I was just fooling around with my sparkpeople account which I’ve had for about 2 ½ years and was looking at my graph that showed my weight loss..boy did I have unrealistic goals in the beginning. Needless to say, I’m about 40 lbs shy of where I should have been a year and a half ago…lol! My goal was to go from 234 to 120 in, what now, seems like the snap of a finger, 1 year…lol. How misguided I was. I must have thought that I was always going to lose 3-4 lbs a week, that I was never going to have weeks or months where I just gave up…
Hindsight!
Anybody else write down goals in the beginning that now you know were totally unrealistic?

i see where your coming from, but i read recently that coming up with a hard to reach goal may actually result in greater weight loss, regardless if you meet that size 2 goal or not. i guess maybe your more inclined to push yourself a bit harder, than settle for mediocre results. so i'm sticking with my size 6 goal. maybe even size 4. i can do it!!!!!! heh

Uhhuh. I remember making a chart a few years ago and taping it to my bathroom mirror. It had a very pretty line that just went straight down at a very steep angle - and I was determined to follow that line. It was a totally unrealistic rate of loss and after my actual line veered off so far from the "plan" I gave up.

Craziness.

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The diet plan I described for myself at first was way too strict and had really too little calories. About 900 I think and I was hungry all the time. My dietist was my saviour... she looked me into the eyes and said: "You will never be able to keep this up. It is really too little, there is no need to be hungry all the time!". On her advice I upped stuff here and there and that's more or less how I still eat.

Yup. Back when first I started out I went through my entire day planner and wrote down "target" weights on target dates. Fortunately, I learned enough along the way that those silly targets now give me a giggle rather than make me feel like a failure.

lol, you mean like my goal to be 230 by Christmas? When I was starting in October? lol I've been there done that. I am now setting more realistic goals.

I've always been pretty realistic about a weight I can get to with my body type.

When I was in highschool at a pretty solid weight for me, about 130... I dropped to about 122 by essentially starving myself, and eating Atkins style. Sure, I weighed very little... but people also expressed serious concern about me, and I was hungry all the time. I lived off of cheese strings and hamburgers without the bun, and then carbs found me.

Even on these forums, when I see people talking about fitting into size 2s and 4s (no offense to anyone intended!!!) I'm like, "Really? Have you ever been that size before?" Because I don't think there's ANY way that I could EVER be a size 2 without being SERIOUSLY unhealthy. I simply don't have the frame for it... I'm happy with an 8 or a 10, because I know that somewhere around those numbers is where I'm no longer "overweight," I'm average. And that makes me happy. ...If I happened to through keeping up the exercise, continue to lose inches and rock out a 6? My life would be complete.

And see, I'm your same height and wearing a size 10 at my current weight (which is 161). By the time I lose 30 more lbs, I'll easily fit into a 6 and probably even a few 4s, I suspect.

When I first started losing I thought, well, if I can fit into an 8-10, I'll probably be close to my goal. As it turns out, at a size 10 my BMI is still in the "overweight" range ... although no longer obese.

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i cant use sizes as a goal, becase they just vary so much. i dont want to feel bad about myself if i fit in a 6 in one place and not the other.

Very true! I feel the same way about sizes. I used to think about them all the time, and the girls in the office at my old job didn't help either!

In my opinion, it seems like too many people focus on the wrong numbers.

This is why I am falling in luv with this place! Most people here are super supportive about wanting not only to lose weight but also maintain a healthier lifestyle!

Lol, wow. Yeah, see... at 151 lbs, I'm like.. a size 12-14... more on the side of the 12 I think, lol. And we are the same height. It's nuts, body types are so varied... And yeah, I'm still "overweight"... I'm determined to get rid of that, lol.

i remember a year ago wanting to lose 20 pounds in 1 month! lol And when it didnt happen i just kinda gave up

True i know people who are about 50 pounds + that wear the same jean size i do i was also a size 14 when i was 160-155 but now its an 8 WOOT WOOT!!

Yes yes yes. When I started losing in September I set up a goal chart for myself, where I would consistently lose 7 lbs a month til I got to my goal of 130 in March. Wow, for the first two months that went well, but the closer you get to goal the slower it goes. Oh well I guess, I'm enjoying where I'm at, at least I'm into my size 8's!

I alway set unrealistic goals! I need immediate gratification or I wasn't interested. Even now my goals might be kind've unrealistic but I have mini goals to keep me in check. I also know I can't do that pant size thing. Especially cause from the time I started gaining a lot of weight fast, I gained 60lbs, yes 60LBS!!! and only went from a 14 to a 16, sometimes an 18. And I assume its cause the weight is well distributed and I'm tall. So pant size means nothing to me!