How did you choose your goal weight?

   I picked several goals because I still can't get my head around losing that much. So first for me was lose 100 pounds. But my longer term goal weight for my 6' frame is about 210. Since that is too close to onederland, I have just said 199 at my age and with my mobility issues, I might not get that low but getting close and feeling better, losing my co-morbiditys that's my true goals. 

The way I picked my goal weight is so stupid!  

I ask my hot, young, skinny friend (same height as me) how much she weighed.  She is 135.  I accounted for extra skin that I know I can't do anything about and added 10 pounds and set my goal for 145.  

I am stuck at 150 and have not seen a 4 as my middle number yet.  I think now I just want to see that 4 to say that I did.  But I am really happy at 150 so I might want to maintain this weight.

My BMI is 22 which is really good.  

After reading Lora's post I am rethinking my goals. 

 i saw the 4 for a day, and i know right now if i was on my mom's scale i'd see it again since hers runs about half a pound lower. it's so frustrating!

Well, I originally thought 150 would be a reasonable goal since I had been SMO for so long that I was not particularly concerned about obtaining a "normal" BMI. However, my surgeon said he wants all of his patients to reach a "normal" BMI. For me, since I am only 5'0" is 128 lbs. When I was in my teens/early 20's I weighed around 130-135 and felt good at that weight. I sometimes went up to 140-145 and felt "fat." LOL Anyway, since my surgeon said 128, I figured I would lower my goal weight to 130 since I felt that was a good weight for me in the past. I know that I am older now (42) and have to take into account that the bones of a person who has been SMO for a long time naturally weigh more, plus the extra skin. Sooo, I will still be happy to get down to 150. I will have to see how I look and feel at that point and go from there. I figure if I have the extra skin removed, it would take me down to around 140. If I can get to down 128-130 so be it, if not I'll settle for 145-150. Hell, after being SMO for so long, I think I'd be grateful to even make it below 200, lol. I can't even remember the last time I weighed below 200... I have a friend that had RNY about 7 yrs ago and she is about 2" taller than me. She currently weighs around 160 and she looks pretty good, IMO. She initially had made it down to around 130 and was wearing a size 0 - 2. She said she looked too thin as her bones stuck out and people were telling her she looked "anorexic." She has not had any plastic surgery and is probably carrying an extra 10-20 lbs in excess skin.

I had originally set my goal for 200 pounds. However, after losing the first 100, my doctor and trainer thought based upon my build going that low may be unrealistic and make me look unhealthy. The doctor I met with last night said going that low would most likely make me look skelatal (at first I thought she said Skelator!). 

So I readjusted my goal to 170-180. That puts me at a weight where I was when I was in my early 20's, 175-185. 

I originally set a goal weight for myself that would have put me within the normal range of the BMI charts.  After loosing about 100 pounds, I changed my goal weight to something that I thought was more reasonable based on the way my body looked at the time.  I felt like I would be skin and bones at my original goal weight, so I upped the goal weight to something more realistic.  From a health perspecitive, all my obesity related comorbidities disappeared after loosing about 50 pounds, so I think that my more recent goal weight is fine, even though I will technically be considered overweight at that weight.

I had many.

My surgeon had an ideal weight of 134 for me.

I had an "I'll be content" goal of 175, an "I'll be happy" goal of 160, and a real goal of 150.

Then I also had my ultimate dream goal of 135.  :)

Honestly I just picked numbers out of a hat.  I'd been around 150-160 before and remember feeling good.

When I had lapband surgery in 2001, I got down to 145-150, but at 5'9" I looked like my bones were protruding through my jeans.  My weight finally stabilized around 160-165 and stayed that way for many years.  

Now that I revised to RNY, I'm just going to let my body do what it wants and see where it stabilizes.

Your body may decide for you.
I picked a few goals. My mane goal was not weight but size - cloths size. I wanted to be size 12 or below.   Initially I lost down to small size 4... and at my age, my body build, and my height... that was not really good for me... (bones, more bones and muscles, thin skin, very low body fat %). 
When i was losing... I felt good and was comfortable at size 8-10.... (160 lbs) and when I go there... I really wanted to stop losing... my doc advised me that most people gain 15-20 lbs from the lowest after the weight stabilized.  That really happened to me.  

So now - I am exactly where I wanted to be in a first place. Heavier than "normal" BMI, but with a lower body fat % than I could be.. and app 2+ sizes smaller than a friend of mine who weighs the same but never had WLS or was really obese.

Some say that a lot of us - due to extra weight - have heavier bones and bigger muscles... So as long as you get the protein as needed, and calcium, you may end up heavier for the size, than the BMI may indicate.

My goal weight was my weigh****cher goal weight from 1990. It was a weight I was comfortable at. Given my height, it is about halfway in the normal BMI range. My surgeon's only goal was a BMI under 30.

Don't stress too much about your goal weight. Just keep following the rules and try to see how you feel when your loss starts to slow down.

Laura