I have set my first goal as losing 20lbs- 10% of my body weight and the amount of weight that I gained when I decided that cheese, butter, bacon and cream made pretty much anything better....

However, I am curious how some of you went about setting lifetime goals? I have looked at the healthy weight range from WW and I honestly can't see myself being able to maintain a weight of 147lbs for very long. I suppose it's possible that once the plan become more second nature to me and I show myself that the weight loss IS possible, I will be better able to imagine it.

I do suspect some of this relates to my stint with bulimia I had about five years ago. I dropped weight, of course, and unfortunately I got a lot of reinforcement from everyone telling me how great I looked (naturally NO ONE knew how I was doing it), but I was so unhealthy! That was the only time in my life I have anywhere CLOSE to the healthy weight guidelines, though.

Any thoughts?

Everyone sets their own goals differently.
I set my goal for silly reasons...it was 100 lbs down, I recall weighing that much in highschool. Not sure my goal is practical. I wonder if I will be able to get down that low, when I get closer I will have to reevaluate.
I enjoy participating in decade threads, since I then focus on losing 10lbs at a time.

I set my goal because it's about the weight I was at through college. I always thought I should lose weight then, so perhaps my goal should be lower, but lower doesn't seem attainable to me at this point.

I think the best policy, when setting your goal, is to be flexible about it. You can pick any number you like, as long as you realize that you might need to revise it.

Once strategy I've heard that I like is to pick a calorie level that you think is sustainable long term, and once you weight levels out at that level, that's your maintenance weight.

When I first started, I had no clue what to pick as my goal- I don't really know that I even defined it as a number, but I knew I wanted to be healthy and I wanted to be comfortable with how I looked. I had always been overweight- right now I'm at my lowest adult weight- so I didn't have anything to compare to. Along the way, I learned how to define "healthy" and "comfortable with my body" in a way that was specific enough for me to work toward. At this point, I'll be honest, my goal is all about vanity. I'm healthy now, but I've worked so hard I want to be rid of the jiggle! I think that whatever you choose to work toward, it's all about what will make you satisfied. And let yourself imagine that weight loss- imagine yourself at 147! You really can get there- right now it's about learning to believing in the possibilities.

I set my weight as the lowest weight I remember being in college. I felt chubby then but looking back at pictures, I looked good! I might want to keep losing after that but it feels like an attainable goal because I was there once not too long ago.

My goal weight (125) is the heaviest weight that I felt happy with when I was thin. Honestly, I'd ideally like to get back to the 110-115 range, but that seems almost impossible and the journey to get there feels too daunting. So for now my goal is 125, but when I get close I'm sure I'll lower it.

I just pulled a number out of my bottom that sounded good to me becuase for me personally I didn't lose weight so the scale would show a lower number.

My original goals were:

To lose 70 lbs
To be able to do 50 pushups
To be able to jump rope for 20 minutes straight

After only three months my goals had changed. My goals are different yet again now.

I think your goal of 20 lbs is a great idea. As you get closer you can decide how much (if any) lower you want to go.

I can tell you this - there is absolutely no reason you can't get down to 145 lbs if you want to and do it in a completely healthy manner. You might decide you don't want to - you might decide you want to go lower.

I see this question a lot here, and I'm always a little surprised how much effort people put into choosing an arbitrary number early in their weight loss process. I am more than 80% through my weight loss process - and I don't have numerical goal at all, I never did. I'll know when I get there - either because I'll be happy with the way my body is, or because the amount of work it would take to lose more fat is more than the amount of work I am willing or able to put in.

The reason I can't choose a numerical goal is that I haven't been as low as my current weight for maybe 15 years, and I haven't been below 165 since I graduated from high school. My body isn't the same now as it was then. I just have no idea what I will look like as I approach that weight, or even whether I can get there. So I'm not going to pick that weight.

Some people pick based upon BMI charts. Well - BMI charts put the maximum healthy weight for my height at 150. I am built like a wrestler and probably haven't weighed 150 since before I stopped growing. I don't know whether 150 is attainable for my body type - but I have no way of knowing until I get closer to it. So I'm not going to pick that number either.

Anyway, having a numerical goal or not doesn't change a single thing about how I approach making my plan, executing my plan, or making the day-to-day (or even hour-to-hour) food choices that I make. Would it make a difference to you, in the things you actually do to achieve your loss? I can't imagine how. So what do you need one for?

When I first started I read a book that suggested choosing a jeans size instead of a weight on the scale. That seemed a logical and more emotionally healthy option to me as well. I chose size 4. Everywhere I went people wanted a scale # as my goal, even my doctors, even after I explained why I didn't have one! I gave my husband the weights I had been when I was various sizes and he (being a big math geek) figured that size 4 would most likely be about 115. If I get to size 4 and I'm 130, I'll be happy with 130 (I think). I am open to renegotiation