How did you decide your goal weight?

To maximize lifespan, keep your waist measurement under 50% of your height. In people who aren't athletes, this usually corresponds to a BMI of 20-22.

Check out the article Waist-to-Height Ratio Is More Predictive of Years of Life Lost than Body Mass Index
 
My "goal weight" of 130lbs isn't something I'm firmly committed to. For reference, I'm female and 5'7".

A few years back, keto took me from 230lbs down to 165lbs, and at that point, based on how I felt, I figured I'd probably want to drop another 30lbs.

Do I want to see that number on a scale? Of course lol. But honestly, I'd also be happy just to hit 165lbs again and then reassess from there.

A lot has changed for me a lot during that period, too. My job now is completely different from what I had before—it involves heavy lifting and being on my feet and moving constantly—and I've gotten a dog since then as well, which bumped up how active I am. I'm not kidding myself into thinking I've put on 20lbs of muscle, but at 185lbs I can still wear most of what fit me at 165lbs, and my arms are noticeably more defined than they were 6 years ago, so 165lbs might look different on me now. Even so, I'd still like to land in the "normal" BMI range with some room to spare.
 
Speaking as a man who used to be an athlete and is now, later in life, getting back into a totally different kind of athleticism: I picked a target weight I figured I'd never reach again, using my early college days at 250lb as the reference. And wouldn't you know it, I got there, and it didn't feel the way I'd imagined. Since things were going well, I lowered the target to 225. I was thinking of my high school weight. Then I hit that too. The physique I believe I can achieve is getting much closer. At this stage I believe I'm finished with fixating on numbers. I'm still pursuing a certain look, but with summer approaching, performance nutrition has to become the focus. It would be interesting to see how I'd look if not for the skin damage caused by time spent near 400lbs. Over the past 10 years I've dropped more than 100lbs on 2 separate occasions, so I'm extremely doubtful, yet I sort of think the Covid lockdowns were a one-off circumstance
 
I used BMI together with a Dexa Scan done twice a year.

At the start, my only aim was getting my BMI "close" to the normal range. After that, a dexa scan showed me what my body fat 5 level actually was. My target was aggressive: 10-12% BF.

What matters more than the number on the scale is body composition.

Happy to say the goal was reached -- 71 lbs lost in total and 12% BF. BMI now sits at 23. Tirzepatide works incredibly well when paired with strength training and exercise.
 
It's reassuring that BMI cutoffs aren't the be-all end-all for other people too. At 6'4", with a hat size near 8 and shoes at size 14, the so-called "healthy" range of 152-205 seems impossible for me—my build is simply too large. That's why I picked different milestones. The first one I settled on was 350. After that comes 300. When I married, I weighed 280. Last, 250 felt both crazy and random, so I'm aiming at 245 to make it feel more concrete. Whether I'll adjust that later is anyone's guess, but my peak was 376 and I'm at 333 now (dropped 18 lbs before beginning Tirzepatide), so I'm just glad to have cleared goal 1 and be making solid progress toward goal 2.
 
I’ve got a sense of the weight where I feel at ease, and where I believe I look and feel my best. There are a few goal numbers I’m keeping in mind. The first one is within reach now. Once I’m there, I’ll judge how I look and feel.
 
I've settled on having a goal #1 and a goal #2.

Goal#1 is the lowest weight that still falls within the obese bmi range.

Goal#2 will be figured out once goal#1 is reached, and it will likely include getting a dexa scan.
 
BMI charts have never been part of my process—unless the aim was to feel terrible for no good reason. By every chart's standard, I've always registered as 'overweight,' largely because I've carried a lot of muscle. From 1st grade all the way through high-school, I played 3 sports each year. That period left me with significant mental health struggles, since my mom—who was and remains very slender—frequently told me as a teen that I could and should drop weight. Through college I competed as an athlete and lifted weights consistently, up until roughly 1 year before these photos were taken, when I started a day job and became inactive. Compared to my peak—165# with visible abs, curling 35lb dumbells, and able to knock out dozens of pushups and hundreds of situps without effort in highschool/college—these pictures show me far less toned and buff. For reference, these were taken at 5 and 12 weeks pregnant with my first child (the only body pictures I have from that chapter of my life, so I'm glad I snapped a few bump pics!). In them, I'm 5'7" and 160+ lbs. Do I look overweight? At the time, I believed so. Now I'd kill to be that. Self esteem issues/body dysmorphia was real.

So my ideal aesthetic weight will probably be like 145lbs because while I still have much higher than typical muscle mass for a female in her early 30s, I'm not nearly in as good of shape as 12 years ago. But a more realistic 'be happy with yourself, you made 5 children and have 3 auto immune diseases' weight would look more like 165lbs for me now. I have this feeling I'll not be happy even then so it's clearly a mental health problem, not an excess weight problem.
 
The only time I ever had a 6 pack was around age 27-28, and back then I weighed 190 lbs. Honestly, though, I felt awful at that weight — I was simply carrying too little body fat. When I sat between 200-205, that's when I felt my best. Even now, 16 years on, I figure 200-205 is still where I want to land. For context, I stand 6'2" and I'm built solid, not slim.
 
MsGizmo said:

leeann82 said:

Maybe this sounds silly....but was a bmi chart what you used? Or something else?

I've never been a normal sized adult, so that isn't something I can use as a reference. Right now my goal is 130, and for reference, im a 44F and 5'4..the bmi chart for normal says i should be between 110-140 lbs. Not long ago I saw an old friend who was shocked by my appearance and told me I looked too skinny. I'm currently 142 pounds.
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The data behind the BMI charts came only from white men. Even back when I was slim, my large chest and rear meant the charts labeled me "overweight." There was exactly 1 period in my life after puberty when the BMI charts put me in the healthy range. During that time I held down a full time job, attended college full time, worked on a fixer upper house, and babysat on weekends. I was running myself ragged. I looked gaunt and was exhausted. It was horrible. I am also 5'4" and I had dropped down to 145 at that time.

At 160-170 I was at my healthiest and happiest. But at this point in my life I would be happy just to get under 200.
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Those charts never worked for me either. Even at a 30 inch waist, they labeled me as overweight. Back when I resembled my avatar, the charts claimed I was 50lbs overweight.
 
I never used an ideal weight target. A photo was my reference point.

What I'm aiming for is to get as near as I can to this........

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The shot on the left was taken in February. The right one is from mid April.

It's still not finished...

Sadly, no amount of GHK is going to make me as pretty 🙁

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I pulled up a BMI calculator on the web, and the number I settled on was simply the first one that shifted my category from Obese down to Overweight. My thinking was that once I actually reach that point, I can tweak things if necessary — it just gave me a reasonable place to aim for at the start.
 
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