How to work out goal weight?

[OffForARun]

Years ago I lost a significant amount of weight, I was morbidly obese. I changed my entire lifestyle and thankfully kept it off. My BMI was 24 and I was a size 10-12.

I've always been terrified of being overweight again and been very careful food and exercise wise, and I maintained that BMI and size for 7/8 years.

At the beginning of lockdown I started drinking more and snacking, and for the first time I gained about 5lbs.

I was disgusted and horrified with myself! I set out to lose it, which took me 2 weeks, this was in June. Fast forward to today and now I've lost a stone. My BMI is 21.4 and none of my clothes fit. People are telling me I look great which is very kind but confirms in my mind I must have been looking quite fat before.

I know I'm not overweight as such now but I'm terrified of putting any weight on again, I do weights 5x a week, run 3-4x a week and make sure I do at least 10k steps a day. I never miss a day.

My issue now is trying to settle on a goal weight; initially it was getting the 5lbs off, then 7, then 10, then a stone which I've just reached but I still don't feel happy or slim enough. How do you work out an end-goal weight? Is it BMI related or dress size?

My new goal in my mind is another 5lbs, and that will be it. But I'm worried once I get there I'll feel like I need a new lower one. Does anyone have any advice?

Well first of all, you've done amazingly well to turn things around. Now it's about your health, physical and mental, rather than weight.

You shouldn't go below the lowest point of the healthy BMI for your height. With your current BMI you have no health need to lose any more weight and it sounds as though you are in danger of developing an unhealthy obsession with diet and exercise. Do you have a trainer assigned to you at the gym? If so, could you work with them to develop a plan centred on making changes to your physique rather than losing weight?

I agree OP. It sounds like you are teetering on the she of an eating disorder. Do you have anything else you can focus on? Anything positive you can think about instead of your weight/looks?

People are telling me I look great which is very kind but confirms in my mind I must have been looking quite fat before.

I think this says more about your self-perception than how you looked. Weight loss is more obvious when you're slim to start with - a stone off of an obese person is less noticeable than a stone off somebody smaller. With the numbers you've given, the stone you lost must have been around 10% of your body weight - so of course people noticed that. It doesn't mean you were fat to begin with.

Thanks very much for the replies.

I do see the logic that a lower BMI won't give me further health benefits but I am motivated to lose more to look better.

I'm a short stocky build and have some loose skin, so still feel podgy; I feel a new goal of 5/6 lbs more loss would make sure I'm at a number (below 8 stone basically) that means I'm definitely slim.

I don't go to a gym (weights at home) but I could look into a PT.

Where is the line between healthy body improvements and eating disorder? My husband is telling me he's concerned because I measure everything I eat and I can get obsessive but then you don't improve if you're not dedicated to it, so I don't know what to think.

Cut yourself some slack for a few weeks maybe? Work out your TDEE to maintain and stick to those calories instead. I did just that for about three months between gym weight loss programmes and actually lost 1kg. The important thing was I had a break from the regime I was on and ate pretty normally. The gym actually recommends this.

What are you doing re: exercise calories? You're doing a lot which may not be sustainable long term and what happens if you pick up an injury?