Hey fellas

I am getting banded oct 21st. Is it just me or are the quote unquoute ideal weights way way off? I am 6'2 330. I would say a medium build. And the charts say I need to weigh 177! Which means I need to lose 153 pounds! If I weigh less than 220 I would look sick. I would really like to be 230 to 240. How did you guys set your "goal" weight? Off what the "charts" say or what you think is best for your body type? Thanks.

Brent

I'm not a man, obviously, but you can weigh whatever YOU want to weigh, you dont have to go by the charts.

However, in my experience, most obese people's perception of normal weights looking skinny or sick are way way off. People seem to need to start this journey thinking they are the one special case that can be heavier and still healthy. Its rarely true. The only reason why you would be heavier than a normal BMI and still healthier is if you ahve a lot of muscle. Many people have the type of body that is muscular and look better at a BMI of 24 or 25 than they do at a BMI of 20, for sure, just as many people are finer built and look better lighter.

It also varies depending on what you find attractive. Personally, for men, I agree with you a little, DH is banded too and if he got down to a low BMI he would be scrawny becuase he has a runner's body, tall, long and very fine boned and muscled. Not my idea of the ideal shaped man, sigh. I prefer him a bit cuddly. But he'd be healthier scrawny, without the pot belly.

In the end, nobody's holding your nose to the grindstone, you stop where you want to and feel you look best, and thats your right. Dont engage in all the debate about what you "should" weigh, believe me, if you're not trying to argue why its OK for you to be a bit heavier and you feel best that way, you'll be justifying that you're not sick and anorexic. Everyone's always got something to say about it.

My therapist told me to set a realistic goal and I started at 332 lbs at 6'1" and decided 230 lbs would be a good goal about 100 lbs but when I hit that, I was not satisfied so set another goal of 200 lbs and may not be happy with that but we will see. I don't pay attention to those charts, and a goal is something you need to have but my therapist also said DO NOT over estimate your goal because you will set yourself up for failure.

I don’t think you can really set a final goal until you get in the “normal” range. Don’t believe the hype (yours or others) about looking scrawny at what would be considered a normal weight for most people. You don’t have a fat skeleton, you have fat on a normal skeleton. Get down to a “normal” weight and then figure out how far you want to go beyond that. I’m not a big fan of BMI because it doesn’t take body composition in at all, however, I do think it is fine for setting your initial goal. Beyond that, I think you should look into Hydrostatic Dunk Testing to see what your true Body Fat to Lean Mass is. Taking this test will give you a real idea of how much of your total weight is fat versus lean mass. If there is an excess of fat, you can and should continue to lose it.

For me, I set my initial target to a BMI of 24.9 which is the upper boundary of normal. I am exactly 6’ tall, so that works out to a weight of 184lbs (I started at 285lbs). When I got to about 200lbs I realized that 184 was probably still going to be heavier than I would be happy with, so that is when I started the Body Fat testing. The great thing about the testing is that subsequent tests tell you how much of your weight loss is fat versus lean which is helpful in adjusting your diet and exercise.

My lowest dieting weight pre-band was 206, so I couldn’t really see myself lower than that. I too used to say I would look sickly below that weight (I think this is more of a coping mechanism than anything else). Well guess what? With good restriction (which I have been blessed with) the weight continued to come off past 206. As of now, I am about 188 and still losing. Guess what else? I don’t look sickly, scrawny, or anorexic. Most people think I look great. I am still losing, but now I am trying to focus that loss on fat versus muscle so the pace has slowed a tiny bit. I know that I did lose too much muscle initially though because I am WEAK in the gym. I can barely bench anything, but this has started to improve with regular workouts.

I'm 6ft 2in and my goal wieght I set is 190lbs, starting at @320, I know 9yrs ago I got down to 220lbs and still had some chub on me. I'd just like to be under 200lbs one time since Junior High. I've not been banded yet. I wouldn't have any problem being 220 again as long as 20lbs of it were muscle and not flab!!! I was told I look sick at 220 from my family but when you get used to seeing someone's gerbal jaws for so long its hard to adapt to seeing ones true bone structure and facial features....

I'm 6ft 2in and my goal wieght I set is 190lbs, starting at @320, I know 9yrs ago I got down to 220lbs and still had some chub on me. I'd just like to be under 200lbs one time since Junior High. I've not been banded yet. I wouldn't have any problem being 220 again as long as 20lbs of it were muscle and not flab!!! I was told I look sick at 220 from my family but when you get used to seeing someone's gerbal jaws for so long its hard to adapt to seeing ones true bone structure and facial features....

Don’t believe the whole “you’d look sick below xxxlbs” hype. As long as you are not technically underweight (for you that would probably be around 150), you will look fine. I am 20lbs below my lowest diet weight right now and about 5 pounds above my Navy Boot Camp weight and nobody is saying I look sick. I would suggest though that once you start to lose at a good pace you start excising and getting the right amount of Protein. I waited about a month or two too long and I lost a little more muscle that I wanted too. But, it is coming back though – so no worries.

My BMI is more important to me than my weight. And I am talking about true BMI, not what you get off of a chart. I plan on getting the dunk test about 100 lbs from now.

I would suggest you get dunked sooner. I had my test at about 80lbs down and was shocked at what my percentage was (it was way better than I thought). I would like to know where I started from though.

A good reason to get tested sooner and often is to monitor your fat vs lean loss. I found out that I was losing a lot more muscle than I should. After the first test, I started exercising more and getting more protien. As of my test last week, I have actually started gaining muscle while still losing fat.