Good news is that I am not that far from my BMI ideal weight. It is only 40 lbs away and I have already lost 121 lb in 5 months. So it got me thinking abut what really is my target weight and when should I achieve it? Given that 10 lb a month is pretty standard, an easy calculations reveals that I wold hit BMI ideal weight in about 4 months, give or take a couple weeks depending on how slow or fast the scale weight moves. That is fine with me and places my target of 180 lb in the middle of feb. 2013.

The question is whether BMI is a good goal to shoot for. My doctor, NUT and supporting staff have not talked to me explicitly about a target yet and I always assumed it would be BMI for my height of 5 ' 11 ". However, feb 2013 is the 9 month mark for me which statistically places me 1/2 way through my golden period of sleeve effectiveness. Should I stop there? What happens if I reach goal at new year instead because I have been getting pretty serious about exercise and weight lifting in the last month? My wife and mother in law have told me on numerous occasions that they think I might look unhealthy at BMI because my bone mass is medium to large and I have muscle on me. They might be saying these things with some self motivation. for example, my mother in law is constantly on a diet losing and gaining the same 10 lb. my wife is a candidate for sleeve, so may not quite understand the whole less is better attitude. not sure.

I certainly feel good now and think 20 lbs more lbs would put me into a solid state of health, even if 20 lb over the BMI for my height. The last thing I want is to develop some kind of need to lose weight into the unhealthy zone, below BMI. Not saying this would be from anorexic tendencies because I am not starving myself in my diet nor am I doing crazy exercises ( max 1 hour a day, most of the time 45 min). However, I do see that I need to be careful to not lose too much and get unhealthy. I will continue to be active in my exercises, not just in my home gym but also running 5ks, hiking and other things. These will all contribute to my metabolism burning, burning and burning calories. I look pretty healthy in the mirror with and without clothes on. Not a lot of lose skin and am shaping up like a swimmer ( broad shoulders and narrow waist).

My caloric intake is currently around 600-900 and consists mostly of Protein for 6 meals a day. I feel ok with this eating, am not hungry except to refuel and have a lot of energy from this eating, from exercise and also from coffee. Can I continue to eat like this? Not sure. I think I would like to eat more fruit and veggies at some point, eat more like a wholesome and natural Mediterranean style diet. That is a goal of mine for when I stop losing scale weight. It is going to take me a few weeks of transition time to moderate my eating patterns from high protein to Mediterranean style. Have not crossed that bridge yet, but know it is soon arriving on my journey.

Appreciate the thoughts from others, especially mature sleevers that have "been there, done that."

No responses on this one yet. I was hoping to get some advice on what goal should look like.