Being motivated is only half the battle. The other half is knowing where you want to end up. We need to create a Target Plan. To do this we need to know four targets. The four targets you need to set are:

Start date
Weight
End date
Daily calorie intake

1. Start Date

It is important you set a start date that gives you enough time to prepare for this challenge. So a start date today or tomorrow or even next week aren’t good start dates. The mind is a funny thing. If you put a date in the future your mind naturally puts things in place to set you up for the big day.

I would suggest a start date of anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks away. Anything further away you run the risk of losing interest.

Have a think about the day and date you choose as well. Should you choose a weekday or a weekend? Saturday may not be the best start date if you like indulging on a girls night out every Saturday. Yes you will have to deal with those Saturdays but just make sure it is not the first day you have to deal with!

Are any significant dates unsuitable due to commitments? If you always go out at the end of the month as it’s payday then avoid this as the start date. You want to make the first day the easiest to succeed as possible.

A good start day would a day where you have full control over the food you will be eating and you will be at home. So if you always have sunday lunch at your mum’s avoid it being on a Sunday.

I would also think about the day before the start date. You want to be waking up in your own bed on the morning of the start date. So make sure you go to bed in your own bed the day before your start date.

Bearing all these factors above pull out your calendar and choose a start date. Yes I really mean it. You need to choose a start date. It’s all becoming very real now isn’t it? Once you choose a start date it becomes real. You will feel strangely really good once you set your start date. Don’t feel shy and let everyone know. The more people you tell the more likely you will start. You don’t want to look like a fool coming up with bogus start dates now do you? Also check out my 52 Step Program as I think it can really help you,

This is the first real step of your journey to becoming your target weight. Now since I’ve mentioned your target weight let’s determine this next. Read on.

2. Weight

Imperial Or Metric?

Should you use pounds, kilos, stones or stones and pounds? The simple answer is whatever you are most familiar with. If your target weight of 65Kg sounds more motivating than 10.23 stone then choose Kg. It’s whatever you’re used to. There is no need to force yourself in to the metric system if you are hard wired in to the old fashioned imperial system. You don’t need to clutter your mind up with complex conversion calculations. This is your journey and we are going to keep it personal!

So now for the 64,000 dollar question. What weight do you want to be? Whatever the weight you choose it has to tie in with your motivating words. Your target weight will either be looks based or health based.

Looks Based

If your motivating factor was to be more attractive then you should have some idea of what size you want to be. If it’s size 8 or waist 30” you need to have a rough idea of what weight you would need to be to get to that appearance.

Have look at these 2 tables which show average weights for specific waistlines, dress sizes and height to help you choose your target weight. One for men one for women. 

MEN

Waist Height

26”

28”

30”

32”

34”

36”

5ft

150cm

43kg

95lbs

48kg

106lbs

53kg

117lbs

   

5ft 2”

155cm

48kg

106lbs

52kg

114lbs

56kg

123lbs

59kg

130lbs

  

5ft 4”

160cm

53kg

117lbs

58kg

128lbs

63kg

139lbs

68kg

150lbs

73kg

161lbs

 

5ft 6”

165cm

58kg

128lbs

62kg

136lbs

66kg

145lbs

70kg

154lbs

75kg

165lbs

80kg

176lbs

5ft 8”

170cm

63kg

139lbs

67kg

147lbs

72kg

158lbs

76kg

167lbs

80kg

176lbs

84kg

185lbs

5ft 10”

175cm

68kg

150lbs

72kg

158lbs

76kg

167lbs

80kg

176lbs

83kg

183lbs

86kg

189lbs

6ft

180cm

72kg

158lbs

76kg

167lbs

80kg

176lbs

85kg

187lbs

89kg

196lbs

93kg

205lbs

6ft 2”

185cm

77kg

169lbs

81kg

178lbs

85kg

187lbs

89kg

196lbs

95kg

209lbs

100kg

220lbs

6ft 4”

190cm

 

83kg

183lbs

88kg

194lbs

93kg

205lbs

98kg

216lbs

102kg

224lbs

6ft 6”

195cm

  

90kg

198lbs

96kg

211lbs

102kg

224 lbs

107kg

235lbs

WOMEN

UK Dress size

Height

6

8

10

12

14

4ft 8”

140cm

33kg

73lbs

41kg

90lbs

49kg

108lbs

  

4ft 10”

145cm

36kg

79lbs

39kg

86lbs

42kg

92lbs

45kg

99lbs

 

5ft

150cm

41kg

90lbs

43kg

95lbs

46kg

101lbs

48kg

106lbs

50kg

110lbs

5ft 2”

155cm

45kg

99lbs

47kg

103lbs

50kg

110lbs

53kg

117lbs

55kg

121lbs

5ft 4”

160cm

49kg

108lbs

52kg

114lbs

55kg

121lbs

57kg

125lbs

60kg

132lbs

5ft 6”

165cm

53kg

117lbs

56kg

123lbs

59kg

130lbs

62kg

136lbs

65kg

143lbs

5ft 8”

170cm

57kg

125lbs

60kg

132lbs

63kg

139lbs

67kg

147lbs

70kg

154lbs

5ft 10”

175cm

61kg

134lbs

64kg

141lbs

70kg

154lbs

73kg

161lbs

75kg

165lbs

6ft

180cm

65kg

143lbs

69kg

152lbs

73kg

161lbs

77kg

169lbs

80kg

176lbs

6ft 2”

185cm

69kg

152lbs

73kg

161lbs

77kg

169lbs

81kg

178lbs

85kg

187lbs

You know your body better than me so choose a target weight that you think will be a weight you would look like how you want. You may know a time in the past when you considered yourself attractive and you knew what weight that was. So you may already know your target weight however please give this some thought. 

Health Based

If your motivating factor was fear of illness and stroke then having a healthy Body Mass Index(BMI) is what you should be aiming for. Look at this graph below to help you determine what a healthy weight would be:

  

Choose the weight you want making sure it falls within the healthy weight range in yellow. It has to be a target weight you think will be the weight that will bring you health.

Ok, so do you have the magic number? If not reread the above and decide. No hurry. It needs to be the number that delivers to you what you want. If it would be nice to 70Kg but you would love to be 65Kg then it has to be 65Kg. You really need to be committed to it. Once you have your target weight we then need to work out when you will be this target weight. This is called your end date.

3. End Date

So you know how much you want to weigh but by when? Tomorrow would be nice but we all know that is unlikely and in most circumstances impossible! What we need to ask ourselves is how much can I lose per day or per week.

General agreed thinking is that one pound of week weight loss is safe, sensible and achievable. Considering that fast weight loss has been proven to dangerous I would steer towards a number that is close to the one pound a week weight loss.

Once you have chosen either imperial or metric then decide a realistic weekly weight loss. My suggestion is either one pound or 0.5Kg per week. I want you to run with this unless you have a good reason for another loss rate.

Calculating your End Date

So using simple maths we can work out how many weeks it is going to take for you to get to your target weight.

If you are 75Kg and your target weight is 65Kg then you want to lose 10Kg then it’s going to take:

10Kg divided by 0.5 which equals 20 weeks.

If you are 10 stone 3 pounds and you want to be 9 stone then you want to lose 17 pounds then it’s going to take:

17 pounds divided by 1 which equals 17 weeks or 119 days.

So you have your start date and you know how long it should take thus you get to your end date by looking at your calendar.

4. Daily Calorie Intake

Now we need to know how many calories you need to eat on a daily basis. To do this we need to use some current stats about you, your target weight and the number of days you have set to lose this weight in to the online Body Weight Planner.

Visit: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/bwp

And enter your details.

Tips on using the Body Weight Planner:

Switch to expert mode by clicking on the top right
When estimating your physical activity level be prudent. Put 1.4 which is the lowest if you can.
Keep physical activity change to 0%
Click on “calories” as the initial result shows kilojoules

Once you have inputted all the figures you will get the magic number. This is the total amount of calories you can consume every day to get to your target weight by the date you have set. Need more help? Sign up to my 52 Step Program.

Now the next bit is extremely important. Read on.

Create The Target Plan

Fail to plan you plan to fail. We all know that. So we now need to create the Target Plan. This will show you how to get from A to B in numbers and dates. How much and by when. I create this using google sheet within my email by visiting here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets

You can use excel or any other online excel type of program. It’s best to have it online so you can look at it and update wherever you are. You can still create something on paper if you so wish and there is a blank one at the end of this chapter for you to use.

Let’s say my start date is 8/11/17, my current weight is 77.5Kg and not expected to rise, my target weight is 67Kg and my target daily calorie intake is 1400 calories then the Target Plan would look like this:

Daily Calorie Intake:

 1400

Date

Target Weight (Kg)

Actual Weight (Kg)

Total loss

8/11/17

 

77.5

 

15/11/17

77

  

22/11/17

76.5

  

29/11/17

76

  

6/12/17

75.5

  

13/12/17

75

  

20/12/17

74.5

  

28/12/17

74

  

3/1/18

73.5

  

10/1/18

73

  

17/1/18

72.5

  

24/1/18

72

  

31/1/18

71.5

  

7/2/18

71

  

14/2/18

70.5

  

21/2/18

70

  

28/2/18

69.5

  

7/3/18

69

  

14/3/18

68.5

  

21/3/18

68

  

28/3/18

67.5

  

4/4/18

67

  

So you can see from above each row represents a weekly target for you to aim for by a certain date. This is what you live and die by.

You then record your actual weight in the 3rd column. You must record your actual weight at the same time every day. I usually do it when I have just woken up after I have just gone to the toilet and not drank or eaten anything. I suggest you do so also. If that is not convenient just make sure you are choosing a time in the day where you are doing a proper like for like comparison. So if it is in the middle of the day before lunch make sure that it is always as such. Try and weigh yourself naked without jewellery. If that’s not possible just make sure you are wearing the same each time you weigh yourself.

In the fourth column you record the total loss from the time you started. So this will show how much weight you have lost since the start date. I like to know this number as it reminds you that even if you don’t hit target that week you can still see that you have lost weight overall.

If you don’t want to use something online or excel here is a blank one to fill out in this book:

BLANK TARGET PLAN

Daily Calorie Intake:

 

Date

Target Weight (Kg)

Actual Weight (Kg)

Total loss

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

I cannot stress how important it is to create a Target Plan. You really need to see in numbers how the future looks in detail. This is the best way to do it. Keeping track of your progress really helps with motivation also. So do not skip this task. Ok? You promise me? Great. Thanks!

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