Has anyone changed their goal weight?

I don't have scales at home, but I managed to weigh myself at the hospital and I was 61.3 kg with clothes on, which is 135.2lb, so I must be just under that. I'm 5'3". I decided about a year ago after steady slow weight loss for about three years I would like to be 126lb, 9 st. That's a very respectable weight for my height and I thought I'd carry it well. But now I'm not sure I want to lose more. I get lots of compliments (I was about 175lb about five years ago) but haven't yet had any "you're too thin" comments. 135lb probably sounds quite a lot, but I wear a UK 10 (US6?) easily and sometimes a UK8, not sure if that's due to vanity sizing. A UK8... isn't that for, well, thin people? I don't really want to be thin. My boyfriend doesn't fancy thin girls. I don't want to be thin in the same way I don't want to be fat. I want to be healthy normal perfect (well, not perfect, haha). Am I just not used to my new body yet? I really can drop to 126 though it will probably take a while. I lose weight very slowly but I am perfectly totally happy with what I eat and the exercise (only walking, about 1 hr a day) I do so it isn't a chore for me.

Yesterday a friend of mine refused to believe I was 9 and a half stone as she is about 9 and thought I was much smaller than her. She wears a 12. Maybe I carry it differently. I have 32DD breasts, does that make a difference?

I wonder if anyone else has felt this.

Relatedly, what is the best way to maintain weight? Add in calories? Cut back exercise? I've been doing this slow healthy weight loss thing so long now... I know I'm probably not eating enough (about 1300 a day, but I'm quite active). I will post money to anyone who tells me to drink more wine :)

Heh, I've actually changed my goal weight several times - I'm just over 5' and about 118 now. I usually change my goal weight down though, not up. Alas, now I'm at a point where I'm actually gaining muscle and leaning out without dropping weight on the scale so I'm not sure what to set a goal weight at. :P

Pretty much, I think that if you're happy at the weight you're at stay there :) Potentially, you could just have more muscle making you lean without actually weighing much less. So, since you're at a healthy weight and feel good about it, it couldn't hurt to maintain for a while and see how you like it. You can always try and lose more weight later if you feel like it. :)

That said, I'm not sure how to maintain as I, too, have been doing the slow weight loss thing for so long now that I can't remember what it's like to stay one weight :P My guess though, would be to just eat more (good) calories (adding slowly if you're not comfortable just jumping from 1300 to 1800 or whatever your maintence should be) and don't cut back much, if at all, on the exercise. Exercise is good for you and will keep you healthier in the long run - besides, everyone likes to eat more :)  

Congrats on your weight loss thus far and good luck!

Drink more wine! :-P ;-)

That said, if you're happy at the weight you're at, which is, as you said, a very respectable weight for your height, then stay there! It's hard to predict how our bodies will look at a certain weight when deciding our goal weight, and your ideal weight was juat a bit higher than you projected.

Pretty much, at maintenence, you eat what you burn. If you go to the gym and burn 1800 for the day, eat 1800. If you don't go to the gym and sit around on your butt and burn 1500, eat 1500. :-)

Congrats on your accomplishments!

If you're happy at your current weight, then absolutely go into maintenance mode. I'd keep up the exercise and figure out how many calories you need to maintain. I've been doing the slow weight loss thing too, for about 2 years. I did adjust my weight goal down when I hit my first goal. I'm relatively happy at my current weight but it would be the icing on the cake if I do make it to the new goal. Not sure what I'll do if I get there. I'm sure I wouldn't adjust down again but I'm happy with what I'm eating and the portions. I like the idea of more wine!!!

I have been wondering about this too.  I think 135 is a very healthy weight, and if you are happy than that is all that really matters! Yeah, and drinking more wine is a great idea!!

Yes, I've changed my goal weight. I started off at 145, and now I've have changed it to 135, because I feel the old highschool weight will be good for me. Sure, everything will not be 100% the same back in the day, but why not go back to a time of happiness, and walking out of department stores- with what ever you wanted. Not only that, but it's healthy for me. I do remember what I look like that size. So why not. 

Yeah, so people have changed it, but all to a lower weight! :P Heh, I should have expected as much.

Thanks for all your encouragement. I've spent most of my life refusing to believe thin=good, which probably made me end up on the larger side. I suppose I was a bit of a doing-it-for-the-sisters feminist about stuff like that. For the last few years I've found losing the weight so satisfying, but that moment when you stop is surprisingly hard! It would be so completely pathetic if I healthy and happily lost my overweightness only to end up an obsessive thin kid. I have a very cool boyfriend and mates who are not the skinny-idolisers that so many girls are, though a lot of them are naturally quite little, active and enjoy good food etc. They are supportive. I am lucky. My mum has dieted her whole life, but she never made mean comments to me. I am a lucky, supported girl and I still find myself drifting into that eating-disorder way of thinking, sometimes - that smaller is always better. I wonder at how hard it is for girls much younger than me who weren't loved and supported, or have dickhead boyfriends, or competitive shallow friends.

Disordered eating of one type or another is just everywhere, isn't it... particularly with women. Our society is so bad at glamorising balance, which seems so clearly represented in our shrinking size zero magazines or our rapidly growing quickfix-eating society. I had a woman in clinic today with a BMI of 72. Have you ever noticed how there isn't a really good word for someone the RIGHT weight? My mates call me "skinny" now I've lost weight as a compliment (I'm not skinny). It's like if you're not fat you are thin, but don't both things imply WRONG WEIGHT?

Sometimes I say "a girl with a figure" approvingly about someone who is not fat or thin. That's not quite right either though. We don't have a word. "Healthy" is not necessarily correlated with size, so that's not the word either.

Ah, rambling. I still haven't decided whether to continue to 126lb or not. That would still not be thin, so it would be good. I wish I could deglamourise the word thin.

ps. minerva_moon, sarahjo, lynnhaslost, circularroom - you all look really great with your new figures, and I'm sure you do too sachapp, just not as egotistical as the rest of us with pictures so I can't tell! (I've been stalkerishly looking at your profiles.) It's amazing looking back at old pictures eh!

I've changed my goal weight several times.  First it was 165, then 160, 155 and so on.. Now I think I'm shooting for 145.  I hope I have a moment or a feeling like you - when you just know you're in the right spot.

I changed mine a couple times. I decided originally  on 185 (I'm very very tall) and when I got there I decided I should do 170, got to 175 and called that good. My bones were starting to stick out to a weird degree.

Originally I thought I'd look good at 160, then once I hit 160 I thought I'd look good at 150, now I've reconsidered and based on goal bodyfat % I've changed it to 140 (I'm 5'5 if that seems low for a male).

Bairn, I don't ever in my life want to go back to those sizes I was in the past. I can handle 150 again, but those 200+.....NAw! never again. It took me along time to lace up my shoes and hit the road and gym, but I did it. You look good by the way.. All of you do. I had to make up my mind, and go for it. And 135 is what I want to go for.. More off the tights.. That's all I can think about is.. More off my power house tights.

ibez, go for what you know. If you don't feel good at 140, you can always gain a little more, if you don't like the way you look.

I feel the same about 135.. If I don't like what the out come is.. I plan on gaining it back with muscle, and not fat.