You won’t get anywhere if you don’t have your final destination in mind. Unless you have a lot of time, you wouldn’t set off on a road trip without a clue as to where you want to go. Weight loss is the same way. If you don’t know what your final weight loss goal is, you may never get there. Here are four simple techniques to setting your final weight loss goal. Some involve the scale and some don’t.
Set a Weight Goal
The most common way to set your final weight loss goal is to pick a number on the scale. Don’t just pick a number randomly, but really give it some thought. If you are years away from high school, picking your high school weight might not be realistic. Ask your doctor what a good weight is for you, use the Weight Watchers calculator and take a look at their recommended weight ranges based on height and age, or select a weight you feel you can easily maintain.
Set a Body Percentage Goal
You may want to avoid setting a number because you are scale averse or because you are focusing more on developing your muscular strength as you lose weight.
Setting a body percentage goal is easy but tracking it is more difficult. WebMD indicates that an adult man is considered healthy when his body fat percentage is between 10 and 25 percent, and a woman should aim for between 18 and 32 percent body fat.
To monitor your body fat, the easiest way is to have a professional use calipers to measure you. Many gyms have people who are trained to measure body fat or you can purchase a set of calipers and do it yourself. There are also scales designed to measure body fat, but they are not always accurate.
Set your body fat percentage based on a range and measure your body fat every two weeks.
Set a Body Mass Index Goal
The body mass index (BMI) chart is the standard that doctors use when deciding whether you are underweight, at a normal weight, overweight, or obese. While some people do not like the chart because it does not take into account athletes with large amounts of muscle, for the average person, it works relatively well.
A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. Use the BMI calculator at the National Institutes of Health to determine where you are right now. Set your BMI goal and check on your progress using one of the many online calculators.
Set a Clothing Size Goal
Some of you may be scale averse and refuse to use a scale as a way to measure your weight loss progress or set your final goal weight. That’s fine as long as you do have a way to know when you have reached your goal and are satisfied with how you look and feel.
Clothing size is a way to set a final weight loss goal. The key for this technique is to pick a piece of clothing rather than just a size. If you say you are going to lose weight until you can fit into size 8 pants, what size 8 pants are you talking about? Clothing manufacturers do not use the same measurements when determining size, so selecting a particular size is difficult, if not impossible.
Set your final goal as being able to fit into a particular clothing item or two. It may be one you have hanging in your closet from thinner days or one you buy as your goal outfit.