Honest opinions needed. How much more to lose? (pics)

I am 5'5" 131 lbs and small framed. I am trying to set a goal for weight loss but I'm not sure how much more I should lose. I've uploaded a picture that includes pictures of me as I am now. (It's the one in my gallery with 4 photos in 1.) Please take a look and give me your honest opinions. Don't worry about hurting my fellings. I just want an honest look at myself and sometimes that's hard to do when you are looking at yourself, ya know?

What do you think?

Edited to add: I'm not fishing for compliments here. Just want some unbiased opinions. My friends and family are always saying, "You look great!" and then offer no constructive criticism.

First off, congrats on the weight loss!! I honestly think you look great. If you want to improve your shape, I would reccomend just toning up a little maybe, but weight wise, I don't think you need to lose anymore. You look very healthy and in great shape.

Thanks. It's been a long road. Just don't feel I'm quite done yet. I agree that I need to tone up. I've recently added more strength training to my workout routines.

i dont really think that any additional weight loss would make you look better, instead just focus on toning and strengthening your body...you look really great and healthy. and that doesn't mean healthy as in a euphemism for fat or chunky or anything like that, but merely healthy. how many calories are you eating? is it easy to maintain this weight?

if you use the old standard, 100 lbs for the first five feet, then 5 pounds per inch after, that would give you an ideal weight of 125.  I think you look good.  I don't think you'd want to lose more than five pounds.  10 more pounds and you'd be at BMI of 20, which is really on the low end and might look too slim depending on your preferences.

First off you do need to be congratulated for your success!  What a great job!  To stay with the program as long as you have and the weight you have lost is awesome.  As you know, the smaller you are and the less you need to lose it VERY difficult becasue the results are SLOW, but you are doing it!  They should do a bio on you and let us all hear your story on how you have stayed on track!  For me, since you want us to be picky.....from the pic's you posted your butt and upper thighs and still lose.  If you are 130 now, I do think atleast 5 more maybe around 10....to be at the most FIT weight possible.  But I think if I was in your shoes, set the goal for 5 and see how it turns out.  Than re-valuate.  But you do look great....and thanks for sharing your success!

I think you look great. Good job. In my opinion, you have two options now- begin practicing maintainance so that you can keep your weight down for life OR start lifting heavy weights to get real toned and strong. If it were me, I would start bringing my exercise program to the next level. Depends what your goals are.

depending on your physical goals, id say 5-10lb. good luck :)

Thanks so much for the honest opinions. I knew I'd find what I was looking for here!  I was thinking that I'd like to lose 5-10 more so I guess I was right on track. I want to look like I work out a lot. I want to look lean and toned so I'm ready to start making changes to my workout routine to get me there. 

It's true that it's slow-going once you get within a certain range. I sometimes get really frustrated with the process because I'm not getting the immediate feedback on the scale like I was when I first started losing weight. And there are definiitely days when I feel like I'm doing "all this work for nothing" and then I have a couple cookies to make me feel better. That doesn't help things.

So, I think I'll set my goal to get to 125 and then re-evaluate once I'm there. That's great advice.

(By the way, I went to a pump class this morning and I'm feeling stronger already!)

Another question- I've been trying to stick to about 1300/calories a day. It's enough for me as long as I'm eating the right things. Should I stick to this or up my calories a bit since I'm upping my exercise? My current calorie intake doesn't really leave any space for extra protein. I was thinking of adding a protein shake after my workouts. That would be about 200 calories more. Any opinions?

I think adding the extra 200 cals in form of post-workout protein is a good idea (could be a shake, a glass of milk, some cottage cheese, some tuna, etc.).  You're getting very close to your goal weight, so you'll want to start slowly upping your calories to maintenance level. 

My personal opinion is that, at this stage, it might be a good idea for you to eat sedentary maintenance calories and burn off 300-500 cals/day in exercise/general activity.  That way, you've still got a good deficit but you're getting used to eating how you will for the rest of your life.  (Of course, if you continue to be active, you'll eventually up the calories to active maintenance calories, but this'll get you halfway there - and sometimes the slight increase in calories works wonders for getting rid of those last couple of pounds.)

Hey!

To be completely honest, your middle area looks like it could use some toning. I am also pear shaped so I have battled the tummy and hip fat for what seemed like ages.

What finally did the trick was a long time of regular exercise, paired up with a few nutrition tricks: lots of healthy (unsaturated) fats, no more refined flour/sugar, as little salt as possible, and plenty of fluids.

I agree with some of the previous posts in that I think you should ditch the scale, focus on dietary improvements and increase your physical activity, slowly shifting towards maintenance mode. Once you are down to your last few vanity pounds, the best way to shed them and keep them off is not to worry about them at all. Focus more on listening to your body, recognizing hunger/thirst/fullness signals, handling cravings, identifying what nutrients you need based on how you feel etc etc. After all, I doubt you were planning to be counting calories forever.

Maybe 5 pounds at most.

I think you look pretty good, all you really need to do is tone up :)

I can totally see that in my middle. It's been really tough for me to get my belly under control. I thought that maybe it was because I've had two kids but I'm no longer willing to give myself an excuse. Getting real here.

A personal trainer at my husband's gym recommended that I keep my calories at 1300 cal and just try to replace some of the carbs I'm eating during the day with protein. So instead of just oatmeal in the morning, I'll add some protein to my breakfast and replace Fiber One bars with cottage cheese for my afternoon snacks. Totally doable. I will probably start shifting up to maintenance calories once I make it to 125. I'm getting my body fat tested in a bod pod next week so that should help me find a better way to gauge my progress. The scale has not really been my friend lately.

Thanks for your honesty! You guys are awesome!

yeah I would say only your middle needs toning. But to be honest I think you look really healthy and fantastic. 1300 cals seems low. Running reduces your muscle fyi - try sprints if you really need the cardio ;). Helps tone like you wouldn't believe. Maybe add some weights/core days into your regime and up your cals. Reduce any artificial sweeteners and processed foods (they can bloat). That should help lean you out just in time for summer bikini time!! Yay!! Wish me luck we're in pretty much the same boat only I don't get to blame my weight on kids - got none :/. lol!!

I vote for toning up with weight training - the rest will take care of itself.  Remember to mix it up to keep your body guessing.  Three months of that and you will progress from "hot" to "smokin"

You look pretty darned good to me. I wouldn't go below 125 if I was you - you don't want to lose your bust in the quest for perfection.

ye WOW well done to you, you have just given me a MASSIVE boost as I was 181 when i started, i did really well in Jan n shed 11lbs but then went of the rails n have put nrly all bk on.  my ideal weight was 140 in my head but uve just made me see that i cud go lower.  you look amazin n i think the main thing here is is that u have a stunning face!

you're extremely pretty n thats one thing, no matter how much weight u lose or put on, that cnt be taken away from you.

i think if u wanna just shed that little last bit of fat that definitely its the exercise route now. like everyone else has said keep ur calories etc id just do some extra reps maybe on the areas u want to improve.

try not to put too much pressure on yourself because u cud push urself too hard, remeber ur success and how far uve come n try to think of this as maintaining n just makin few extra tweaks.

i think its hard to get used to being happy with urself n that u havent got to keep watchin the scale to lose weight anymore, its a whole new reeducation all over again.

WELL DONE AGAIN THOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!! xx  :0)))

I have to say it is really nice to know that you guys seems to think that I can do this! It seriously makes me feel like I can be feeling good on the beach this summer!  It may seem crazy but even after all the success I've had, I doubt myself constantly so thanks so much for the boost. I think it's just what I needed! 

So far, I've been able to add 2 strength training classes to my weekly schedule and I'm looking to add at least one more. My knee is healing so I should be able to add back my 3-4 weekly runs this week. I'm going to focus on short runs with speed intervals and I'm already ditching the processed foods and adding in more protein. 

Can't wait to see the changes! I'll be posting more pics as the weight comes off. Thanks again everyone!