A bit of a mess, need vet help....

 So today I am a pound below the NEW goal I set for myself (originally I wanted to be 159, got there and changed my goal to 155, I am now 154). I want to try for 150, everyone else tells me that I am crazy. I STILL feel fat, I still feel like I could look better, but everyone is telling me it's in my head and that it's just my broken thinking that is making me feeling this way. 

How did you really KNOW that it was time to stop? 

You called a VET, so I'll give this a try. Fist, lets get some practical things straight right from the start. How tall are you? What is your BMI now? How muscular are You?

If you are in the healthy normal range, I would tel you that the people around are wrong, and to go to your personal goal. People told me the same thing when I was losing weight. They started telling me this when I clearly had another 20 pounds to go and were outraged that I didn't listen to them. Well, 2.5 years later, I am really happy that I didn't listen to them because just like my doctor told me I would, I have bounced back about five pounds. I like having a cushion and most of us do bounce back up from 5-15 lbs. It is much easier to lose weight when you are already in the process than later on when you are maintaining. I am glad I listened to my doctor who prefers that we aim for the low end of the BMI chart.

Also, remember that most people are not being vindictive, they just are not used to seeing you small. In addition, the way your fat is distributed now will shift for the positive in about one year after you reach goal. I look much better now than right when I lost all the weight.

I reread you question, and realized that I didn't really answer you directly. I would say you know you are done when you are at the low end of your BMI chart and you feel good about it. If you think you are too thin, you can always put some weight back. Believe me, gaining is not hard down the road.

 I am 5'7.5" and my BMI is 23.8, so still well above "underweight", that is what I was thinking about the bounce back. I can't even tell you how much this is really on my mind, it seems every time I walk past a mirror it's all I can think of. I guess I went from one obsession (food), to another. 

My body fat is still measuring high, but I have not had any of those more accurate tests done, so I am not sure how accurate it is. I am very muscular in the arms and legs (running and lifting) but I have trouble building muscle in the abdomen area b/c of some stuff from pregnancy so I am not AS muscular as I think I could be. 

I really don't see the issue. Even when I enter your height as 5' 7", and your weight at 150, your BMI would be 23.5.  I say go for it and don't listen to the naysayers.  They are wrong.

There is no need to obsess about this, you are in control and will stay in control of where you want your weight to end up.  You can always go up or down a few pounds.  Please yourself first and foremost.

I'm in a similar place... I can look in the mirror but I still see the old me.  In my rational mind, I KNOW I'm different physically now, but my brain hasn't caught up yet.  I guess it's just going to take time.

I'm also interested to see the answers you get.

 
You may not be done......

If your still losing and if you figure going under a little bit for cushion.

I worked with my surgeon 5lbs. at a time from 175 original goal to 150lbs. with 160lbs. as my long term max.

Just so happened when he said to stop at 148lbs. and hold it for a year..... my body seemed to had pretty much stopped losing.

Some will say it's time to get that dunk tank test done to see your actual body fat percentage.

How tall are you?

frisco

Yeah, that is what I would like to do. Take it 5 lbs at a time until I feel comfortable, I am 5'7.5 (I gained a half inch at my last visit! LOL) so that gives me a BMI of about 23.8. I have been looking everywhere around me to find someone who does the dunk tank test, and I can't find one! I would love to know exactly what is going on, b/c the caliper and measurement tests are not accurate for me at all and my scale that measures body fat has not budged in the percentages in the last 30 lbs (which I can't really reconcile b/c I work out more, keep my protein high and I know I am not losing muscle!). 

I mean I know I will never been a size 4, but if I am not happy with what I see, then maybe I need to keep working on it. 

 
It's fine tuning from here on out......

Just as a baseline.....Join me at my range for a few months and see how you like it....

148 to 152

frisco

I'm a 4 1/2+ year vet, and I agree with everything Elina said! How tall and muscular are you? I think all of us were told by friends and family that we are looking too thin because they are not used to seeing us thin, but they'll get used to it.  As Elina said, a bounceback is really really common, so you should try to factor that in. As long as you are in a normal BMI range, I would let yourself lose until your body naturally stops (and it will!) or until YOU are happy with how you look...

Lizanne

 Thanks for the reply Lizannne! I answerd all of your questions in my reply to Elina. She always seems to make alot of sense LOL