I'm a big fan of mini-goals (I have my listed in my signature) but basically I just picked weights that had a significance to me in some way or another.

I picked my listed goal weight for similar reasons to you in that it was 100lbs less than my highest weight. I was also 140lbs in high school and was very athletic then. However, my eating habits were WAY off (I don't think I ate a lot of calories but I ate very unhealthy foods) so I think between working out in a more efficient manner now-a-days and eating well it would be something I could easily maintain. HOWEVER; my main goal is to get to 155lbs now. I'm weight lifting (didn't in high school) and have been doing so for about half a year now so I can imagine by the time I get to a healthy BMI I might be content earlier on than 140lbs.

I also want to be in at least a size 8 or smaller and have a 28" waist or smaller so if that comes before 140lbs, I might just stop there.

The mini-goals are a good idea--but be careful with the date deadlines! Those can be really discouraging if you don't meet them.

(And to be honest, losing 15lb in the next 3 weeks is likely to be a very tall order...I will be happy if I lose 2-5 pounds in that time period.)

I didn't want to have a scale goal. I had a jeans size goal of 4. Everyone kept bugging me for a scale number though, including my doctor. So I got my math geek DH to help me figure out what I would most likely need to weigh to be a size 4. At that time he had figured 110-120, so 115 was born. It also happens to be in the middle of healthy BMI for me. Right now I am a size 8/9 at 162 and dropping a size nearly every 10 pounds so it looks like I may get to a 4 before I get to 115. I've never been thin, so I have no idea what I will think when I get there. Maybe I will change my scale goal, maybe I will change my jeans goal, maybe I will change both, who knows! Whatever you set it at now is not set in stone. You can change it. Mini goals are definitely helpful. I have used many of them and continue to do so. I didn't figure out all of my mini goals ahead of time though. I think of a new one each time I reach one. Some are obvious ones, like my current 100 pounds lost. I also find having goals that aren't scale related to be helpful. Right now I am working on being able to do 10 double burpees in a row, 50 push-ups, unassisted pull-ups, and running 5K. I also set goals like trying at least 1 new healthy recipe each week.

I did much the same thing as FitGirlyGirl; I decided that I wanted to be somewhere around a size eight, and then determined while talking to a friend that it'd likely be somewhere around 150 pounds. Hence my goal was born. . .about four months into my plan. It puts me at a normal BMI--somewhere around 23-ish.

Before that, my goal was simply to weigh less than yesterday. I might adjust as the long-term goal gets closer. But, really, in terms of it being healthy. . .just pick something in the normal BMI area, or a size you'd be happy with. Adjust as you approach.

Absolutely great point! I should probably mention that I've been working on it for a couple of weeks....my current weight is 240.8. 5.8 pounds in 3 weeks seems much more likely and reasonable than 15lbs!

I'm going to have to think through some non-scale goals too. In my head, I've always wanted to be a size 8. But I haven't been there in so long, that I can't remember what that is actually like.

phew, glad to read this!! lol! Yes, that's a reasonable goal - enough to work hard for but not outrageous.

fwiw, as someone who has never been thin since I was in elementary school, I have no idea what weight is going to look and feel good to me. So I'm breaking things down into similar increments as you - mostly focusing on 10% at a time, but with with certain milestones like 199, and no longer being obese (191, which happens to also be exactly 70 lbs for me). My general idea is that once I lose 10% four times, I'll be down to 172 and I'll have a better sense of how much more I want to lose, and probably switch to 5 or 10 lb increments until I hit the right place.

for me it is to be 149... I want to be in the healthy range for me! I might adjust later. I just started week 5 so I have many weeks to go! Good luck!

It's so hard to set a goal weight. I know I have mine listed at 125lbs, but that may or may not prove reasonable. I've never been thin...ever. My lowest weight that I can recall was 127lbs when I was 15 years old...I didn't eat and was miserable. I had lost from 145lbs to get to that point...I gained all that back before I graduated from high school, but got down again to 130lbs in colllege...again, not healthy, was on a 500cal/day diet. I was using Fitday.com to count calories at the time and can go back and look at what I was eating...wow that was not healthy at all. I also have these notes I was writing myself on there...apparently I was still fat at 130lbs

Now I'm trying to do this in a healthy way through balanced nutrition and exercise. I think if I ever get down in the 125-130lbs range again I will look fantastic, but would really, really like to be under 120lbs. My max acceptable weight is 145lbs to be in the 'healthy' range and even that seems too far away!

I should set up mini goals like some of you have done. That might be more encouraging than looking at huge daunting numbers!

Aileen - Definitely make yourself some mini-goals. They are sooo important. I think that if when I started I had only looked at needing to lose 130 pounds I would quite probably be sitting here today needing to lose 130 pounds (or more). I didn't lose 83 pounds, I lost 10 then 15 then 20, then another 10, and so on. I started my most recent mini goal with 18.6 pounds to lose to get to it. I also set myself mini-mini-goals, like trying to get to the 150s this month.

I had no idea what to set for my goal weight, so I asked my little sister! She's almost 3 years younger than me, and she has the perfect body. Our family has really wide hips and shoulders (seriously, it drives my sis crazy when we go clothes shopping, no fat on her body and sometimes she has to get up to size 8), and she told me she weighs around 145. So that's my goal! :P

Also, like everyone else said, mini goals are SO important. If you think "I need to lose 100 pounds" it can freak you out. But if you say "I want to lose 25 pounds in 4 months" or whatever your goal is, that seems much more do-able. My current goal is to be 175 by December, but then I broke it down more by the month so I can stay more on track.

Good luck, and remember it's not ALL about the numbers! It's about you being healthy and happy with yourself.

I picked my goal weight rather simplistically. I looked at the height / weight charts for my age group and selected a number in the middle. Now whether that is realistic or not remains to be seen. I have learned to be careful about telling people my goal because they all say it is too low and they try to talk me out of it.

Larry,