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  #1   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 09:28
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default Goal Weight

I'm 5'9".

I'm also legit "large frame".

(When I was 11, my aunt got married, and I was a full bride's maid, not a "junior". I was 5'7", weighed 110 lbs, and wore a size 10 gown. When I was a freshman in college, my roommate was 5'7", weighed 110 lbs, and wore a size 0 dress. My skeleton could not fit into her clothes. That was the moment when I came to understand that "big boned" was more than a euphemism for "kinda fat", as I'd always believed.)

Right now, by BMI, I'm getting super-close to "overweight" instead of "obese". I've lost well over 30 lbs since November. I'm not suffering. I'm not hungry. I'm not deprived. Eating in public is a pain, but whatever. People are just beginning to notice & comment that I look like I've lost weight. (I don't TELL people, because then they'll comment to be polite. I just wait until folks a.) notice, and b.) are sure enough to say something.)

This has me kind of excited, and also looking at progress in terms of goals.

The charts list "ideal weight" for 5'9" as 128-168 lbs. When I started college, surgery had caused me to drop weight until I was 140 lbs... I know anything like that is definitely unhealthy for me. (Had jaw surgery, was wired shut for 6 weeks, and even drinking was difficult, let alone maintaining weight on all-liquid diet back in the 80s, before there were so many options for liquid meals)

I was going through the various places I track my weight (there's apps and stuff that reward you for it) and noticed that my "goal" weight is listed in various places as anything from 150-170.


So I'm wondering... when you're listing your "goal", how do you pick? And, honestly, I don't plan on changing my eating... My "final" weight will probably just be where my body hits homeostasis, with maybe a few tweaks to keep things in the healthy range.)

[ETA: "healthy" applies as much to getting too thin as to re-gaining.]

Last edited by LiterateGr : Sat, Apr-13-19 at 10:38.
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  #2   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 09:38
GRB5111's Avatar
GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,036
 
Plan: Very LC, Higher Protein
Stats: 227/186/185 Male 6' 0"
BF:
Progress: 98%
Location: Herndon, VA
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I think this is a realistic approach. When I chose my goal weight, I selected the weight where I felt most comfortable when I was in good shape and physically fit without the extras that I started carrying around later. I've been hovering around goal weight for a while now, so it wasn't unrealistic, but I also no longer sweat the typical ups and downs we experience, as long as I feel healthy and energetic. I've been fortunate to maintain a weight just above my goal for several years, but that's due to being rigorously consistent with my WOE. It's really the only way.
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  #3   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 09:41
patriciakr's Avatar
patriciakr patriciakr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,734
 
Plan: CALP with Primal Leanings
Stats: 368/291.2/160 Female 5' 4
BF:toodmnmch
Progress: 37%
Location: In the woods
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IMO, you lose until YOU think you feel "right". Not by the charts.

I lost a significant amount of weight over a 4 year period, just several years ago. (I flunked maintenance - note - don't do that, which is why I am back listing my current overweight stats).
I kept trying to get to the agreeduponwithdoctors goal of 146. What none of us thought about was the weight of all the loose skin I ended up with. I got to 150 (from 368) at 5'4 1/2 inches (down from 5' 6 1/2 inches..yay ageing), and two of my doctors asked me to stop losing (cardiologist and pulmonologist). You could see every bone of my sternum protruding, my collar bones were out, I was almost back to a size 8 jean (I have a butt, I was born with it and it will never, ever be small and/or flat).
I hadn't seen it. I was focused on that damn goal weight, and enjoying a body that was functioning so much better (tossed my pain med and cane for my arthritic knees and was walking/mild hiking).

This time around, I know 150 is too low, so I have chosen a goal of 160. I will laugh in the face of any doctor who doesn't read/know my history and dares when I am at that weight, to tell me I'm a little heavy for being under 5' 5 inches.

So...go by how your clothes fit, by the activity/stamina level you are at, how you feel about your eating. Not by the bmi. imo.
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  #4   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 09:55
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
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I don't know what my ideal weight is. The 153 posted was a bit idealistic and rhymy. I cant remember a time when I felt great and can use it for certainty..... 170 comes to mind. HOWEVER, when dropping from 250 to 185, I was still surprisingly plump. FELT GREAT to have all the extra weight off for sure but definitely was not a thin and trim weight. THis time reaching for 153 might be a better goal than 170.

Sometimes reaching "IDEAL" is not achievable. Because no one number is truly ideal. Feeling good, healthier, with more activities, regaining mobility, etc is far more important than the actual weight.

PS. Im ligit big boned , too. The BMI is a joke for me. However my first time losing I did track the BMI numbers just for the inspiration!!

My sister is the exact same height with fine bones-- her "thin and trim" is 40-50 pounds less than mine.
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  #5   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 12:21
CityGirl8 CityGirl8 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 856
 
Plan: Protein Power, IF
Stats: 238/204/145 Female 5'8"
BF:53.75%/46.6%/25%
Progress: 37%
Location: PNW
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I'm also about 5'9" and I'm definitely around the medium to verging on small-frame. My goal is about 145. Even when I was about 155 after college, I still was a bit overweight and wanted to drop 10-15 lbs. When I lost weight on LC the first time, I got to 175 and felt I had another 30 lbs. to go.

My sister is built totally different than me. She's a good 2 inches shorter, but she starts to look underweight at 155, while I look like I could drop 10-15 lbs.

Now, I've calculated what my BF% is and want to get it to under 25%. That's my real goal. After calculating that and figuring out what my lean body mass is and adding 25% to that--I got to about 145-150. So, I've always been roughly on target. I think 22% would be closer to 140-145 and match up with the picture I had in my head about being thin and fit when I was in my 20s, so I guess I wasn't all that far off. I can also stand to build some more muscles, which I'm working on, so the goal weight number continues to shift around.

While scale weight can be a useful marker and it's easy to measure since we all have scales in our house, an arbitrary number isn't the best measure of health and fitness. I think backing into a number (like BF% or where you were previously when you were fit) and using that as a goal rather than a "chart weight" is a much better plan.
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  #6   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 14:47
WereBear's Avatar
WereBear WereBear is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,608
 
Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
Stats: 220/125/150 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 136%
Location: USA
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I guessed. I’ve been dieting since I was 14 so who the heck knows?

Also, keep in mind that with low carb our body is denser. I wear a size 10 at 150 on low carb. Under low fat and exercising lots, I had to be 15-20 pounds less to fit in a size 10.
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  #7   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 19:16
JessAus's Avatar
JessAus JessAus is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 691
 
Plan: Primal/IF
Stats: 220/165/176 Female 5'10"
BF:~40%/26.3%/29%
Progress: 125%
Location: Western Australia
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I agree with all the comments - Really go by how you feel and what you are comfortable at. I am a bit over 5'10" and have my goal set at 176 pounds, which just puts me into 'normal' bmi.

I know that I look and feel great at that weight. Mid BMI for me would be about 150 pounds, which on my frame I feel looks far too thin. 176 pounds I am a comfortable size 12 (8 in the US).
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  #8   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 19:40
thud123's Avatar
thud123 thud123 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 7,422
 
Plan: P:E=>1 (Q3-22)
Stats: 168/100/82 Male 182cm
BF:
Progress: 79%
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LiterateGR, sounds like you're doing well.

Quote:
So I'm wondering... when you're listing your "goal", how do you pick?


Interesting question and no wrong answers really. I have abandoned the idea of a goal weight. I simply try to accept whatever weight I'm at now and do the best that I can with eating. My eating, activity, health and age are changing all the time - so, whatever weight I am today must be my goal weight because, well, this is it. Here I am. This one breath.

I do have target weights tho, especially in the summer when the body mass has an affect on the kind of floating boards and wings I ride on the water - I could change those to match my current weight but it's easier and cheaper to adjust my eating and activity to match the boards and wings.

For what ever that was worth... I wish you well!
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  #9   ^
Old Sat, Apr-13-19, 21:46
Grav Grav is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,469
 
Plan: Banting
Stats: 302/187/187 Male 175cm
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: New Zealand
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From the early days of my journal:

Quote:
It was now December 2015, and I'd paid for and completed the full online beginner Banting course. I'd been going long enough now to decide that this was going to be something worth sticking to, so I began to set some goals:

* Get to 120kg sometime in January 2016, which was my weight when I left high school.
* Get to 110kg by the end of April 2016, when a friend from overseas will be coming to stay with me.
* Get to 100kg by the following October 2016, a full year after I'd started.

The latter two were entirely speculative; I truly had no idea where I going to end up with this. I figured it was likely that I would level off naturally over time, that surely to ever reach a weight approaching normal was still a bridge too far. I had never stopped dreaming, but I had given up hope long ago, and it felt positively strange to begin to have that hope again, so I tried to be careful not to get too far ahead of myself.

Then in early 2016:

Quote:
One day in early March while randomly googling at work during my lunch hour, I found a link to these forums. That night I registered. As part of that registration process I had to think about my goals some more; here everything is expressed in pounds, not kilos. Out came the converter. It looks like I started at about 291 pounds, now what to enter for a final goal weight? I punched in a few various numbers, and settled on 191. That's a loss of exactly 100, or roughly 45kg. That would take me to 87kg, a full 50kg from my peak weight. 87kg also roughly marks the point where I would officially drop from "obese" to "overweight" on the BMI scale, so that'll do for now.

Goal setting was a really hard thing for me to do, because my weight problem had been with me for my entire life. I'd never known what it was like to be anything resembling a "normal" size, so I had literally no idea of what I was capable of achieving. So for me it basically just came down to guesswork. Lucky for me I turned out to be pretty close.
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  #10   ^
Old Wed, Apr-17-19, 09:26
bkloots's Avatar
bkloots bkloots is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 10,147
 
Plan: LC--Atkins
Stats: 195/162/150 Female 62in
BF:
Progress: 73%
Location: Kansas City, MO
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I was attracted by the title of this thread because it relates to some thoughts I've been having about body image.

As to the original question about "goal weight":

When I was twenty, 150lbs seemed outrageously heavy. Now, at 72, it sounds like a dream weight. However, since I have managed to maintain somewhere between 135 and my all-time high of 192 for most of the past twenty years, I consider myself a low-carb success.

I'd describe my body as X-treme pear. In other words, an extra 20 lbs. (at least) sits inaccessibly in my butt and thighs. Even when I ran a full marathon (at the age of 33) and weighed 125 lbs. all the remaining "fuel" was stored in my thighs. Body shape can be more annoying than body weight for some of us.

However, we're told that pear-shaped women are less likely to have heart attacks than apple-shaped women, and also that having a little extra body fat is associated with longevity for women. Okay fine, for me. But that still doesn't make any type of pants fit me better, unless there's an elastic waist.

On a recent vacation in a very popular national park, I saw hundreds of people of all shapes and sizes and nationalities, all dressed casually. On the one hand, I admire people (women in particular) who seem comfortable enough with their size to let it all hang out. Me? I want to be happy with how I look in the photos, let alone in the mirror. So I work at weight management, and dress in the most flattering way I can.

Goal weight? That depends. And changes. Nobody but you knows what it is. However, as much as I try to avert my judgmental eyes, personal appearance matters to me. And I wonder how very fluffy people can ignore the issues that go with being...fluffy.
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  #11   ^
Old Wed, Apr-17-19, 13:29
jschwab jschwab is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,378
 
Plan: Atkins72/Paleo/NoGrain/IF
Stats: 285/220/200 Female 5 feet 5.5 inches
BF:
Progress: 76%
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I think very fluffy people don't always have the problems you think. It can be really varied.

Goal weight is hard. I have NEVER been thin. And at low weights I am still plus size. At 130-140 I started in plus sizes at my full height (5'5"). My main motivation for being normal BMI would be to fit in "normal" clothes but it's never been feasible so I just don't think about it. I know that losing weight is hard on my body, no matter what. I always get injured when I'm losing and going below 180 is the worst. My body just starts falling apart. So that's my low weight. 200 is my goal-ish. When I use to run, I ran better and faster at 230 than at 190. So I just go by how I feel, general fitness.
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  #12   ^
Old Thu, Apr-18-19, 06:19
bkloots's Avatar
bkloots bkloots is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 10,147
 
Plan: LC--Atkins
Stats: 195/162/150 Female 62in
BF:
Progress: 73%
Location: Kansas City, MO
Default

Quote:
very fluffy people don't always have the problems you think. It can be really varied
Yes, I do know this, and I hope my personal fears about fatness don't show through to others. "Size-ism" is definitely a thing, especially in hiring practices. But size is no obstacle to love and happiness and successful living. And I know for certain that it isn't a character flaw. In his original book, Dr. Atkins cautioned against feeling ashamed during the ups and downs of a weight loss journey, and I've turned to that page many times.
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  #13   ^
Old Thu, Apr-18-19, 07:06
tess9132 tess9132 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 873
 
Plan: general lc
Stats: 214/146/130 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 81%
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Weight is a funny thing. I used to be really thin in my 20's - under 110 pounds. Back then, people would often tell me that I needed a cheeseburger or a twinkie. I just thought they were jealous, but now when my middle-aged married self looks back on those photos, I see I probably was too thin. Oddly, my 22 year old daughter is about the same height as I. She also weighs under 110 pounds but looks great. She doesn't look too thin at all. She's a trained dancer and works out a few times a week. The only exercise I used to do in my 20's was running. Not sure if that explains why she looks fit and healthy and I looked a little emaciated.

After I had my second child I was right around 150 and I looked ok. I got a lot of compliments then and today at 147 I also get compliments and I've gotten a couple "you don't need to lose anymore"s. And the truth is, I'm happy enough at this weight, but I do think I would look better with fewer pounds on me. I originally put 130 because it was in between 110 and 150. But at this point, I'm not in low carb for the weight loss. My body is going to settle where it settles.

Also, I've had an interesting thing happen to me. I used to be 5'3 and a half. The last two times I went to the doctor, they measured me at 5'4. the first time it happened I just blew it off as an error. The next time, I came home and checked myself on the wall in our house where we've recorded all our heights (mostly the kids) throughout the years and it does indeed look like I've grown 1/2 an inch since I put my mark on the wall nearly 20 years ago. Go figure. There are some people who report growing after taking vitamin k2 (Mk-4) which I've been doing for the last 3 years, but who knows if that's what's happened?
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  #14   ^
Old Thu, Apr-18-19, 08:33
jschwab jschwab is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,378
 
Plan: Atkins72/Paleo/NoGrain/IF
Stats: 285/220/200 Female 5 feet 5.5 inches
BF:
Progress: 76%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bkloots
Yes, I do know this, and I hope my personal fears about fatness don't show through to others. "Size-ism" is definitely a thing, especially in hiring practices. But size is no obstacle to love and happiness and successful living. And I know for certain that it isn't a character flaw. In his original book, Dr. Atkins cautioned against feeling ashamed during the ups and downs of a weight loss journey, and I've turned to that page many times.


I don't even mean that. I mean the people you think are physically hindered by their weight could be people who can run rings around you athletically and healthwise. I teach adults swimming and have been a pretty avid runner and size is such a small part of physicality. You would be shocked by what people can do with their bodies even at very high weights.
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  #15   ^
Old Fri, Apr-19-19, 05:38
bkloots's Avatar
bkloots bkloots is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 10,147
 
Plan: LC--Atkins
Stats: 195/162/150 Female 62in
BF:
Progress: 73%
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
You would be shocked by what people can do with their bodies even at very high weights.
This might be an interesting thread all on its own. It would seem self-evident that strength and balance and stamina would be required to manage extra weight, and that might lead to athletic performance as well.
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