Goals and inspiration

[JuanFitbit]

Hi everyone! 

Hoping you all doing great. 

As we are  constantly reaching goals or are working on them, a big question came to my mind. 

When loosing weight, do you put yourself a small goal (short term) or a big one (long term)?

I'd like to explain myself. 

To keep one motivated, we like to see a lot of changes during our fight with the weight. 

In order to maintain the inspiration and willpower to continue, do you tell yourself e.g " I need to get this 3 lbs off in 1 week" or  "I need to loose 12 lbs in one month"?

What has helped you better?

I'd love to hear your tips and thoughts

[t.parker]

I try to reduce my weight only from time to time. Just by small numbers until it feels right. Keeping good strength to bodyweight ratio is something I try to maintain. In fact, dropping the ball during lockdown brought me a rotator cuff injury. My shoulder didn't handle my body weight in a one-arm negative pull-up. I got too heavy and weaker and tried to perform the pre-lockdown exercise without realizing the conditions changed. Numbers are not that important because weight isn't a goal here. The goal is something that will benefit from lower weight and having that in perspective is motivating enough.

[JuanFitbit]

@t.parker I like your point of view. You look at health benefits as the main goal. That's another way to look at things and get inspired. 

Keep sharing your experiences and tips. 

[NellyG]

Interesting! I am not overweight,  but I occasionally get above my desired weight and decide to get back to the weight  I am happy at. When I do that, I don't focus on weight loss at all, just count my calories IN meticulously and weigh that against my calories OUT (thanks to my Fitbit!), everyday working to keep calories burned ABOVE calories eaten. I weigh daily but try to look at the bigger picture of weight trends rather than today's weight (again thanks Fitbit!). It works for me, so might be worth at try for you. 🙂

[t.parker]

@NellyG making weight a goal makes sense when this is what you need to do. When I was obese then obviously, weight loss was a goal itself. The close to my desired weight I was the more I didn't know what to do next. I know it will sound bizarre, but it was even fun to be losing weight, it felt important and at some point it got interesting but maintenance? Doesn't sound interesting at all. This is when I realized that weight is just a tool in the process of fitness and I cannot fixate my attention purely on that number. I'm not overweight either but my weight plays now an important role in sport. The lighter I am the better (well, not always, lighter and stronger) and I know if Iet myself down and regain all the weight I lost in the past (almost half of my body weight) I won't be able to do what I do now. It's more like keeping the balance right and at this point, I don't even focus on weight. I weigh myself maybe twice a month (there are months I don't do that at all). I know whether I'm getting heavier or weaker just by the number of pullups I can perform or in general, my sports performance. I control what I eat because it became my habit. I log into MFP mostly out of habit (probably I developed some OCD about that :D). What I find however is that I reached my "set-point" (there is a theory of set-point saying that the body will fight to go back to the certain weight considered "normal", there is some evidence backing it up but nothing 100% proved) and with my current level of activity, eating habits (and there are days I can trash myself with pizza or something else rather unhealthy) I always go back to the same weight so I'm not really worried about that part. I'm more into improving other aspects like mobility, flexibility, endurance, strength, coordination through sports because this is the best way to track progress - taking care of such things now will pay off in 20-30 years. It's a long-term investment. Weight was my goal when it had to be but maintaining weight is not a goal at all. Maintaining the current state is like a "limbo of fitness". I need to aim higher than that.

[Baltoscott]

@t.parker -- you make a really good point in talking about the 'fun' of losing weight.  My biggest loss over the past 10 years was around 40 lbs about 4 years ago. Once it started going, it felt very empowering watching a couple of pounds drop off every week or so.  I even wound up dropping an extra 10 lbs or so beyond my target of getting into the 'normal' BMI range. One thing different during this weight loss period as opposed to similar drops in my life was a focus on regular meals, and adding some healthy foods to each meal to 'crowd out' less healthy foods.  I also got pretty good at food planning and tracking using My Fitness Pal and still use it for awareness,

But, of course, you can't lose weight forever.  And seeing weight stay the same isn't exiting at all, or at least not as much as watching it drop.  For about a year I addressed that by deliberately trying to build muscle like a body builder would -- i.e., deliberately gaining weight in an attempt to build muscle through weight lifting, and then cycling back down while continuing weight lifting to try to lose more fat than muscle. During that period I got a charge out of watching my weight increase as my body responded to my weight gain plans and decrease as it responded to the subsequent drop in weight when that was my plan. I don't think it actually made that much difference in actual muscle gain, but I am kind of old :-).

Nowadays I think my positive feedback loop regarding weight is similar to your's in that gaining weight affects my ability to do certain things.  Pullups are one -- pulling a lighter bodyweight is definitely easier than a heavy one.  And a heavier bodyweight affects mobility too.  So I keep an eye on weight through daily weigh-ins for that reason too. But nothing affects mobility in a negative way like not moving, and not challenging your body in different ways.  Thanks in part to Fitbit I'm out several times a day walking/hiking/biking to keep my daily step count up, and thanks to COVID (odd thing to say), I learned to unicycle last year -- before I turned 60 -- and that's become a new daily habit. It all helps keep me feeling good now and hopefully years into the future.

10 years of daily weigh-insMy newest skill

[JuanFitbit]

Hi @t.parker @Baltoscott @NellyG ! Thank you for sharing your experiences and POVs . I love to see how different people see things and take the choices to select the goals. Let's see what other Community members have to share or if your experiences have helped others. 

I'm more on short term goals, as well as for weight as for other things in life. I feel that reaching more small goals is more motivating/satisfactory. Sometimes we cannot do but make long term plans/goals but those are for very important things.

See you around.

[PineyJim]

Having lost 150+ Lbs over the past 15 months, I found goal setting to be really important -  short term, intermediate term and of course the long term goals .  When I first started out (1/6/20),  weight loss was my main mission but after seeing progress on that front,  I also set general health goals (RHR, BP, Body Fat %, etc.).   Reaching the,milestones I set for myself was motivational and missing them made me buckle down and focus more.  

On those "hard days" I also had several online sources for motivation - this forum being one of them.  One of my favorites was and still is "obese to beast" on YouTube.  This kid posts almost daily -- he's amazing.   For any morbidly obese folks out there who may be into their journey and looking for motivation,  I'd highly reccomend checking this kid out.  

[JuanFitbit]

@PineyJim Thank you for sharing your experience and insights. 

I'll have a look at your videos recommendation.  I watch a lot of these kind of "progress" videos (athletes, body changes, house changes, etc)

Keep on stepping !