMI charts put my highest healthy weight at 150, which sounds impossibly small to me, given the way I am built. Even when I was at my post-puberty slimmest, in high school, I never got below 155. And I'm not in high school any more, to put it mildly. So, I may never get to BMI-approved "healthy".

On the other hand - I've never been there, so I have no frame of reference to decide whether it looks good or is manageable for me. Maybe I'll get to 170 and feel great. Maybe I'll get to 160 and feel great. Or maybe I'll get to 160 and realize hey, I actually could drop another ten. I'll only know when I get there.

It doesn't make any difference to me at all, for the choices I make today, whether I'll be losing or maintaining a year or 18 months from now. I don't need a goal weight to help me along, so I just don't have one. I don't think about it.

I agree with Linsy. I picked a goal weight of a weight that I was able to maintain for a long time and I thought I looked good. I was a size 14, and that's fine with me. Looking back at pictures from then, I think I looked good. It's more important to me to be healthy and work out.

My initial goal was 174, which is the very high end of normal weight. I picked this primarily because at 5'10" with a large frame, that seemed pretty reasonable. Turns out that when I lost a large amount of the weight, I didn't really have that large frame that I had counted on all those years to make me feel a little bit better about my weight. I had a lot of chub left at 174 and after achieving that much I felt like to not really get to my ideal healthy weight was not quite completing the journey.

Changed it to 165, then 162, and I maintain in the 157-162 range.

My point is to not worry too much about a distant goal because you just can't have any idea what you'll look like when you reach it. Even if you weighed that once, a long time ago, your body has changed with time. Flexibility is a real key and you'll know the right weight when you see it and feel it.