If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning you’ll noticed that my goal weight has changed several times. At first I aimed for 120 lbs, because I had read somewhere that 120 lbs was the upper threshold of the healthy weight range for my height. I had what my research professor called, JGBD (Just-Get-By Disorder). When I started blogging, I wanted to be honest with myself. I realized that the mind tricks I do to maintain my self-esteem and disillusionment was preventing me from losing weight. One of my disillusions was my goal weight. I decided that it made more sense that I aimed for the middle of my healthy range rather than at the very top, so that once I reached it, I can bounce around in my healthy range rather than be fearful that I will gain a pound and automatically be overweight. Being lazy and fearful of numbers, I looked to the Internet to find my new target weight. I found Joanne Larsen's site, which told me that my target weight should be 110. 110! Holy cow! It was scary, but I decided to bite the bullet and place it in my blog. A contract with the rest of the world. This is what I’m trying to achieve. The more I saw that number the more comfortable I felt with achieving it.
Then one day, I was perusing through the Internet, and I happened across a post that Marshmallow placed in her bog about the Asian BMI being smaller than the standard. This frightened me. I told my husband about this and that when I was less than 110 lbs I felt very unhealthy. I only achieved it because I was following a very low calorie diet. I doubt my ability to obtain and maintain it now when age has decreased my metabolism. My husband told me that I should just lose weight until I feel healthy and not worry about the numbers. I wanted to go with what my husband was saying, but I promised myself that I wouldn’t fool myself anymore, so I asked Marshmallow for more information. She led me to an article in Wikipedia that only provided me with the healthy BMI range for Asians, so I had to calculate my target weight myself. I took the number in the exact middle of the healthy range and calculated my target weight using Kiss Guide to Weight Loss. I came up with 115 lbs. The answer surprised me. It was more, not less, than my current target weight which Joanne Larsen specified using the standard healthy range. I looked at other places in the Net and in my book. Joanne Larsen was wrong.
Now, I’m a very happy camper. My goal is closer than I had thought it was. Recalling back, when I was 115 lbs., I felt my absolute healthiest. This goal, I like. Thank you Marshmallow for setting me straight.
Moral of the story: Beware of on-line calculators!
4 comments:
Not a problem, Lily. Glad that you were able to adjust your goal to a more reasonable target :-)
hey.. thats the equivalent of 5 lbs weight loss.. way to go ;)
I have to agree with what your husband said, I think its not about weight, its about where you feel comfortable and healthy.
(Obviously carrying too much weight can be unhealthy and being too little is also unhealthy- but within a range for your body shape/ build/ bone structure...) Argh! You get me.. for healthy of sound mind ppl, where they feel best!
You're absolutely right Skinnyminny8. I just need a quantifiable goal so that I know where I'm trying to go in concrete terms. Aiming for "feeling healthy" is too subjective for me. I don't trust my intuition, because I know I'm capable of tricking myself into thinking that I'm perfectly fine.
PS. instantly losing 5lbs is a great feeling
Beware, indeed! I'm almost 6 ft tall and these calculators usually tell me 140-160, which is crazy! If I weighed 140 lbs, I would be skeletal.
Good job on researching and figuring out what you want out of the numbers. I actually love numbers and thrive on them when it comes to weight loss. They map everything out for me :)
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