Goal weight and how to pick one

How did I pick a goal weight?

I found after my gastric bypass surgery when I was in the initial stages and losing weight at a great rate of knots one of the first things people would ask me would be, “How much weight have you lost?” That would almost be immediately followed with, “What’s your goal weight?” I’m not sure if they are asking to see if they thought the goal I had set myself was achievable or to see if they ‘approved’ of the weight I was aiming for but I certainly got lots of opinions about the goal weight I had set myself.

In picking my goal weight I had little to go on because I had been overweight to varying degrees since as long as I can remember so I didn’t immediately have a goal weight in mind. Once as an adult, on a specific diet, I had got down to 70 kilos and that was a good place where I remember being almost happy with where my body was and the clothes size I fit.

I hadn’t stayed at 70 kilos for long when I got there but I knew I was just starting to fit into a size 12 and thought I would aim to be a size 12 again. Anything smaller than that just seemed totally out of reach. Also I didn’t want to get hung up on a scale number that I might not reach because I did not know when my body was going to decide it had had enough and stop the weight loss and a clothing size seemed like a better thing to aim for.

I looked at the BMI scale and the ‘normal’ range (from the Heart Foundation website) is between 18.5 and 24.9. I really hoped that I would get in the healthy range of the BMI scale as I didn’t want to have a gastric bypass and still be technically ‘overweight’. This was quite a big goal as the bariatric team expect you to lose a percentage of your excess weight not necessarily all of your excess weight to be classed, in their books, as a success.

I picked 65 kilos as my goal weight. I thought that that would correspond with a clothes size 12 which was more my goal than the number on the scales. In BMI terms 65 kilos, for my height, would get me comfortably in the ‘healthy’ range with a BMI of 23.59 leaving a bit of wiggle room until I would clock over into the ‘overweight’ range again.

Having a goal in mind really helped push me on some of the harder days and gave me a focus. At the start knowing I had a goal to lose 67 kilos was really daunting and a few people told me I wouldn’t do it (or even worse that I didn’t need to) even with the help of the gastric bypass surgery. Well, that said, I did it and I have slightly surpassed my initial goal. Now I just have to maintain it!

Hopefully, if you are setting out on a road to weight loss surgery, this has been helpful to you. If you have had bariatric surgery how did you pick your goal weight? Let me know in the comments below if this was helpful or if you used any of the strategies I did to pick your goal weight I’d love to know how you picked your magic little number!

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There are 5 comments for this article
  1. Lena at 3:55 pm

    I haven’t had bariatric surgery, but I am trying to lose weight. I’ve been overweight almost all of my adult life, and so it’s hard to think of a goal weight. In addition, I think I must have dense bones or lots of muscle or something because I have friends who weigh the same as me and wear much larger clothes. Like I searched some chart thing about what my goal should be and it was a weight I was when I was about 13, before I was overweight at all, and I don’t think that’s realistic at all. To start with I have a goal of wanting to be under 100kg, and then under 90, and then under 80, and we’ll see how we go.

    • Melissa Peaks Author at 6:41 pm

      I think we must have a similar body type Lena because people never thought I ‘looked’ whatever I weighed which must be a good thing! OUr body types are all so different in terms of how and where we hold our weight and that’s why its hard to compare side by side even if your a relatively similar weight to someone else. I think your approach with goals is a great why to do it. Breaking them down into smaller chunks makes the feel much more achievable and then as you get towards where you are feeling happy and confident with your weight/shape/clothing size (because there is so much more to it than scale number) then you can a point to settle. Thanks for reading I appreciate it!

  2. Faiza at 2:34 pm

    Its just baby fat…I was hopeful as a young child that I would grow up and the weight would just get less. Well I can remember getting bigger every year, being far away from my family and working being my focus, just did not help. I always wanted to believe that I could lose weight by myself and I tried quite a few things with some success. Finally I registered at 151kg. That was certainly my turning point. I started the process. It was a short time (it felt like a short time) and I reached my goal set by the team in order to progress to the operation. I managed to maintain this and went in to the operation with 138kgs. I felt anxious and excited all at once. I don’t think I ever considered a goal weight but accepted that I needed to be at least 64kgs in order to be well in every way possible. I am walking my journey and if that is my goal I have to work towards losing at least 75kgs. I know it is a lot but I am ready and taking courage from your experience. 🙂

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