So I am now within several pounds of my original goal weight... it's kind of weird that I'm not happy like I thought I would be. I'm happy with the way I look, but I am definitely thinking that another 15-20 wouldn't hurt.

For those that have gotten to an original goal weight and then reevaluated... did you make it to your new goal or are you making good progress? I am so scared that I will slip up now that I am so close.

Any advice or experiences would be really helpful!

Wow! Whatever you choose to do - I'm impressed! You look really good!

I think resetting goals is a pretty common thing for many of us. Some folks find their initial goal unrealistically out of reach, while others set goals that weren't quite low enough to make them want to stop.

I'm working toward my third goal, so I could probably be considered a serial reevaluate-or. As I neared my initial goal of 135, I realized I still had plenty of weight left to lose. I picked 135 when I started this journey and weighed 217 pounds because it seemed like a decent, attainable number - close to where I was when I got married. At 136, I changed my goal to 125. As I neared 125, I still knew in my heart that I was not ready to be done with this journey and I was still at the high end of my BMI (not to mention the upper arm, thigh and abdomen pudge that still remained). I reset my goal to 115 and have been working toward that since May. I think it will be my final resting point, but at the same time, I've learned to never say never.

Good luck to you and congratulations on your weight loss success!

In the end, you just have to be able to maintain it. I can't even fathom being able to maintain a weight below 135. It seems like it would be a constant struggle. 135 is about mid-range for my height and gender, but I could stand to go lower. I don't know how I will feel once I get to 135. Maybe I'll try to lose more, or maybe not. Wherever I land, though, I don't want to fight my weight.

I remember when I wanted to be 140lbs—normal BMI for my height. I thought it was SOOOO out of reach because I had been obese for years and overweight as a kid! How could I ever know "normal?"

I got there and I realized I had more weight to lose. So I kept going. Now I'm pretty darn happy and don't find this weight difficult to maintain. If I do in the future then I will reevaluate and possibly choose a higher weight. Or I'll just keep eating and lifting weights and see what happens

It's tough. One thing I've learned though is that if you go too far you can always put it back on!

My original goal was 155 and I've now been at 140 for a few months. Not quite sure why or how it happened, but I feel really good at this weight.

F.

When I first thought about starting to lose weight I thought I would make my goal in the 160s, and that's mainly because it didn't seem as far away as any lower number. But as I started losing weight I decided I wouldn't be afraid of setting a lower number.

Several years ago I got down into the 140s and I really still had 10 to 20 pounds left I would have liked to have lost (pounds of fat more specifically, I wasn't weight training during my loss so I lost a lot of muscle), but instead I gained it all back, had 2 babies after the regain, and started much heavier than I had before.

At this point I know it's really not about the number so much as a range for maintenance. I'd like to be in the 130s, but if I get in the 140s and my body fat is where I'd like it to be then I'm cool with that since I'm weight training this time around my body may look different at 145 than it did then. Guess we will see!

This was me too. I always thought that for my height and frame 130 would be a good "low end of the scale" weight for me, and that getting there would be pretty difficult. 120 pounds was almost unfathomable and only attainable for "anorexic women who don't lift weights"... whoops!

Now I maintain (fairly easily) in the 116-117 range give or take a few pounds and am really happy with that, especially considering that I am very lean and pack quite a bit of muscle on my frame.

Your weight will fluctuate and so will your goals. The important thing is not to focus on that. Keep plugging away until you are happy with what you see in the mirror and how you feel. Like Sontaikle said, she may even go up in weight (because she's bulking) and is totally okay with that. With more muscle she'll be stronger and look even leaner, not to mention burn fat more efficiently AND be able to eat more each day! Sounds like a pretty sweet deal right?

My first goal was at the top end of a healthy weight or me. I did not have the confidence that I could go lower than that. As time progressed I realized that maybe I could get closer to midrange and I was able to do that.

sontaikle and jossfit..you guys give me hope and are an inspiration. i feel like my goal weight of 120 is somewhat unattainable, and especially impossible to keep. but who knows what will happen! i'm just gonna keep trying..

Oh I definitely have reset my goals a bit. Seeing as how I am about two pounds from my original goal weight and could stand to lose a lot more, in addition to gaining more muscle mass. But as someone who spent most of my life overweight and then morbidly obese it was almost impossible to get a decent picture in my head of what I would look like at various weights. All I knew 90-some odd pounds ago was that I looked much better at this weight as a teen and better was a good enough start for me! But now I've pushed my goal weight 20 pounds lower, and I am thinking it may go even lower than that. I'm content to be healthy and attractive, which I am at this weight, but I still haven't hit the 'right' spot yet and think I can improve more. So I will

I have a better sense of what my body can look like and do, now. It is only natural that I would assess my goals in light of that!

Thank you guys, it's great to see I'm not the only one! I am just going to keep plugging away until I reach the *fitness goals* that I am aiming for. I am going to care less about the weight at this point and focus more on getting my body fat percentage down.



*Edited to add- are there any naturally muscular girls out there that feel like they will never be at a low weight? I know that I can lose a lot more fat, but I have a lot of muscle (my whole family is like this) that keeps me "heavier". I don't care about the number necessarily, it would just be so nice after being overweight my entire life to see a low number on the scale one of these days!

Hi, Mirax, I'm one of those who bulk up on the higher end of normal. My body responds fast to weights and when not injured, I am naturally very strong. I'm never going to see "slim" in my lifetime, and that's fine - at 45, I would much rather be functional and capable. When I exercise, I swim, which tends to keep most of the muscle gains to my shoulders, arms, and back. That helps balance out my um, really solid legs. I do my darndest to focus on what my body can do, instead of what it looks like, because at least with that I can always find feasible ways to improve. I can still lose quite a bit of fat from where I am now; I've done most of it through dieting. Once I get into a regular exercise program, it won't be more than 6-8 weeks before I'll have to trade my shirts back up to Med from Small. That being said - it's also been 25 years since I was truly in good condition, and a lot of things can change in that time!

This is what I was trying to say in my post. I am built with a medium frame, and even in a caloric deficit I find it easy to build muscle. I am pretty much all muscle these days.

If you look at the links in my signature, I have a few articles with a few pictures of myself. Most of them were taken when I was a couple pounds heavier and a few bodyfat percentages higher. Since then I have added muscle size and trimmed even more fat. So, yes, it's entirely possible to be lean and muscular and lower on the scale... trust me. I don't think most women realize just how much body fat they are carrying and how much you can trim down if you know what you are doing.

Yeah this! I always thought that muscular meant higher numbers on the scale until I got down into the 110s myself. I kind of freaked out when I hit 118, 119 but I kept seeing strength gains so I knew I couldn't be losing muscle.

Since then I've read about other women who are even lighter (some barely weighing 100lbs) that can lift ridiculous amounts of weight that I know we can be "tiny" and strong at the same time