How did you set a weight goal?

[OldBroad]

Like many (but not all) of you, I have been heavy my entire life. I have no idea what it would be like to be close to my "optimal" weight. I'm not even sure I want to be that slender.

In choosing a goal weight, I arbitrarily picked a weight that was a weight that felt normal for me. It is well above what charts say is optimal. I'm 5'8" and my goal is 225 lbs.

I thought of myself at that weight as zaftig rather than obese. I was able to buy nice clothes in the fat lady section of Nordstrom, as opposed to having to order all my clothes by mail because no stores carry over size 26.

Do you all think I'm being too (pick your adjective) conservative or pessimistic? I'm interested in the stories people have to tell about how they picked a goal weight.

 

[Elizabeth N.]

I didn't. Neither did my surgeon. My goals were all health and activity related. It was kind of fun to be able to say I was a "normal" BMI, but I was way too scrawny for comfort there. 160 was a 25.0 BMI for me. I got down to 152 for a few minutes and felt lousy. I felt spectacular at about 175, but I'm not going to stress much about getting back there. Lately I've been walking more, so maybe that might do a little bit of good.

 

[Will2014]

I wanted to get to the 1st number on the "healthy" BMI....in my case that was 24.9 at 189 lbs at 6' 1" . But like Elizabeth , I'm waaay too skinny at that weight. I'm actually on Creon now to try to gain some weight. I think 200lbs or so will be right for me, assuming I can add some muscle mass to my frame. The sad thing is that the BMI charts are produced by the insurance industry and they WANT to be able to charge folks more for health/life insurance by calling you overweight or obese even if you're not. At a BMI of 24.9 I am literally skeletal! But that's the 1st rung of the "normal" ladder for my height/weight.

 

[DianaCox]

I've given you my opinion in dribs and drabs before, but this is my list:

• Health - blood sugar/cholesterol/triglycerides/blood pressure all in low normal range
• Health - nutritional measures are OK and easily maintainable - protein is good, you are eating well.
• Health - you are strong, have some "reserves" in case of illness (especially for those who are older) - a BMI of 20 may be "normal" but it is too thin to be healthy if you are older and have malabsorption, and especially if you are carrying around heavy bones from years of obesity, plus all that extra skin and tissue that you probably aren't going to get removed.
• Mobility - Your joints - if all the above are OK, you need to keep in mind that you have damaged your ankles, knees and hips by carrying too much weight for too many years - you need to get as light as you can to remain as mobile as you can for as long as you can, and so you can get the exercise you need to keep the weight off and to keep your heart and lungs healthy.

My decree for you (and what I think you can get to easily, if you are diligent about your window of opportunity): 175.

PS: I'm at least 3 inches shorter than Rachael, and *I* would be happy to get back to 175, but I'm not sweating it right now. But - my knees are just a LEETLE bit not happy with me, and I'm listening.

 

[southernlady]

Rachael, my first goal was to just get to my "wedding" weight of 180. Since I started at 208, fairly easy to do.
Then I aimed for what doctors had told me was an achievable weight "on my own" of 160. Nailed it.
My next goal was my lowest adult weight of 147 (still overweight)
Then I aimed for normal BMI of 145.
Once I got to 145, I rode it as low as it would go KNOWING about bounce back weight. I kissed 121 for 10 seconds about 16 months out and then started the climb back up the scale...which is SCARY for us. I've settled in at a range that works for me. It's is a normal BMI but at the high end. I try to stay between 135-145. Prefer 135-140. When I start seeing numbers over 140, my brain starts this..."watch out, you don't want to go there" and I start re-examining my eating.

BUT I was lightweight...barely made the bottom cut off to even have surgery.

I've given you my opinion in dribs and drabs before, but this is my list:

• Health - blood sugar/cholesterol/triglycerides/blood pressure all in low normal range

I WISH my blood sugar would be low normal. I am still above the cut-off for diabetics to be considered NORMAL. My A1C was 6.1 last time I had it checked. I'm in that VERY small percentage that doesn't see real resolution. However, I am OFF insulin and other medications...and at my age, they consider a 6.1 A1C WELL controlled. They actually WANT older diabetics to be above a 6.0 but below a 8.0. http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/6/1329.full

The rest of those listed for me are all excellent,

 

[hilary1617]

I wanted good health, increased mobility, higher energy, and a longer life. I didn't care about the number on the scale, but *did* want to fit into both crowds and cute clothes - so my goals was set in terms of size versus weight. 14 was my magic number.

 

[k9ophile]

I fought getting WLS tooth and nail. I needed a knee replacement and the surgeon I wanted refused to do it unit I lost weight. Yeah, I could have had someone else do it, but as the co-morbidities piled up, I gave in. Since I was 355# when I got my surgery, I would have settled for 200. My WLS doc wanted me down to 145, but never gave me grief when I settled in around 170, because of good labs and resolution of several health issues. I have gotten as low as 144, yet that was too low. Your sister is absolutely on point in her reply. Yeah, I like wearing a size 12 even if it's an old size 14. More importantly, I was thrilled to give up the co-morbidities. I don't like my flappy skin, but hell will freeze over before I get plastic surgery for my appearance. Others can have all the plastics they want. I will avoid all medically unnecessary surgery with the same attitude I had before WLS. That, in my case, was medically necessary.

 

[newanatomy]

I am also 5'8" and now at 155 pounds. At this weight am still heavy in the legs and a bit in the abdomen. My current weight is about 10 pounds over a weight I was at about 20 years ago, which I thought I looked and felt great. I would dearly love to get down about 10 to 15 more pounds so, when the inevitable bounce back happens, I will still fit into my current wardrobe. I donated all previous sizes as I shrunk out of them. If I gain too much from this point, I will be fat and naked. I am comfortable in a size 8 or medium. It seems ideal for me even though I realize everyone is different and has started and ended at different weights and health issues. I am sure you will be able to come up with a reasonable goal for your body type.

 

[brooklyngirl]

@OldBroad it's funny you mention those #s, I'm 5'8" and my previous lowest adult weight was 225. Since my surgeon never set a goal weight for me and said my SMO status (436 start weight) meant I'd never see normal, I chose 225 as my goal. I bypassed that and am hanging around 170 now. If not for all the excess skin (there's so much!!!) I'd be considered slender, so the scale number is not a good measure of reality. It's so hard to judge where your body should go, but I think "normal" on the BMI charts is unrealistic for people who spent a lifetime being obese since we have so much extra skin and dense bones from carrying all that extra weight.

 

[GirlFriday]

The day of my pre-op class, the NUT gave all of us a "goal weight" based on a healthy BMI. That weight for me was 114. I am 5'6" and I think that 114 would be very uncomfortable for me. I talked to my PCP and he told me that 114 was too low for me and that 160 - 165 was a realistic goal for me. He also stressed that the number on the scale or the BMI weren't the important numbers. The important numbers were the blood sugar, the blood pressure, the cholesterol, and the non-number of mobility. I set my goal at 165.
I track my blood sugar and blood pressure every day and since surgery, I have been right on target.

 

[DianaCox]

So these are the numbers I just discussed with Rachael, after seeing that her ticker shows she has already lost over 50% of her excess weight, based on her "goal" being 225 (which would be a BMI of 34.1, nearly still qualifying for bariatric surgery with her sleep apnea):

Rather than a "goal weight" of 225, she should use 172 as 100% of EWL in her calculations, which would be a BMI of 26.1 (accounting for excess skin, heavy bones and bounceback to be expected). Even ending up at 75% of EWL, which is the long-term average for DSers, that would be a final weight of 217.

That would give her the following current numbers to keep in mind:

• She is currently at 36% EWL at 287 lbs = 65 lbs lost
• To get to 50% at 6 months out (October 6th), she needs to lose another 25 lbs (to get to 262).
• That would require 2.2 lbs/week lost for the next 11 weeks
• That is quite doable

That doesn't mean she should feel like a failure if she doesn't get to 172 (though I think she will) - it just is a more realistic number to use when calculating progress and milestones in tracking her weight loss - which is going quite well, but not so fast that she can afford to slack.

I wish I had tracked things better when I was a fresh post-op.

 

[OldBroad]

We need to coordinate our postings http://bariatricfacts.org/threads/changing-my-goal-weight.3193/

 

[DSRIGGS]

Honestly, pulled it straight out my ass!