The FastDay Forum

When I first signed up and went into the Progress Tracker I was stumped when I saw the goal weight field, my first thought was "a stone or two less than I am now". I filled it in, but as the months pass I still mull it over from time to time.

So how did you choose a goal weight? Is it a "health" goal or a "looks" goal. Was it suggested to you by a health worker, a slimming club, or did you look it up in a chart based on your height, age or body type? Or maybe it was a weight you were when younger that you felt good at?

Have you changed your goal weight because you thought it was unrealistic, or even not ambitious enough?

I'm intrigued how we arrive at the number that can cause so much elation or despondency as we move towards or away from it.

I thought to myself, now that would be a nice weight. No science, no logic just a guess.

Hi @barbarita

I looked back at photos to see when I thought i looked at my best and then entered that as my goal weight . The only problem is I might have to re-evaluate this as I 36 then and 46 now and my body / health has changed in that time. Also, I seemed to have loads of energy in those days (I think my job and home life were less demanding!) and used to work out 4 times a week and now I hardly ever seem to do anything so I feel like my body shape has changed too .

Maybe I will just know what my goal weight is when I actually get there and feel happy in myself? So.... maybe it's not the number which is that important to me anymore but how I feel is what I'm trying to say in my roundabout way

Hi barb x at age 64, I' m not expecting to get to a goal weight that i'd have chosen when i was younger
I will be happy just to get back into a size 16 ..have a lot of size 16 clothes i wd like to wear again
Think at this age,losing lots of weight can have drastic effect on how yr skin looks, and yr face,so probably can't be as ambitious as i wd like.. i just wish i hadnt put it on in the first place x

I am pondering this at present. At 52 I also worry about the effect of weight loss on my face. Have lost over 3 stone and recently got into a pair of size 12 jeans so I am very happy but as you can see from my BMI I'm still overweight. Thing is even as a slim eighteen year old I remember weighing 10 stone. In order to have a healthy BMI I need to reach 9 stone 11 which I think is probably unrealistic. So at the moment my target is waist/height ratio of 50%.

I don't think I have decided yet. I'm a UK 10 and I suppose I could stop here, but it does not seem to have had an impact on my face, so I guess I could go a bit further. Wouldn't mind a BMI of 22.

[carorees]

This is what I wrote when I joined the 'nearly there' tent:

My target is 66.5kg. It's the weight I remember suggesting I should aim for to my OH back in 1988 when I was discussing how I'd like to lose a little, and that he was technically underweight and should probably also weigh 66.5kg. I remember joking that we should meet in the middle! Well, it's taken me 26 years to uphold my end of the bargain, but OH has failed to gain any weight so he's not doing his bit! I'm just going to have to accept that I'll always be heavier than him.

I'm only just into the normal BMI range but am going to stop at 66.5kg because my waist is well below 50% of my height and I'm comfortably wearing UK size 10 clothes. I have a medium-large frame and am v hourglass with bust measurement the same as my hips plus chunky arms so I think that taking my frame into consideration puts my adjusted BMI at around 23.5 once I get to my target. I've already too much lose skin so I don't want to go any lower as I'll just get more floppy! Hopefully there'll be some skin shrinkage over the coming years.

The healthy weight range is quite large (e.g. at 165cm, a BMI of 18 is 49kg and a BMI of 25 is 68kg, so that's a 19kg range!). So, choosing a target is pretty tricky and looking at waist, body fat % is i helpful and also taking into account age, saggy skin and frame size is needed. There is an ideal weight calculator on the Dukan site that asks you about what you used to weigh when in your youth and takes this into account (but you have to sign up to the site and get bombed with emails from Dukan to use the calculator!). If you choose a weight that you've never managed to be since your teens it seems likely you'll really struggle to get there, so one should consider what is a realistic target even if it is higher than you might like.

Very interesting question @Barbarita.

I plucked 140lbs/10 stone out of thin air because it seemed a very neat number!

Have no idea how that will translate to a clothes size! Would really love to be a 12 (UK). Can't imagine getting as far as a 10....though I do remember nearly getting there whilst on "The Great Diet of '93" - as I always called it! It was the most successful I have ever been on a diet, but I hadn't done any work on the psychology of food.....so as soon as I got to goal I let my guard down & went back to all my old habits......grrr! Silly girl......

I think the best thing I can do is assess things as I go along. Once I've got rid of a few chins I will be really happy! If I can trim down my thunder thighs (classic pear shape) that will be great - as they have always been outrageous.....

What I don't want to do is to get scrawny in the face....but I have a long way to go before having to worry about that, tee hee.....

Ooh, must say, I have been looking out for signs that my collarbone might be emerging from under the flab! No danger of that anytime soon....but I would really like to catch sight of it one day........it's a bit of an ambition of mine (but then, so's learning to play the guitar....and that isn't happening!).

I guess its just a case of keep going until I feel happy with myself. I put 9 stone 7 down as my goal weight because thats the weight I was when I was in my 20s...and my face looked smaller then (as well as everything else ) Personally, I'm aiming to get as low as I can so that my boozums shrink to a b cup. I may have a long wait.

Bean

[carorees]

Personally, I'm aiming to get as low as I can so that my boozums shrink to a b cup. I may have a long wait.

Bean

@nursebean If my experience is anything to go by, the way bras are measured nowadays a B cup would be non-existent! I'm now probably 32F or 30FF (as 32FF is a tiny bit loose) and OH is already complaining that they've shrunk. And I would not want to get any smaller. I wouldn't pick a certain cup size just see how things develop (or rather shrink ).

Yes, you're probably right @carorees. Thanks for that. Ooh a 32...that'd be great! I'm currently 34G...they just don't seem to be shifting. I guess I'll just have to wait!

Bean

Interesting question!
I originally wanted to lose 2 stones to get to 12 stones (bearing in mind I'd already lost 1 stone in 2011)
But, when I got there, I decided to go for a healthy BMI and size 12 jeans.
I don't want to lose any more, as I'm now happy with size, weight and BMI.
The support of the wonderful people here has been invaluable and much appreciated x

I picked 8st 10 basically out of thin air (and based on my Qrisk diabetes score) BUT I have never been anywhere NEAR 8st 10 as an adult and I think basically I'd pretty much have to stop eating to get there (and I'm not convinced from what I read that having a BMI that low would give me any more benefits at my age (I'm nearly 51)....so - I am going to aim for around 9.st 7 and see what I feel like if I (ever) get there. I'm currently 10.6 and still 'overweight' acc to BMI but I'm a size 10/12 and people keep telling me I can stop now. Nope. I am still porky and seem to have a fair bit of excess flesh still so I am carrying on. But I do LOVE LOVE LOVE the feeling of bodily shrinkage - I have ribs and shoulder blades and wrist bones and I actually feel 'normal' sized for the first time in my life. I have to stop buying clothes though because I'll be bankrupt else.

My goal weight is my weight from before my marriage (and the pregnancies). I used to be UK size 6/8 but my hips are wider now because of the pregnancies. I would be happy with a UK size 10. It's mostly the muffin top I want to get rid of.

I'm aiming for between 10 and 10.5 stone - it's a long way off at the moment but is the weight I was when we went on holidays to Goa and Sri Lanka and I felt reasonably confident in a bikini for the first time ever! I don't do the exercise at the moment that I did in those days so I need to up my game a bit - I hope I don't end up with too much saggy skin to ruin the look!