Sad, but happy, about new weight goal

I'm doing the same thing, targeting a nominal 15% BF (we always seem to like nice round numbers, and at least this one is low-middle of the "normal/fitness" range) but given the flakiness of body comp measurments, anything in the mid teens is workable for me. I, too, have had to adjust the target some on the way down from an initial 200 under the gross assumption that only BF is lost to the current 190, and now that I'm about at that level and in the upper teens on BF, a few more pounds would bring me into that original goal. After the holidays I'll get a dunking to calibrate the body comp scale and fine tune it a bit more, but realistically, anything in this range is a good healthy weight - I've never been a big fan of the Dr. C approach of maintaining as steep a glide slope as possible until one hits the runway.

I figure that hovering in that middle teen range will be good enough for government work, as they say. It's just another one of those things where the parameter that you're really interested in isn't conveniently or accurately measurable, so instead most just concentrate on what can be accurately measured (like scale weight) even though it isn't really doesn't get to the point.

Doing a seven day moving average is a good idea - I've been a bit too lazy to record it that closely and spreadsheet it - I mostly have just been doing a mental best fit through the noise, and as long as I've been seeing lower lows and lower highs, then the trend is still my friend, as they say in the stock market game; now that I'm on the final approach that doesn't work as well.

That's a good thought to take the scale along to the dunking, though I'm not sure if that will help that much or not - in principle, the dunking shouldn't be as sensitive to hydration level as the impedance reading, but readings as close as possible in time would still be a good practice. The dunkings have their quirks, too, since like the impedance readings, they're an algorythm that someone has come up with that is supposed to be a best fit, and they're still tweaking it as they find variances (like ethnicity can make a difference in how they read.) I had one done a few years ago when I was in the mid 30's BF%, and it correlated well with the scale for me, but didn't do so well for my wife who had lost around 200lb from her WLS - it seems that it may not know how to handle the all the excess skin that massive losers usually have. I have read that the dexascan machines can provide a more accurate reading, but I need to find someone around here who knows how to use one in that manner.

Good luck and happy landings,

I honestly think you have to pick what you're comfortable and happy with. My PCP thinks that 180-185 for me is good, but that's too high for me. My surgeon thinks I should aim for my personal goal, which is 166. (That's what I weighed in my mid twenties and was in the best shape of my life, so that is my target.) I'm open to re-evaluating as I get close to goal. 166 for me is stil a BMI just over 25, but at that weight I fit into 29-30 inch Levi 501 jeans. I don't need to be any thinner than that! I'm also very heavy framed. My best friend is 6' tall  with a slight frame and feels great between 165 and 170. So basically, we both like being in the same weight range, but he's five inches taller than I!

Wow, that's terrific that you've _been_ at your goal weight, so you know if it's realistic or not.

Actually, I think these are all realistic, but I've never been under 200 since age 15, so I don't have these memories - it still took me a few weeks to really believe that I went under 200.  Then I had another odd week of memory belief when I passed 190.    What do I weigh?  Two.... no wait, one something.  Oh yeah....

Wow, terrific on those jeans!  I juuuuuuuuuust got slim enough to fit in a men's 34.... I can't recall the last time I wore a 34... either college or teenage years.... definitely many, many years.....  (And I'm wearing Levi 514 - slim straight.... slim!!! *faints*)

You can make it, and yay slim fit! My surgeons office set a goal of 207 pounds ... I have no intention of staying that heavy it was all based on statistics. You have already almost made it so you should continue to do awesome