What will happen when you hit your goal weight? I set my goal weight as 130 lbs which I think is pretty healthy for my height and all that. But I worry about what will happen when I hit that weight. I worry about hitting that weight and saying I could lose 5lb and then 5lbs and so on. Does anyone else worry about that. If so what can be done to overcome this worry?

The thing that I worry about is the same thing I have always worried about.... will I gain the weight BACK again? I mean, I've lost 30-40 pounds about 6 times in my adult life.... I'm looking for that magic shot that will DING me in the head, so I can figure out HOW TO MAINTAIN my weight loss.

It's kinda annoying, really.

I don't know if I worry about it. But I certainly have thought about it on more then one ocassion.

I set my goal at 135, which will be a total weightloss of 152 lbs. I thought that was an ambitious of enough project to take on. I always knew that when I got down there I'd have time to play around with it. Now that I'm getting close, I will probably see if I can take it down another few pounds. Either I can - or I can't. I'm not too worried about it. My goal weight is not written in stone.

Perhaps I will be able to get lower, but I don't know if I will be able to STAY there. Whatever it is, it is. I'm not going to let the actual number worry me. I am healthier then I 've been in close to 20 years. I am more fit and more active. I'm a happy camper - numbers aside.

my biggest worry is that i'll never get to my goal... that i'll always be fat.

Need2Lose, we had a thread about that very topic in the Body Image and Issues After Weight Loss forum recently: Is/Was It Hard For You To Stop Losing? Why?. It's an issue that a lot of us struggle with, so you might want to check out the discussion. We'd love to have you add your thoughts to the subject too!

Thanks I am gonna go read it now.

Hmmm - you know, I've actually stopping thinking (TOO much!) about reaching 'goal'... it seems so far away, and in my imagination, SO impossible that *I* would ever get there, that thinking about it is my own personal road to disaster.

I've set my goal for 140 pounds - a close friend thinks that is too low. I expect that if I ever get there (!) I'd like to be 2 pounds lower, so I can say that I've lost a nice, round number of 140 pounds, and half my body weight.

I do actually believe that if my scale read 150, but I was toned, fit and wearing a size - I don't know, EIGHT, say (LOL! Oh, the thought of ME in a size 8 - what, on one leg?! ) - I think the scale would mean less than my label size. I'm not sure.

Secretly, in that dark little place in my head, I'd love to weight 126 pounds. I don't expect I ever will, and I hope that it doesn't become any kind of obsession for me.

Heather

I set what i think is a reasonable goal...130. I "think" i'd like to get to 120 but i'm not sure if that is a reality or not. I'm not really "afraid" that once i hit goal, i won't be able to stop, but i do wonder if 120 is a possibility. I "KNOW" lower than 120 is toooo skinny for me. So, if i made it to 120, i am pretty positive that i would be able to stop. If i still look or feel flabby, I'll just have to talk to my gym about getting a personal trainer who can help me tone up instead of trying to "lose" more weight. But uuuugggghhhhh .....will 130 ever even get here?!?!?!? lol

I sometimes get into that frame of mind, yes. I'm pretty much at my goal now, but I sometimes look in the mirror and think hmmm, maybe I could lose another 10 pounds.

But I know I don't really need to, so it hasn't become an obsession or anything. As for now, I don't focus on one certain number, I allow myself a range. I don't want to kill myself to try and stay at EXACTLY 130 pounds. My 5-pound range is between 130-135 and that's where I'm trying to stay. I'm still 133 as of yesterday. My weight seems to be holding steady right about there (with the normal 2-3 pound fluctuations) and that's ok with me

It would be nice to just stop thinking about EVERYTHING diet related and just be able to live life, do it, and move on...but since food is definitely an issue for us then it's hard to stop.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to stop about all these things...but I suggest when you get to goal create two set numbers that you stay between. Find the number that is right before underweight, or a few pounds over that...and find a number that you don't want to ever go over again.

Since I was to be 130, I would say, "I don't want to want to pass 135 ever again, and I don't want to pass 120!"

Those should be your set numbers, and every now and then weigh to make sure you're in that range. If you pass it, then you should work to get back in range!

My fear is that I won't be able maintain and will gain it back.

Just remember, all of that is within our control

You'll only gain it back if you allow it to happen. And I've definitely been there enough times because I would lose the weight, then slowly slip back into my old habits. But I'm confident I have a handle on it this time. I'm going on 3 years since I started and I'm keeping it off because to this day I still log everything I eat. It's my way of staying accountable. Everyone has their own system. It's about finding out what works for YOU

My fear is that I won't be able to hold the weight. My current goal is a stopping point for the short term--to give my body a rest. I'd like to be lower. But realistically, I'm not sure how much lower I could go and maintain it. Even now, it seems like if I eat a little more than my weight loss plan, and I mean 200 calories more, my weight jumps up. This is very scary. I never fear that I'll want to keep on losing--it's just too hard after a point.

Jay

I'm pretty much at that point now. I've lowered my goal at least twice in my weight loss journey. My first goal was 135 and when I got there it was clear it wasn't low enough so I dropped it. I can't remember if I went straight to 115 or had an interim goal of 125 and then dropped it to 115. Now that I am at 115-116 (at least in the morning ), I'd really like my AM weight to get down to 110. That would give me a few insurance lbs lost, so I could have some room for my weight to fluctuate.

But what I've found is that the lower your weight gets, the harder it is to lose weight. This is especially true once you get into the low end of your BMI range. So sure, when I was at 120, I thought it would be no problem to just keep doing what I was doing and I'd eventually get down to 110. But it doesn't work that way. The lbs are coming off very very slowly at this point and it is not clear at all that I'll even be able to get to the 110 goal. If I'm not there by August, I'm giving up on it.

So long as you aren't worried that you are going to begin starving yourself or other unhealthy practices (purging, etc.), at some point, I think your body will get to the point where it doesn't want to lose anymore weight and I think you will find it really hard to push past that point. And that's probably the point where you'll stop dropping your goals.

My biggest fear is not being able to maintain my weight loss. I've already had a couple periods where I gained 5 lbs (and at one point close to 10 lbs ) back. I feel good that I was able to get things under control and get back to where I am now, but there is always that nagging worry in my mind. I know people say that maintenance is within your control, but I worry that it isn't within my control (or that I won't have the control). I didn't really believe I could lose weight until I did; I'm not going to really believe I can maintain my weight until I've managed to do so for several years. I sometimes think that forever having a goal of losing 5 more lbs might actually make maintenance a little easier (especially when it's clear that there is really a limit to how much I can lose since I'm not willing to eat in an unhealthy manner).

I don't worry as much about gaining the weight back anymore - I have managed to maintain my weight within 5 lbs for 2 years. My healthy habits are firmly in place and I have permanently given up a lot of the trigger foods that led to my bad behaviors (scones, muffins, packaged baked goods, candy, chips, fast food). Instead of a diet, I managed a life change and I am happy to continue to eat this way forever. When I ate too many bad foods, I was heavy. Now that I estimate calories daily, pack healthy lunches, eat fruit for snacks and cook most meals at home, I am a thin person. I wish I had known 20 years ago what I needed to do to lose weight and keep it off.