I don't understand myself right now, but I just felt I needed to lower my goal.

I got to 175 which was my initial goal. I then set my goal, my final goal to 165. But the weight kept falling off quickly. If it was falling off that quickly, doesn't that mean in must not be that close to goal? I got to 171 and then the holidays hit.

I went for 10 days of eating around 2100-2400 when I usually eat around 1450. And at 1450 I was averaging a loss of 1.5 pounds a week with exercise.
In those 10 days I gained 13 pounds! What the heck? Does anyone have such huge gains like that so fast? I usually eat about 100 net carbs a day or less. Those 10 days we're tons of carbs my body isn't used to.

Anyway, I'm still up 11 pounds from my December 15th low and I decided to change my target to 160 today. Why would I do that now when that makes me over 20 pounds from goal when 2 weeks ago that would have made me only 10 pounds from the new goal?

And is anyone else taking a stab in the dark at final goal weight? I figured my end weight would find me. I've been overweight my entire adult life. The doctors in the past have figured me ideal weight to be about 160-165. And I exercise - both cardio and strength training. I figured at some point normal exercise and eating as I usually do would just stall me out and that would be my ideal weight. And right now if I got to 170 so fast, how could that be that close to ideal?

But of course gaining like I did so fast freaked me out too! I gained most of it within 3-4 days!

LOL --I was laughing out loud reading your post. We are just never freaking happy, are we? I say that in jest, of course, but my answer to you is a restouding YES! My initial weight loss goal was 154. Then it became 144. Then 134. And guess what? Finally 124!!! But I can't tell you why we do this. Are we just finding this weightloss thing so easy? Are we addicted to the high we get when we still have weight to lose and the scale goes down? Are we afraid of maintenance and getting lax when we get there? Does setting a new goal weight and automatically giving us a higher number of pounds to lose remotivate us? All of the above?

I gave up searching for the answer because for me it's probably a little bit of everything. As long as I continue to have more good days than bad in this journey of mine then I'm happy. But when I find myself being more frustrated over it than I should be then I'll reevaluate.

And maybe, because you saw a gain on the scale this month, you lowered it to give yourself some sort of "oops" cushion if it happens again? Know what I mean?

As far as your 13 pound gain, well, there is no way you gained 13 pounds of fat. A few pounds, yes. But not 13. Not unless you were eating in your sleep. I'll bet you that most of that is water. You know those people that go on Atkins and see a 10 pound loss the very first week? Yeah, not very likely that was all fat. Most of it was water. This is just the reverse.

Isn't it fun?????

Oh, and it is possible for water to linger for a very long time. At least for me it does. Especially if I eat more sodium than usual but don't increase my water intake. My whoosh factor is very slow going sometimes.

And my 124 number was chosen when I hit 134. At 134 I grabbed handfulls of fat in various places of my body and decided it was 10 pounds. Very scientific! But in the end I know that I'll "just know" where I should be. It'll be the day when I stand naked in front of my mirror and say, "Alrighty then".

its tricky for me being taller than the average girl and my structure matches it well, so i have no idea, 150 is my rough guess but it could be 130 or 170. my doctor said 175 but i think thats too high . after i hit 170 im going to watch it til it hits the body i want. 150 is my rough guess but as time goes on im thinking im probably looking at 140

isnt the rough estimate 5 lbs per inch plys 10% large frame or something like that. that brings me to 151 being 5`7.5 but its just a rough calculation cause everyones bodies are so diff and our weight all lands on different areas. what if at 151 all my fat is on my stomach, so i guess i will adjust as i lower til i get where im happy

totally agree on the mirror thing. when i can stand naked in front of it and not see areas that could be better ill be happy. i dont think anyone knows just where they will end up once they are ready to maintain. even maintaining youre probably gonna lose a lil more when you start because youre just making guesses at what your body will maintain at

This is me too- I don't get an immediate whoosh. It comes of, but takes awhile. I gained 8 pounds a few months back from an antibiotic. Took several weeks to work that all off.

And yes, when I got to 171, I stared in the mirror and saw there was more than 6 pounds of fat there. And then today I had my husband take a couple photos of me in my workout bra and workout skirt. I haven't even seen them full size, just on the camera, and I look awful. Not close to goal.

Of course, I need to get more fit yet and some of my problem is loose skin, but 160 seems about right.

I actually look forward to maintaining and not losing though. Because when I get there's, I know I just need to keep doing what I'm doing.

I'm only going to address the weight gain, because only YOU can answer the goal weight thing.

The majority of that weight your "gained" is water weight from drastically increasing your carb and calorie intake. It will fall off quickly with reduced cals, carbs, added water and exercise.

Good luck finding your goal weight, I know what an exhausting journey that can be.

Thanks... I'm already back to my regular eating and exercise. 2/13 pounds are gone too... Of course, TTOM was a contributing factor too the last few pounds up. I was almost out of the 170s and now I have to get outnof the 180s again!

Ugh... I just had my husband forward me the pictures he took today of me in a workout bra and workout skirt.. Holy crapola. I look like he$$. Looking at those photos, I would say I need to lose 50 more pounds. Yikes! Of course, my husband said that I would see how good they looked if I would have taken such a picture a year ago or a even a few years ago when I was even heavier. And thwt i am bloated right now with this water weight, But man..... I have so much in my midsection left to lose. Like most of the remaining weight is in the mid section and that's where I've already lost the most inches.

While seeing those photos will help. I get fitter, they are a bit discouraging right now. I had thought about posting them on my blog. Um... No way I could do that to myself. Children might run away screaming. Where is the touch up artist when you need it? Doesnt help the photo was taken post workout pre shower.

i wouldnt worry about it. sometimes i take amazing pictures and im like damn i want to take her out to dinner and buy her roses and other times i look at pictures of myself and im like ughhhhhhhhh hideoussss. some pictures are just bad pictures

Oh, I hear ya. It's one thing to look in the mirror and convince yourself it must be that phantom fat syndrome people talk about but it's a whole other story when we have pictures that we can stare at. Yup....no one can tell me I am "thin" when I see RIGHT THERE IN THAT PHOTO the bulges. See? I'm pointing at them! I might have a distorted image of myself but it's not THAT distorted!

However, what may help is focusing on the parts of your body that you DO like. It takes the sting away. And throw on a shirt or pair of jeans that were snug on you a few months ago.

You know what I do too? I will google images of people my height and weight. It helps when I'm looking at someone else and not myself.

I feel your pain, I really do.

Sugar and starch do that to me, YES! It makes me eat more, crave more, and gain more! That stuff is pretty much nixed from my diet for all except the rare birthday meal. Fat and protein I can do, but not carbohydrates from grains, beans, and sugar.

As for your goal weight, I say aim for 165. If you cannot get there or comfortably stay there for several months, that's the cue that perhaps it should be raised a few pounds for your body to more easily achieve homeostasis.

I wanted to reflect on the common sentiment of losing a substantial amount of weight and still feeling like you look (fill in the blank). You thought you'd be much happier with the way you look at (your current weight or size), but you're nowhere near as happy as you would have expected. For me I've found that as I get lighter I get pickier. And this doesn't seem to be a pattern that's particular to me. When someone who thinks this way is heavier (whatever that is for them), they see all sorts of things that are wrong. He/she doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on specifics. Once that person loses some weight, they bring viewing themselves less as an entire body that needs work and more as a sum of its parts. Problems areas actually stand out more when you're lighter if you think like this. This way of thinking becomes disordered (obviously not implying anyone on this thread is disordered) when that person is never satisfied, always finding something wrong and allowing themselves to be bothered by it. Perfectionist tendencies can manifest themselves in ultimately unhelpful and unhealthy ways when it comes to diet and fitness.

RE The weight gain referenced in the OP: This is truly bizarre. Five pounds or maybe a few more would make sense; thirteen in that short period of time (without major binging) doesn't seem possible. A few thoughts on this: Your true weight can fluctuate 3-4lbs (or more if you're heavier) in one day. I'm not sure how often you weigh yourself, if the conditions are constant (same time of day, clothing or lack therefore of, etc.) or how much you typically fluctuate. What's even more confounding is that those extra pounds have stuck around. How do you feel? Bloated? Tired? Just normal? I'm wondering if this could be rooted in something hormonal. Sorry to venture onto this topic but is it possible that you may be either pregnant or (pre-)menopausal? (Not knowing your particular circumstances, these could both be very slim possibilities, but either one would provide some explanation for the weight gain.)

I can relate to this. When you're following a low carb diet your glycogen levels get depleted so when you "carb up" with plenty of sodium you bloat up as well. To top it off, the places that are you problem areas are the last place to lose fat and the first to gain it, and those are the areas we all focus on.

All seems fairly normal to me.

I'm not much help with the weight gain. It's seems like way too big of a number considering how much you were eating. However, I guess the difference between low carb/high carb could be the difference? Maybe your body is just really sensitive to carbs? You don't have PCOS by any chance, do you?

I can relate to the goal weight thing, though. That's a big reason why I've always had a range in mind. Sometimes I've thought "I'll just be happy at 155lbs" and other times I'm really determined to get to 140lbs. I know at the beginning of my journey 175lbs sounded like heaven to me! It's so hard to know ahead of time how you'll feel at that weight when you still have more to lose.

Oh, and I don't know how well your sports bra/underwear fit but if I have underwear that are too big or too small that can make a HUGE difference in my perception of myself and how I look in the mirror. Plus, after a workout I have A LOT of water retention so on top of the other water weight you're dealing with you probably look a lot bigger than you will in some weeks once it all comes off.

In terms of what your doctor said. I would guess that 165lbs is probably a healthy weight for you. However, there's always a range of healthy weights. Since you have a large frame most likely your healthy weight goes higher than the typical BMI range. However, I doesn't mean that you can't go lower than 165lbs if you feel like it. I have a large frame too and have been down to 140lbs in high school. Granted, I wasn't as muscular as I am not but I was very happy at that weight. Ultimately, you have to decide where you happiest. At this point you're still not at 165lbs, so why not get there first and then decide?