Let’s Talk Goal Weight

So, if you ever come by my blog (rather than just reading it in an rss or the WP reader) you’ll notice on the right-hand side bar I have an up-to-date tally of my weight loss with my mini-goals and my final goal. There it reads 145lbs. I came up with this because it is at the high-end, in fact the highest weight for my height – 5’4.

To be honest, when I came up with this for this blog I was still close to my highest weight. I don’t think I ever imagined I would ever be anywhere close to this. Last time I lost weight I plateaued at about 175 and just could make it through and ended up regaining the 50lbs I’d lost, plus an extra 25. I also didn’t know what my body would look or feel like under 150.  So, in effect, it was an arbitrary number – one that I am now confronted with as I find myself below 150lbs.

I’ve been told that when I get to my goal weight I’ll know it. I was worried I had to tell WW a final goal and stick to it, however I’ve gotten some good advice the last couple weeks. Firstly – a good friend of mine who reached her goal weight and Lifetime status at WW told me she’d actually been at that weight for a little while before putting it down as an official goal.  And secondly, I’ve been told that I can in fact wait on setting a goal weight even if I’m within my healthy BMI range. Well all this is good news to me!

I’ve been thinking about it and I think I might want to put 137lbs as my goal. It’s an awkward number for sure, not a nice round 0 or 5. My reasoning for this is the following: if I ever go up a few pounds, once I change decades into the 140s I’ll know it’s time to get back on track. That gives me a 3lb range to play with. I do find if I’m up by about 5lbs I can definitely feel it and it doesn’t feel good, so I’m hoping this will keep me in check. But I’m not married to the number. I think that’s what I’ll say for now and as I get closer to the 140 mark, perhaps I’ll change my mind, perhaps I won’t.

I’m curious – how did you chose your goal weight? If you’ve reached it, have you been able to maintain it or did you end up changing it? 

Mini Goal #3

I’ve decided on my next mini goal. Reaching my 75lbs lost milestone would be a good one, but I like to create a different one since the 75 will be a WW milestone. 

I’ve chosen reaching a BMI of 29.9 as my third mini goal. This will officially put me in the overweight catagory rather than obese (woohoo!!). My corresponding weight would be 174.4lbs.

Back in May when I started this journey my BMI was a whopping 43.2 which put me in the obese III category. This is the highest level! With my weight loss so far I’ve brought it down to a 34.2 – in obese I category. This feels like an amazing accomplishment.

Last time I lost the weight I never got down to a BMI below 30 or to 174.4 – it will be the lowest I’ll have ever weighed in my adult life.  Phew, that’ll be a tough one to process mentally, but I’m up for the challenge.

Now, I know there are pros and cons to using BMI as a scale of health – but let’s be honest – I am not under 18 or over 65, I am not pregnant/nursing, and I am not an athlete so this range is something I can use as a guide for a healthy weight for me. I’m using the one on the Health Canada website which you can find here.

Because of my starting weight my 75lb milestone (at 176.2) and my 29.9 BMI (at 174.4) are not that far off from each other – but that’s okay for me. I have something to strive for and ~25lb increments seem to work so far. Perhaps after this I’ll re-evaluate and focus on 10lb increments as I know it gets tougher the less you have to lose.

Okay, so here I begin to lose another 25lbs to get to my next goal!