Unrealistic Goals Based on BMI & Insurance Charts

I believe this is why 85% of Dieters are unable to maintain their goal and regain all the weight they lost!

BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing "social physics".

While the formula previously called the Quetelet Index for BMI dates to the 19th century, the new term "body mass index" for the ratio and its popularity date to a paper published in the July edition of 1972 in the Journal of Chronic Diseases by Ancel Keys, which found the BMI to be the best proxy for body fat percentage among ratios of weight and height; the interest in measuring body fat being due to obesity becoming a discernible issue in prosperous Western societies. BMI was explicitly cited by Keys as being appropriate for population studies, and inappropriate for individual diagnosis. Nevertheless, due to its simplicity, it came to be widely used for individual diagnosis, despite its inappropriateness.

In 1942, Louis Dublin, a statistician at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, grouped some four million people who were insured with Metropolitan Life into categories based on their height, body frame (small, medium or large) and weight. He discovered that the ones who lived the longest were the ones who maintained their body weight at the level for average 25-year-olds.

These Metropolitan Life tables became widely used for determining recommended body weights. In 1942, the tables gave "ideal body weights." In 1959, they were revised and became "desirable body weights." And in 1983, they were revised once again, this time called "height and weight tables." The weights given in the 1983 tables are heavier than the 1942 tables because, in general, heavier people live longer today.
Experts have criticized the validity of these tables for several reasons:
1) Insured people tend to be healthier than uninsured people.
2) Frame size was never consistently measured.
3) The people who were included were predominantly white and middle-classed.
4) Some persons were actually weighed, some were not.
5) Some wore shoes and/or clothing, some did not.
6) The tables do not consider percentage of body fat or distribution, which are now known to be important factors in longevity.

In reality, "ideal body weight" is actually different for every individual and is dependent on health, body fat content and distribution, musculature, age, activity, metabolism, and a host of other factors that are not simple to measure accurately. For these reasons, you and your physician or dietitian must decide what your ideal weight should be. You probably have an idea what that weight is. Start conservatively. And if you reach your target weight and still feel you need to trim off additional weight, you always have option to set a new target goal.

It is much more realistic to have a target goal that you can maintain for life, than an unrealistic one that you have to be constantly "yo-yoing" to get back to!