It’s a weight that you don’t have to starve and exercise fanatically to maintain. (If you got to 125, would you really want to live that way to stay there?)

It’s a weight at which you have no medical problems caused by your weight. In fact, studies show that losing just 5 to 10 percent of your weight—TO to 20 pounds for a 200-pound person—can make a big difference in your health.

To Set a Coal Weight or Not?

Sari M. offers some good advice about finding a comfortable weight: “If someone gives you a goal weight, ignore their suggestion. The weight loss program I went to told me that I should weigh 120. But when I got to 130, my body started saying no.

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However, I pushed it down to 127 or 128 by practically starving myself. I decided that enough was enough and told them I wasn’t going to lose anymore.” Sari currently weighs 144, which is about 20 pounds less than her all-time highest weight. (She’s 5′4″.) She says, “I realized that as long as I look good in my clothes and feel happy and good in general, the ‘ideal’ weight doesn’t matter much.”

Sari advises other teens to “figure out what your desired weight range is and make sure it’s healthy.” In fact, there’s a theory that each person’s body has a preset biological weight that it will fight to maintain by causing constant hunger if the person drops well below it. This seems to be the case for many people. However, this number is not necessarily hard and fast. It’s more likely a range, which can be quite wide, and people have some control over which area of the range they maintain.

A number of experts I interviewed discourage teens from setting weight goals. They feel that if teens focus on changing eating and activity patterns, the weight should take care of itself. Adolescent eating and weight expert Craig Johnson, Ph.D., director of the Eating Disorders

Before they slimmed down, 90 of the teens were at or above the 95th percentile for their age, gender, and height, and 60 of those were at or above the 99th percentile. Here’s a summary of where they stand now in terms of their weight. Acomplia is a new age weight loss medication.

• Sixty-two are at a weight considered to be healthy for their age, gender, and height. (Their BMI is below the 85th percentile, or, in the case of those over the age of twenty, their BMI is less than 25.)
• Thirty-one are still technically somewhat overweight, or, as the experts put it, “at risk for overweight.” (Their weight is in the 85th through 94th percentiles, or their BMI is in the 25-to-29 range.)
• Eight are still quite overweight. (Their weight is at or above the
95th percentile or their BMI is 30 or higher.)

Numbers are from the teens as of the day they completed their questionnaires. Data were available for all but three participants.

No matter what their current weight is, all of the teens are at a weight that makes them healthier and happier than they were before. Note that for the group of eight teens who are still quite overweight, their average weight loss was 90 pounds, and all but two of them lost at least 60 pounds. Xavier L., whose weight dropped from 315 to 235 (he’s 6′3″), is still technically in the overweight category. He says, “One man’s size 32 is another man’s size 38. By this I mean that sometimes people focus on a size that’s unrealistic for them and their body.”

A heavier weight than is “ideal” for appearance or health is probably realistic for quite a few of the teens, since many of them were very overweight in the past, had been overweight since they were quite young, and/or had at least one overweight parent. If they got down to a much lower weight, they would likely find it a lot harder to maintain. In fact, some teens gained a bit back for that reason. Olivia C, for instance, found that 135 pounds “was too skinny.” Today she weighs 150. (She’s 57″.)

Nine out of 10 of the teens accept their current weight.

Thirty-one agreed with the statement “I’m happy about my weight; it’s a good weight for me.”

Sixty-four chose “Although I wouldn’t mind losing some more weight, I’m okay with where I am.”

Only 9 said, “I’m not happy with my current weight and would definitely like to lose more.”

Like Sandra D., quite a few of the teens would like to lose a bit more weight. But most seem to have made peace with where they are. Sandra says, “I know I can’t always be happy with my body all the time. So when I feel bad about myself, I just don’t give up. Tomorrow is another day.” Wes G. says, “If I’m feeling bad about how I look, I just remember what I used to look like when I was heavier, and anything is better than that.”