To calculate a goal weight we are supposed to use 60% of ideal body weight but WHICH ideal body weight should we use. I am 5’8” and I’ve used various calculators giving ideal weight of 141 up to 160’s. Which calculator did everyone use and did you use a 60% loss of excess as your goal or some other weight? Why??

Edited April 16, 20215 yr by ShoppGirl

I didn't calculate my own goal weight, my surgeon's office did. And, they actually picked a weight that puts me at a BMI of 25.7 which is just into the 'overweight' category. So, I'm not really sure how they decide that.

15 minutes ago, Jnfinney said:

I didn't calculate my own goal weight, my surgeon's office did. And, they actually picked a weight that puts me at a BMI of 25.7 which is just into the 'overweight' category. So, I'm not really sure how they decide that.

So your goal weight is the BMI of 25.7 or your ideal weight is that and goal is higher?

@ShoppGirl my ideal body weight is ~120 lbs, but my surgeon's office set my goal at 145 lbs (which would be a BMI of 25.7).

2 minutes ago, Jnfinney said:

@ShoppGirl my ideal body weight is ~120 lbs, but my surgeon's office set my goal at 145 lbs (which would be a BMI of 25.7).

Hummm. Seems like their would be ONE universal way of calculating this. I guess Like everything else it varies from dr to dr though. I am just trying to figure out what my goal weight should be.

Just now, ShoppGirl said:

Hummm. Seems like their would be ONE universal way of calculating this. I guess Like everything else it varies from dr to dr though. I am just trying to figure out what my goal weight should be.

It doesn't seem like there is one universal way of doing anything with WLS! My surgery site didn't give me a goal weight or tell me what I should weigh or anything. The surgeon just said I might lose 70lbs. Which would still put me at a BMI 37!!! Which would not make me happy. I'm hoping I'll lose more, especially since I've already lost 27lbs since I started the pre-op hoop-jumping.

3 minutes ago, lizonaplane said:

It doesn't seem like there is one universal way of doing anything with WLS! My surgery site didn't give me a goal weight or tell me what I should weigh or anything. The surgeon just said I might lose 70lbs. Which would still put me at a BMI 37!!! Which would not make me happy. I'm hoping I'll lose more, especially since I've already lost 27lbs since I started the pre-op hoop-jumping.

It seems like a lot of people on this site have surpassed their goal weights. Hopefully that will be true for us as well.

My surgeon's office gave me a goal weight that they felt was realistic. I did surpass it though.

2 hours ago, starladustangel said:

My surgeon's office gave me a goal weight that they felt was realistic. I did surpass it though.

Good for you. I’m hoping that’s the case for me too.

10 hours ago, ShoppGirl said:

To calculate a goal weight we are supposed to use 60% of ideal body weight but WHICH ideal body weight should we use. I am 5’8” and I’ve used various calculators giving ideal weight of 141 up to 160’s. Which calculator did everyone use and did you use a 60% loss of excess as your goal or some other weight? Why??

My program calculates body weight for females as 100 lbs = 5 feet and then + 5 pounds for every inch above 5 feet. I'm 5'6 1/2 so my ideal weight is 132.5. However, they said realistically I should expect to end up 195-235. If you split the difference, it's about 60% of my ideal weight loss that they are projecting. So maybe go based off the above calculation!

my surgeon didn't set a goal weight. He just asked me what I was hoping to weigh and I said 199 lbs. At the time, that seemed like a pipe dream to me - I couldn't believe that came out of my mouth. And I was even more shocked when he said that should be do-able! I actually went far below that - at one time 138 lbs - and even though I bounced back 10-15 lbs (as many of us do after hitting our lowest weight, unfortunately), I'm still well below 199.