Week 8 - Is my weight loss goal realistic?

I ask myself this all the time.

I have set my weight loss goals based on the BMI rating system and a projected weight loss of 1-2 lbs per week.

However, after reading this I am starting to second guess my goal date:

Question:
I am a 48 year old male, 6’0” and 208 lbs. My BMI is 28.2 which indicates that I am extremely overweight. (A BMI of 30 is obese!!!) What the heck?! I thought I was not that bad, but these stats and charts have me thinking I am a giant pig! It automatically calculated that I should be 165.2 lbs by October 28, 2009!!! This seems extremely skinny to me. I think I weighed that when I was a 10th grader and I was skinny. Should a 48 year old man be that skinny? What I really want is to weigh 180 lbs by April 15, 2009. I hope that is realistic.

Answer
You are not alone in misclassifying your weight. In the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 15,593 adults were asked, “Do you consider yourself to be overweight, underweight, or about the right weight?” One third of overweight men thought they were “about the right weight” or “underweight.” Because 65% of Americans are overweight or obese, our perception of “normal” is distorted. While 165 lb (BMI 23.7) might be a low weight for you, 180 lbs (BMI 24.4) is a reasonable weight goal. To lose 28 lbs in 14 weeks, you, personally, need to eat 1700 calories a day while exercising for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week

Source: Ask Mary

I am currently working out 3 days a week: 30 minutes of cardio, followed by 30 minutes of core strengthening and upper body free weights.

I am not tracking my food intake. I am on a healthy eating plan, following the GI Diet rules, and feel that this is an apprpriate lifestyle and therefor do not need to overly worry about my actual caloric intake numbers. I have never been and will never be a calorie counter.

Sure, I have gotten off track a few times, but nothing that I think would set me too far back, and when I have gotten off track I have been honest with myself about it and owned up to my mistakes and worked to make it right.

But now that I have started to see my results slow down, maybe I do need to rethink things.

This week’s weigh in numbers are below.

I did notice that my water % numbers were up this week and so I am hoping that has some bearing on the lack of overall weight loss for this week.

All in all, I am still very happy with the current results and am more than motivated to keep reaching for my goals. Maybe I just need to tweek those goals a little?

Weight: 130 lbs
Bust: 35
Waist: 29
Hips: 39

Week 8 Overall Weight & Inches Loss:

Weight: - 8 lbs
Bust: - 3
Waist: -4
Hips: - 3
Total Inches: -10