How did you decide your goal weight?

leeann82

leeann82

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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.
 
I wouldn't give much credence (no pun intended) to the opinions of friends or strangers. When people are accustomed to a particular version of you, a shift in how you look can throw them, and many will simply have a knee-jerk negative reaction to anything different. That's the generous reading; in other cases, folks just enjoy tossing out criticism for no apparent reason, or they oddly seem to want to undermine you.

For someone at 5'4, a range of 100lbs to 145lbs is acceptable (the CDC BMI calculator tool is there if you'd like to check). Body composition likely plays a big role too. If you're sedentary, 145 is probably on the higher side, but it could be perfectly good if you're putting in several hours of resistance training each week. Just aim for whatever helps you look and feel your best. Yours and your doctor's views are the only ones that count.
 
deleted.user.16 said:

I wouldn't give much credence (no pun intended) to the opinions of friends or strangers. When people are accustomed to a particular version of you, a shift in how you look can throw them, and many will simply have a knee-jerk negative reaction to anything different. That's the generous reading; in other cases, folks just enjoy tossing out criticism for no apparent reason, or they oddly seem to want to undermine you.

For someone at 5'4, a range of 100lbs to 145lbs is acceptable (the CDC BMI calculator tool is there if you'd like to check). Body composition likely plays a big role too. If you're sedentary, 145 is probably on the higher side, but it could be perfectly good if you're putting in several hours of resistance training each week. Just aim for whatever helps you look and feel your best. Yours and your doctor's views are the only ones that count.
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Appreciate it...I'm not doing any kind of training at all....maybe a couple yoga sessions each week, plus I have a very physically demanding job, but that's it. Because of my ehlers danlos, something in my bones is either dislocated or subluxed pretty much all the time lol
 
Keep in mind that BMI is just a math formula, and it isn’t valid for every person. If your body type isn’t typical, you might sit outside the standard range and still be in good health.

In the same way, some people whose BMI lands in the normal range can still have an unhealthy level of visceral fat.

Broadly speaking, if you are shorter or taller than the average, the measurement may not match your body type accurately.

In my case, at 6’9”, it always lists me as overweight even though I’m at ease with my weight. I do have weight to lose, but it’s much less than what the BMI suggests.

At my most recent appointment, I asked my Dr what I should weigh. Using the New BMI calculator from Oxford University, she said that if I reached 255 rather than the CDC’s recommended 235, I would be fine. That’s a gap of 20 pounds.
 
Whenever you go zip-lining, the max weight tends to be 250lb. I'm not joking. 🤪

For way too long, I've been dishonest and bending the rules.
 
When I began peptides, I weighed 282; right now I'm at 240lb. My goal weight is 200lb, and my target is 185-190lb. I stand around 6'1-2", so on a tall day, 190lb would land me in a normal BMI. Back as a college freshman, I was 225lb after a semester of ROTC with PT 5 days a week... over the past 20 odd years, I've definitely lost muscle.

Goal means the number I genuinely intend to hit; target is the rough figure I'm aiming toward. At that target weight, my projected body fat suggests I ought to have visible abs.
 
I picked 65 lbs as my target so I'd be back at the weight I had when I got married, and I reached it. The difference is that now, unlike back then, I still look like a lumpy blob of dough, so I'm aiming for 10 lbs more. At 67, my muscle mass is a lot different from what it was at 30.
 
Chili777 said:

I picked 65 lbs as my target so I'd be back at the weight I had when I got married, and I reached it. The difference is that now, unlike back then, I still look like a lumpy blob of dough, so I'm aiming for 10 lbs more. At 67, my muscle mass is a lot different from what it was at 30.
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That hits way too close to home. Right now I'm at 165lb, and I'm pretty sure that's about what I weighed near the end of middle school. The difference is that back then, at 165, my belly was totally flat. I really wish that were still the case!
 
deleted.user.16 said:

Chili777 said:

I picked 65 lbs as my target so I'd be back at the weight I had when I got married, and I reached it. The difference is that now, unlike back then, I still look like a lumpy blob of dough, so I'm aiming for 10 lbs more. At 67, my muscle mass is a lot different from what it was at 30.
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That hits way too close to home. Right now I'm at 165lb, and I'm pretty sure that's about what I weighed near the end of middle school. The difference is that back then, at 165, my belly was totally flat. I really wish that were still the case!
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I get it. Completely.
 
I don't actually set a number on the scale as my target. My starting point was 270 lb, wearing size 38 pants. These days I'm at 200, and size 32 fits me with room to spare. What I'm aiming for is getting my body fat below 12%; my guess is I'm currently sitting between 15% and 17%.

At 5'9", I'm carrying a fair amount of muscle. Keeping that muscle while getting lean is the real objective for me. Honestly, this was a breeze back in my 20s and 30s. Now that I'm closing in on 51, it takes actual effort.
 
Ultimately, the target you pick has to feel right for you — whether that's about appearance, how your body feels day to day, or your health. Once you're at a normal BMI, or even close to it, health outcomes probably don't shift much either way; at that point, cardiovascular fitness plays a far bigger role in long-term health. Still, whatever you choose has to be livable. Aiming for a BMI of 21 while being constantly hungry and forever restricting food doesn't make much sense — that's simply not something you can maintain over the long haul, even if you stay on GLP's indefinitely. I don't know what your starting point was in terms of excess weight, but if the obesity was substantial and had been there for years, then remaining on them is typically the right call.
 
During a previous big weight loss, I reached 162 lbs and felt quite good, though I began to appear overly thin. So for this attempt, I thought I'd aim for 165. At 5'9" and with a larger frame, I once wished to be 125 in my younger days, but that would make me look like a crackhead.
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

Since I've never known what it's like to weigh a healthy amount, I can't really picture how I'd look once I reach any of my targets.

BMI: possibly the top end of Overweight. Muscle and bone mass aren't factored into BMI, so this is the measure I take least seriously.

Scale: my aim is to reach at least 140-160lbs, then reassess. 120 also appeals to me, but once more, I've got nothing to compare it to. It's been at least ten years since high school, and I haven't been below 200 in all that time.

Body Fat: 16-24%, down from the current >50%. Visible abs aren't something I'm after.

Goals that aren't numbers matter a lot as well. Running became too uncomfortable, so I quit. I'd like to be strong enough to lift both myself and someone else. Or climb out of the pool without the ladder. Or simply not feel exhausted all the damn time. 😅
 
First off, 142 is a huge milestone—congrats!!!!

Like @Turbo-Farmer pointed out: don’t let other people’s negative remarks throw you off course.

Your weight and your health are matters for you and your doctor. I also back the points they raised about BMI.

You’re doing great.
 
When I dropped the weight the first time, my target was the upper boundary of the BMI range. That figure intimidated me. Reaching it felt incredible — that was roughly 17 years back, and I haven't been at that point for over 14 years.

Those close to you are noticing a difference, and that's a positive thing. Interpret what they say like this: the change might be frightening to them. Since more than 70% of Americans are overweight or obese, YES a healthy appearance seems thin next to the majority. That's literally true.

Body fat came up in someone's reply, and it's a better measure. Just be ready: most people think they have more muscle than they do. (I include myself in that.) Another thing to remember: impedance scales work fine as /directional/ signals even when the figure itself isn't spot on. In other words, if your BF% is falling on one of those scales, it's likely genuinely falling. The exact number, though, comes with a wide margin of error. Still, for tracking direction they're helpful provided the time of day and hydration stay fairly steady.

Choose a measure, then go achieve it. 🙂
 
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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Our stats match exactly — 44/f/5'4/143lbs. Right now I sit at the upper edge of the "normal" BMI range, and back when I weighed over 200lbs that was the target I had in mind. But reaching it has shown me I'm still fat. Building muscle is definitely the next step for me; I barely exercise, so I've ended up skinny fat, which beats being fat fat but still isn't where I want to be. So here's the revised plan — hitting 139 appeals to me simply because it feels unbelievable that I could weigh that, though the real aim is gaining more muscle and endurance.
 
I pulled out a pair of jeans I hadn't worn in 15 years and made that my benchmark, and it happened to match up with the BMI charts in my case.
 
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This is a great question. I was using both Tirz and Reta. As the pounds continued to come off, I revised my target weight 4 separate times. Eventually, my body settled at the weight it preferred. I've lost 112lbs and feel fantastic. My blood work is perfect. My blood pressure is perfect. On Friday the elevator was broken, so I had to walk up 4 flights of stairs. To my surprise, I wasn't winded. Each person is different. What I'd suggest is to pay attention to what your body is telling you.
 
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