So I'm waiting for my thyroid levels to regulate for surgery, but am already approved. I'm doing this to FEEL BETTER. 100% to feel healthy and not be in so much pain. That being said, I would like to have some sort of ultimate number goal, but don't know what is realistic.

I'm 5'9" and currently at 290. I would love to ultimately be at 150. Is this even realistic. Yes yes I know the "It works if you work it" stuff, but I just want to know if I'm shooting too high here. Thanks, all!!!

I think my surgeon expected me to loose 60% of my excess weight, which would be 190. I am 5'7" and weighed 293. I am shooting for 180 myself. I don't think your goal is unattainable

I don't think it's unreasonable. It may take a while, but as long as you're eating fewer calories than you're expending, you'll lose weight. I was told to expect to lose 60-80% of my excess weight (I started at 383). I've already lost about 90 pounds, so am about halfway to my first goal of 220 from a sleeve date of 10/22.

So I'm waiting for my thyroid levels to regulate for surgery' date=' but am already approved. I'm doing this to FEEL BETTER. 100% to feel healthy and not be in so much pain. That being said, I would like to have some sort of ultimate number goal, but don't know what is realistic.

I'm 5'9" and currently at 290. I would love to ultimately be at 150. Is this even realistic. Yes yes I know the "It works if you work it" stuff, but I just want to know if I'm shooting too high here. Thanks, all!!![/quote']

Is it realistic that you could reach a BMI of 22.1? Definately, but, it will take some time to get that low. I wouldn't expect to reach that number for probably 2 years. You might get there faster, but I wouldn't set it as an expectation.

My personal opinion, I would set shorter term goals, my experience is the first 70-100lbs comes off pretty quick and easy. Then you really have to keep positive. The rest will go away as long as you stick with the routine, but, it's a lot slower.

I think that it depends on a lot of factors and honestly, you're not going to know until you're closer.

I had a dream weight of something in the 120s (I'm now 32, 5'1" and started at 242) which would put me in my ideal BMI range. It was not going to happen. I lost at a pretty poky pace all along and those last fifteen pounds took me five months.

Once I hit my "realistic" goal of 135 (BMI of 25.5) my body did not want to stay there. It was a constant struggle to keep the scale under 137 pounds. I could eat anything I wanted and stay between 137-139 pounds, though. Keeping it lower took so much dedication and restriction that I was losing my mind. In maintenance, I was between 135-139 on the scale on any given day and am perfectly comfortable with this range. That puts me at a BMI of 25.5-26.3 - in other words, overweight.

Bottom line: my body doesn't give a damn what the BMI chart says. It doesn't care what my doctor says. He thinks I should weigh in the one-teens! My body does not care about my vanity, and the fact that I'd like to weigh as much as I should have weighed in high school.

Perhaps after plastics I'll lose those additional pounds; I do have excess skin that will need to be removed.

But my point is that you can't really know how far your body will go. Determination, good choices, getting active, etc. are all going to push you ahead on your journey and get you far. But those extra steps might be more of a challenge than you can/should take on. You won't know until you're there.

Some folks get right to their dream goal and even blow past it. I think more of us settle into a pretty comfortable range of weight that's far healthier than we used to be, allows us to look great but isn't perhaps as small as we'd *like* to be.

So my real opinion is to keep on slugging away and see how far you can take it without living on a restrictive diet for the rest of your life. Keep that number in mind as your goal weight, but be open enough to change it if need be. Accept that the REAL goal we should all have is maintaining our losses for life, not reaching a "magic" number on the scale (no matter how much it pleases our vanity to do so). The journey is only just starting once you reach goal. Maintenance is forever.

Good luck,

~Cheri

Yep, all of the above.

That is a perfectly achievable (eventual) goal.

Have some flexibility to move the goal posts down the track if you decide you're happy with the way you look and feel at a BMI other than 22.

I got down to 87 kilos previously which was about 5 kilo's overweight (11 pounds). But at that weight I felt strong, fast and healthy. That was 10 years ago. I don't really know what my 'ideal' weight will be this time, 10 years older. But I know that I'll know when I get there.

All the best,

Deano

I am 5' 9" and my goal is 160 but I think you are a lot younger than me so 150 should be achievable.