What if my goal is still "overweight"?

145 pounds at 5'11" tall?!?  Wow, that is skinny, especially for someone with the larger frame that you describe.  140-145 pounds is a very common maintenance weight for many women here who are almost half a foot shorter than you are. (I have the big boils and muscular thighs, but it is where I sit and I am technically only 5'3.5".)

I am just going to throw this out there -- as much for others who may be reading this as for you -- and you can take it or leave it: I am concerned that as a "lifelong fatty" (which you have mentioned a number of times just in the last few weeks) you are now trying to be as skinny as possible even if that is an unhealthy weight (and, potentially, an unhealthy psychological stance).

Lora

Oh no, I'll be happy at 160, but if I go down to 145 before a bounce back up, then I'll be okay with that as an interim weight. But I won't be buying a wardrobe for that size. It's more of a 'floor' weight and if I stay above it, then there is not a level of concern from my doctors.  They've all expressed that at 144 I'd have gotten too thin and need to actively eat more to gain. I don't want to purposely gain, so I am hoping that naturally I will slow/cease before hitting that point. 

Even with a dramatic uptick in my exercise (running longer distances and longer times) in the past 5 weeks of half marathon training, I am only down from 184 on Dec 31, so my last 17 lbs are going to be S L O W in coming off and I am pretty much prepped to hit 160 and then working on maintaining that weight. I had thought I'd be at my goal this month...now I am thinking it might be months out...but I know I will get there. Just a matter of when. :)

One very interesting thing I have done is spend time at My Body Gallery and seeing different weights at my height.  I can say that most at 150/140 are too thin for my desired look but I like the 160 bodies...and realize I need to step it up with my ab workouts because my belly spent a lifetime lax and it needs tightening for SURE! :)

I agree, you have to be careful how low you go with you being in your 50's it can make you look much older and quite ill, MY dr said your body will taper off and stop when it is done and I will be damned if it didn't do that, I did not have bounce back weight. when you see pictures you will notice it when you are a little farther out, I was at two years out when I noticed I looked gaunt, Dr suggested I put on 20 lb for a healthy look,  I also agree there may be some "issues" that you refer to yourself as a fatty and chubby, ....

You are 100% right--my nutritionist said that if I were in my 20s or 30s, she'd say 145 as a goal and 135 as a low point. That as I age I will have a higher weight to be at a healthy weight.

And here is the thing with my referring to myself as a fatty (and maybe for some I need to just say I'm a life long obese person) but it was a key, key thing for me to realize and it is what made me change. All my life I have been referred to as big, curvy, thick, full figured...no one would ever nicely tell me I was fat. That came in the form of hurled insults and spat at me with anger and hate and prejudice. And I told myself over and over I wasn't fat...even at 333 lbs I could not admit I was fat, but rather that I was full figured or big or you name it...and then I saw the picture that shocked me into reality. That no matter what I wanted to call it, that I was, indeed, FAT! Sure I was curvy...I had three giant rolls of fat around my mid section. I don't now...and I am thankful for this amazing tool to help me achieve a normal BMI for the first time (literally since exiting the womb) a healthy weight. And I see it more as an alcoholic...I have to admit and own and realize I am a fatty to stop the behaviors that kept me there. Sure I was born fat, raised fat and so forth...but when I went to college, moved away, had my adult life I could have seized many opportunities to change and I did not. Because I had my blinders on nice and tight. I can actually recall going to a restaurant and choosing a meal of almost 1,000 calories and telling myself what a good, healthy choice I had made because on a 2,500 a day intake, that was a fair portion. Who was I kidding?!  So if I start to think that I am a naturally thin person and eschew the truth of my really being a fat person inside, regardless of the the exterior, then I know myself well enough that I will eat myself right back to 333 lbs....or more!  

Just like an alcoholic shouldn't see themselves as 'cured' I believe that I cannot ever believe I am cured of obesity. I am in remission today at a healthy weight (I am .1 into the healthy BMI range, want to get lower in that range, but stay within the normal range). I am still going to actively work and push myself to deal with my demons. And after 46 years of denying the truth in the mirror, I just cannot continue to do so and achieve my goals of fitness and health. For me, I have to be real and frank with myself and recognize that I wasn't the 'curvy mom' in pictures on field trips. I was the big giant fatty that was larger than the two moms next to me put together. Why I could not see that then...I will never know!

And I will say this...I have never referred to myself as chubby, but I'll own fatty all day long. I was a fatty, inside I think I still am, regardless of what the exterior shows. Because while I can look in the mirror and say WOW, I know that if I start to just take that for granted, soon enough I'll be back to finding euphemistic terms to describe me and being miserable in that fat suit I wore for so many years.  

I would LOVE to just hit 160 and stop and no bounce back. That would be super...but I am not going to get angry with myself and fight the bounce back if I do go below 160 and then move back to it. And I have mentally prepared myself for the fact that my body might say "Hey, PHM, 170 and you are DONE!" I'm not going to beat myself up over 10 lbs, but I don't want to settle on my goal...I want to keep that in mind and then adjust if needed. 

Here we go with the "fatty" comments again.  Seriously???

Just to be clear--that is my description of ME and not anything directed at anyone else at any time. 

Everyone has a different goal and if that's what makes you comfortable/happy then it's OK. I would have liked to have made it to overweight on the BMI, but didn't go under 30. My starting BMI was 50. I'm happy for the weight I did lose, but sad I didn't lose more.

Did you purposely stop losing because of a number from your surgeon or what?

Do you think about what you are saying before you respond PHM??

No. I was a very slow loser and stopped losing weight at 18 months. Due to a injured knee and slow healing I wasn't able to exercise during the first year. My metabolism was ruined by all the years of yo-yo dieting. My resting HR is 45. I've had workups by a cardiologist and endrocrine MD, which found no medical reason for a slow resting HR other than a slowed metabolism.