When to stop

So today was a landmark day for me.  As of today I have lost just a bit over 25 pounds, and I can fit into the smallest pair of pants I own!  I bought a bathing suit yesterday and was actually fairly pleased with how it looked, and as a whole I have much more energy these days and feel great. 

Now my goal weight (130lbs) is still another 25 pounds away.  I'm surprised though, I didn't think I would fit into my clothes from a few years ago until I was closer to my goal.  Maybe I misjudged what I weighed back then.  Now, looking in the mirror and gauging how healthy I feel i'm wondering whether I want to continue on to that goal.  I remember how I had even more energy when I weighed 130 only a few years ago, and I remember loving how I looked and felt and how healthy I was.  But then, I feel pretty great now and already I'm fitting into the clothes that I didn't think I would be able to wear until losing another 10 or 15 pounds at least.  So i'm considering settling at a higher goal now, partly because I don't feel its as neccasary for me to get to a lower one to feel great, and partly because having all my clothes not fit because i'm too small isn't much better then when they didn't fit because I was too large.  I wonder if its silly considering changing my goal because I don't want to buy a whole new wardrobe (geez that would cost a lot for a college student).  Part of me thinks this is my mind just trying to find and easy way to stop sooner, but then, I really do feel great now and I would be in the healthy range for my weight just losing another ten pounds.  Of course I won't decide now, i'll wait and see how I feel five, or ten, or fifteen pounds from now and decide then. 

So I know how i'm going to figure out when to stop and why, but i'm curious as to other peoples reasons.  How do you decide what goal is right for you?  Is it based on how you think you will look, or feel, how clothes will fit, or how much activity you can do, or some other reason?  Have you ever gotten near a goal and realized you actually didn't feel the need to go that far?  Or have you gotten to a goal and realized you wanted to push yourself farther?  I'd just love some insight into the minds of some other people on this.

Hey, first off, congratulations on what you've achieved, that is fantastic. And it's just always really nice to hear about people actually liking their bodies!

I personally found it really hard to decide when to stop losing weight. This year I have been between 130 and 126. I think it seems good for me, I'm 5'3". I never had a very fixed goal weight - don't know if this was a good idea or not. I only bought scales recently, to help with maintaining. So I was more going on clothes fitting and how I looked. Some days I think I could get to 120 because my healthy eating and exercising and calorie deficit is so established (I took a looooong time to lose 50lb!) but then I examine my face worriedly in pictures and don't ever want to get the "er, looking a bit thin" comments. I am more bothered about buying new bras than clothes, I had to part with my favourite expensive beautiful E cup ones this year - really hurt!

Maintenance is harder work than weight loss I think. I am fairly new to it, so hopefully I will crack it soon. I stopped calorie counting for about a month in March and put a few pounds back on, grr. I have since lost them again. But I stopped calorie counting for two weeks just now and haven't put on or lost anything, so hopefully I am getting the hang of it.

I also remember asking this question at around 135lb when I also felt good in my own skin, and almost everyone had readjusted goals to make them smaller, not bigger - I got grumpy about that :)

Darcy,

Congratulations to you for what you've achieved! And congratulations for allowing yourself to revel in your success with your new swimsuit =) I don't know how tall you are or what your BMI is, but I would totally go by how I feel in setting a goal. This site is excellent for support and being able to log your food and activity, but I also see the goal weight it has set for me as more of a maybe-goal than a definite. My goal weight at 5ft7in in 150, but if I get to 160 or 170 and feel awesome, I'll probably be reevaluating my goal as well.

You've lost a good amount of weight at this point and are getting closer to a "healthy" BMI.  I would suggest trying to maintain this new weight for a year and then deciding if you want to lose an additional amount of weight.  I've read that one should try to lose 10%-20% of their body weight at a time and then allow the body to "reset" itself at that weight before continuing.  This ensures the most success with permanent weight loss. 

Its great to hear that you're feeling fabulous and energetic -- because that is certainly very important aspect as well.

Listen to your body -- not just the scale :)

I'd agree with axonic - spend some time at your current weight, and see how it feels - no need to rush weight loss since you are so happy with where you are. Depending on what you did while you were losing weight, you could have more muscle than you once did, meaning that your clothes fit better than they did when you were lighter, but less of it was muscle.

This is an interesting question that I've been pondering. I realized that I really need to just continue my new way of eating and exercising and not view it as something that ever ends. I don't log my eating and exercise in right now and will wait until the scale moves up a bit before I start doing that again. But since I was not at a particularly low calorie intake, 1400 per day, I don't need much more than that to maintain. I thought I'd start gaining when not logging in. But I've dropped another pound. I think weighing in consistantly is what I need to do. If my weight starts moving up, I need to start weighing my food and logging it in again. It feels so wonderful to be maintaining 30 pounds lighter. I'm going to make the commitment and rid my closet of the larger sizes. I'm not going back there. It's been a year now. I had my cholesterol checked and just got the call from my doctor today. My numbers have improved enough that I don't have to start taking a statin. That was my goal. At 59 years old, I'm thrilled with that news.