Yesterday I met with a new weight loss consultant. She is new to the center and seemed quite knowledgeable. We were chatting about goal weights, as one of the ladies I used to walk with reached her goal yesterday.

So she says, "Yup- according to your body composition- a good weight for you will be around 170. Your lean body mass has really been holding steady- and you are quite muscular and that hasn't changed at all for the last 4 months. So 170 will put you right there at the fitness level of fat percentage."

Well...all be darn. I guess it just reiterated what I've already known.... a lot of people don't fit in that darn BMI chart.

I know that learn body mass can change (wouldn't mind losing some muscle in my calves! LOL), but it was still felt good to let go of that secret goal of desiring to be in the middle of the healthy weight range of the BMI chart.



So I think that at the center- I will call goal at 167, but I suspect I will continue to shoot past that. And hopefully :: fingers crossed :: I will publish my goal thread here at 3FC when I see a big fat positive on a super special awesome test, but that won't be until sometime in 2014.

Has anyone else had to come to terms with the fact that they might not fit into the BMI? Or their super secret goals?

That's actually a relief to me! I'm the same height as you but I think a few (!!) years older than you. Getting to 199 is taking a miracle request that hasn't been answered yet, I can't imagine the struggle to 170 I'm going to have.

I'm big boned (I think) but someone told me a couple of weeks ago my shoulders look so petite. I almost fell off my chair laughing, I've never been nor will I be petite!!

*raises hand* After consulting with my own health care practitioner, I raised my goal weight to 175. That's 15 pounds over the high end of BMI for me but it's what we both think is attainable, maintainable and healthy for me.

I did this once before (sigh!) and I was able to get down to 127. But I had to really push it to get there. This time around, I am hoping to get to a technically "normal" BMI and I'm going to see from there, which is 144 for my height I believe. I don't want to have that super secret number in mind right now, if I get to 144 I will be thrilled and back in a normal weight range.

I'm only 5'1", so according to the BMI chart... I can still be "healthy" at 100lbs. My super secret goal weight has always been 110 but I think reality has kicked in that I may never get down to that. I've reset it to 120 and I think I'll feel okay at that weight but I still mentally strive for 110.

I was so relieved when I met with my Medifast counselor the first time that they don't use BMI. At 5'2" by BMI says my ideal weight range is 112-117 pounds. I haven't weighed 117 pounds since middle school, and I WASN'T an overweight teenager.

Based on my lean muscle mass, MF set my goal weight at 155. I think I might actually shoot for the 130-140 range, but right now 155 is so far off, who knows, I might be fine with it.

I'm not too worried about where my goal weight falls on the BMI scale. Right now my goal weight is 135, but I'm comfortable with my actual goal falling higher or lower (though admittedly I feel that any lower than 125ish would be too far in the other direction) when I get there as long as I'm fit and healthy.

BMI for my height is about 130 - 158. I have a medium frame and no boobs, so I figured somewhere around 140 - 145 was my ideal weight (I'd allow a bit more to compensate for excess boobage, so I had to deduct a bit here!) I was about that in high school and was a little lower in my late 20s. But when I got down to about 165, I realized that 145 would be horrible for lots of reasons, vanity being the first. I'm over 60, was heavy for 25 years, and at about 80 pounds lost I realized I was starting to look saggy. I had intended to lose at least 100 pounds between 1/14/11 and 12/25/11 and was ahead of schedule to do that, but called it quits after 90 because of the sag in my upper arms, neck, and thighs mostly. That puts me at a BMI of just over 25.

It felt awful to quit. I had to keep telling myself I had not failed. I decided to stop losing - it was a choice based on wanting to be comfortable wearing shorts and short sleeved tops - I hadn't failed to lose. But It's good to hear recent reports that people with a BMI a bit over 25 live longer and it's good to know you can be very fit and healthy at any (reasonable) weight. Thanks for reminding us.

Lin

I don't really have huge goal. If I can make it to 200 or 199 this year, I may cry in happiness. If I chose to maintain for a few months and continue on, I will do that. Otherwise, I keep my weights high and then will decide to lower as needed. I'd love to be 150. But I understand a lifetime of obesity may make that hard. So 185-175-165 would do me well. It all depends on how I feel at that weight.

"A lifetime of obesity..." That's something that was a major factor in my conversation with my doctor about my goal weight. I have never been a normal weight. I was born heavy. I weighed over 200 pounds at age 18 and I've not been below that as an adult. My weight right now is the least I've weighed in over 20 years. It feels good! But I know I'm not done yet.

So, yeah, 175 I think is a good target. When I get closer, my body may tell me different. It may tell me higher or lower. I dunno. But I'm comfortable with the number for now.

I'm 5'5" & the BMI chart says I should be between 130-150. I used to think that was completely impossible, but I've set my ultimate goal weight @ 145, though I may not be able to get there & still be muscular. As merilung said, I really just want to be fit & healthy, so whatever weight that puts me at will be just fine....

At least, that's what I hope. I hope I won't be one of those people who wants to just keep getting smaller & smaller....

A while back, I had a thread about the Dukan Diet calculator weight, because for many people, the recommended weight from there was higher than a healthy BMI. I think my recommended weight is 181.

I'm not really setting a final goal weight, though. I know from when I got to 199 before, I wasn't where I wanted to be physically, and I was likely more than 20 lbs away. My goal is to get in to non-plus sized clothing, well non-plus sized tops, I already can wear non-plus bottoms. I think the low 170s may end up being about right, but since I've never weighed that low as an adult, I honestly don't know.

So for now, it's just getting back to Onederland and then taking it 5 lbs at a time after that.

I'm stealing this great plan of yours, April. 5lbs at a time sounds great at the moment (assuming I conquer this onederland issue I've had the last 3 weeks!) .

This is my only concern about my goal weight as it's set right now - I've weighed 145 before and because of my teeny, straight frame I still had a flabby look - not that there's anything wrong with that, I'd just prefer to look fit and be fit! - but if I put on a fair amount of muscle this time around, it's possible that my goal weight will need to be higher. I know at 145 I still had a good 10 pounds of extra fat, but I'm not sure how much muscle I had at that point and if I had more/less than I'll wind up with this time around. I was working out pretty regularly, but mostly cardio stuff.

I'm 5'8" (or just a hair under) and I could not force my body below 188-192 no matter what I did. I went months on end unable to get below or even maintain my lowest ever weight of 186. When I was in the 190s, I met with our employee wellness coordinator and she said that according to my excellent lean body mass and body fat composition I was normal for my age (50)

I was happy with how I looked, fitting into normal sized clothes, super fit and medically healthy, but I was so hung up on never "hitting goal" that I never fully committed to maintenance. So I think it's a really good idea to take a wait and see approach about goal weight. Even as a teen and in college, when I was on the varsity crew team I always weighed more than other girls my height, but I was also a lot stronger than most of them. People are just different.