Taste Life Blog

Sound familiar? I am sixty years old and currently, weigh 175 pounds and want to weight 140! My lowest weight was 135 pounds for ten minutes in my thirties. So how realistic is the goal of 140 pounds? Ask yourself these questions to setting a healthy weight goal for you.

1. How is my health?

If you have weight-related medical problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, high cholesterol, and the like, that would argue for a weight substantially lower than your current weight. Fortunately, losing only part of your excess weight is often enough to improves these conditions. Consult your physician. In any event, your weight goal might be the weight at which these conditions resolve.

2. What’s my family medical history?

If your parents, siblings, or grandparents have fallen prey to the above conditions or other obesity-related problems, you may be on borrowed time even if you answered “No” to the first question. Your best weight for health may be lower than that of someone with no such family history.

3. How much of my weight is fat?

This can be assessed by professionals in any of several ways. Fat pounds are the hazardous ones. (Chere’s recommendation: Body composition measurements professionally done by a certified personal trainer or exercise physiologist using Lange calipers)

4. Where’s my fat?

Upper body fat is more hazardous than lower body fat. You can judge your fat distribution with a tape measure.

5. What’s the lowest weight I’ve been able to maintain in the last ten years?

If you haven’t been below, say 150 during this time, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment if you set 120 as your magic number. This doesn’t mean resigning yourself to being heavy it just means that “heavy” is more relative than you may have thought.

6. At my lowest weights, was my lifestyle different in important ways from today?

Were you single and exercising two hours a day, whereas now you you’re chasing after two toddlers? Give yourself a baby bonus of a few pounds unless you’ve figured a way to resume a two-hour-a-day exercise break.

7. How do I expect my life to change at my target weight?

Weight loss, is its own reward, but is also usually leads to more energy, better health, increased fitness, so hand more zest and enthusiasm for life. However, if you think that getting down to the weight you were at age 20 will return you to the happy life a twenty-year old, you’re in for a rude surprise. If you expect miracles of a weight loss, it may take a miracle to achieve the size loss you’ll want.

8. Do I really have to decide NOW?

Perhaps work on losing the first five pounds, then look at setting a next intermediate goal. You can ask all the same questions when you get there, plus the most important one: How do I feel now???

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