Setting Weight Loss Goals

It’s fine to have a long term weight loss goal in the back of your mind, but it’s much more important to constantly make up new, shorter goals that you can accomplish every other week or so.  It keeps you from getting discouraged.

Short term weight loss goals
When I started at 344 pounds I started with extremely small goals.  I wanted to lose 1 pound the first week, 2 pounds the next, etc.  I didn’t know at the time how my body would respond to my drastic healthy lifestyle changes.

After I lost 6 pounds the first week I started setting goals like, “I want to lose 3 pounds to reach 329″ and “I want to lose 5 pounds to reach 319.”  I always set goals that revolved around weighing below a 5 or a 0 (330, 325, 320, etc), nothing like “I want to lose 10 pounds to reach 307.5.”  Most people like those “official” sounding numbers, there’s something comforting about them.

Long term weight loss goals
I want to lose 100 pounds.  If I had said 123.4 pounds, nobody would take me seriously (except for you, mom).  I realize that I’d still be overweight and would weigh in at 244 pounds when I’m finished, but their are two things to keep in mind:

- I’m 6 feet, 2 inches tall.
- Muscle weighs more than fat.

It’s not my goal to lose weight to be flabby or sticks and bones, that’s just not not how I want my body to look.  I want to have muscles.  Ripped, toned muscles.  I’m not talking Arnold proportions here, I just want to be able to wear the infamous gun show t-shirt around town (only the fancy places).

Well, I can wear it now, it just wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.