SMART Weight Loss Goals And Achieve Them – 10 Examples

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Are you trying to lose weight? And it seems like a monumental goal. Well, you are not alone. Numerous people are making resolutions to lose weight. 

But within a few weeks, they quit their program or diet plan. The motivation to put effort starts declining, and they hardly ever try again. 

This comes from the fact that they don’t aim for a SMART goal, which means specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 

Not setting up a smart goal is like setting yourself up for failure. 

A goal, especially a weight loss resolution, without specific information about what, who, why, how, and where, gets the trick to even begin from. And your starting point itself gets very unstable. 

Then, there are issues regarding not tracking progress because your goal is not measurable, and you never actively complete it because there is no time limit. 

So, in order to really achieve your weight loss ambitions, you need to set a SMART weight loss goal; we have shown you a way of following along with the examples. 

Weight loss smart goals examples

Select A Goal Tracker 

You first need to create a visual reminder that reminds you of your weight loss SMART goals and keeps you focused. 

There are various types of goal trackers, such as you can use habit-tracking charts or applications. 

There are quite popular apps in this space that allows you to track your daily calorie intake, eating habits, step count, hydration, and much more. 

MyFitnessPal is one of the good examples of these apps; another is HabitShare which allows you to share your goals with your friends, which boosts your motivation. 

Then there is another app called Habitica which basically gamifies habits by giving you a magical avatar. 

Create A Dedicated Time For Tracking Your Weight Loss Goals 

Without disrupting your current schedule, it is essential to make a dedicated time in which you track your goals to know exactly where you are and how long to go. 

Consistency is the key that only can be maintained if you block a specific time of the day to keep tracking your SMART goals. 

Whatever short-term and long-term goals you will make need to be reflected in your daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly goals. 

Have An Flexible Approach 

A lot of people who set up a SMART goal for their weight loss, or any goal for that matter, get stuck with the mold they have created. 

It is true that you need to follow the constructs you have created, but time-to-time you have to watch out for your feelings and thoughts and adjust accordingly. 

Given the results and how you feel, you can make adjustments to your SMART goals along the way to make them more personalized. 

Remember, it is about playing the long-term game, so you need to go a long way, so better you make the journey easy and fun for yourself. 

For example, if you see certain exercises are not working for you or maybe even it is too much for the next activity, maybe you can find yourself a different workout routine. 

Keep making adjustments till then things become more suitable for you. The target is to show up and build consistency. 

Set Your SMART goals 

When you are constantly reflecting and reviewing your progress, you will be setting SMARTer goals. 

Your SMART goals will be reevaluated and revised from the initial ones you started with. You will adjust and improve your goals in a way to make you more likely to be successful in them. 

So, to do so, it is crucial to track your progress consistently. It should be at least once a week, where you need to review the past week. 

Then, every month you need to revisit your short-term and long-term goals to see how you are moving towards them. Also, those goals might need some reflection in order to make them more relevant. 

Set and Plan Weight Loss Goals – Set yourself up for success

So you have a fair idea about what weight loss resolution you want to achieve. But it can be all over the place at this stage. 

It is crucial you need to optimize your aspirations into a goal and then set it as a SMART goal with all its parameters. 

For example, one of the common goals regarding weight loss that people aim for every year-end is  “ I want to lose weight in this new upcoming year.” 

But this is not a SMART goal yet, more of an aspirational desire towards a weight loss goal. 

So to optimize it according to the SMART goal, you need to look at its every letter and what it stands for. 

  • Specifc 
  • Measurable 
  • Attainable 
  • Relevant 
  • Time-Bound 

You have to use a process where you need to verify or optimize your goal to check whether each of these elements of parameters applies to your goal or not. 

Let’s take this common example and filter through all of these parameters to get a SMART goal at the end of this process. 

Specific 

So you have decided to lose weight this year, but that is still too broad and vague. 

It doesn’t tell you what steps you need to take or what set of actions will get you to this goal, which must be communicated in your SMART goal. 

So, the first step of setting up a SMART goal for weight loss is to refine your goal towards more specific accomplishments. 

So losing weight is more of an overall aim or vision. But deciding to run 15 minutes daily in the morning is more of a weight loss goal that will help you lose weight along with other similar goals. 

Focus on making your goal information-rich, as you know more details about it when you hear it. As if someone tells you that “I want to be muscular.” 

Well, that doesn’t tell you anything about what he or she is going to do. There is no information about it, so it is not a SMART goal. 

But if he or she tells you, “  I will create an exercise routine and diet plan with the help of a fitness expert to get six-pack abs in eight months.” 

This one, you know what exactly he or she is going to do. It is more specific, detailed, and about the activity, not the aspiration or result. 

So the specific resolution about losing weight can be “ I will increase my daily activity by including 30 minutes of walking every morning.” 

Here’s what you need to check about your goal to be specific : 

  • It should be specific and detailed 
  • Give more information about who, what, where, how, and how 
  • It needs to be a more behavioral goal 
  • It needs to be the activity-driven goal  
  • There must be a quantification of your goal. 

Measurable 

Once you get your goals more specific, it also needs to be measurable. 

So, let’s take the earlier example that we made specific – “I will increase my daily activity by including 30 minutes of walking every morning.” 

But it doesn’t tell you how to measure your success. You also won’t be able to find out the progress you make day by day or weekly. 

Without giving the measurability factor to your goal, it won’t be a SMART goal. 

You need to find out how you will measure the progress of your goal throughout the journey. 

In this case, what you can do is use fitness apps and activity trackers to measure your daily walking by step counting. 

So you need to be further specifc about which measurement you will go by. It can be energy used, calories burnt, the number of steps, distance covered, or time. 

Then, with some adjustments and making it more measurable, your weight loss gal will be like the following : 

“ I will increase my daily activity by walking 30 minutes every morning and will use my Fitbit tracker to track my progress with daily and weekly reviews through the dashboard. “

Attainable 

Now, the third parameter on which you need to test your goal and adjust to is making sure it is achievable or not. 

You need to evaluate your past behaviors, habit changes, and earlier success and failures, and then set the goal accordingly. 

If you haven’t even been able to go out for the walk on most of the days you set the goal earlier, or maybe it is too hard for you to even wake up that early, you need to reconsider your goal. 

It is usually about making adjustments to make your goal achievable and then gradually increasing the level and growing more. 

So, it is better to adjust your goals as per your chances of achievement. It needs to be challenging but not too ambitious. 

Remember, your aim should always be to take steps forward to lose weight and build consistency and then take it one step above. 

Then, there are other situational aspects that you need to see and make sure you can go for a walk in the morning, you have Fitbit, and you can achieve its reasonability. 

SMART Weight Loss Goals 

Logging Daily Food & Drink Intake For Every Next Week 

Tracking what you eat and drink is essential for the weight loss and overall fitness of your body. 

It helps you learn about how many calories and macronutrients you are taking in with your typical diet. 

It will pinpoint exactly where you are getting excess calories or not getting particular nutrients or macronutrients enough. 

You also need to understand your eating habits and adjust them according to your weight loss target and the overall healthy lifestyle you want to lead. 

Logging what daily food and drink you are taking can be the first step towards weight loss, and when you do it consistently, it makes you more aware of your diet and helps you manage it better. 

So your goal can be : 

“ I will log my daily food and drink intake every day  for the weekly review.” 

Here’s how you can make or ensure that it is a SMART goal : 

S ( Specific):  You are specifying that you will log your food and drink intake daily and also review it on a weekly basis.

Though, you can make it even more specific by mentioning where you will log your daily intake. It can be a fitness app, a chart, or a food journal. 

M ( Measurable):  Every day you will log, your daily intake will be counted as one out of the weekly target, and then it starts again. 

Further, you can measure it by counting successful weeks of logging daily food and drinks intake, which will tell you how well you are going on a monthly basis. 

A( Achievable):  You have to make sure to set a 10-minute or 20-minute time block every day at a specific time to do the daily logging. In this case, this is certainly achievable. 

R ( Relevant):  This goal must align with your long-term fitness goals and other aspects of your life. 

T ( Time-Bound):  Since you are giving a daily deadline for logging, it is time-bound, again with the weekly review making it time-bound. 

Drink 64 Ounces Of Water Each Day For Next Week 

Low-level hydration in the body invites too many health problems, and it is more likely to be the cause of feeling low energy.  

And this often gets confused for the food cravings you have, making you do unnecessary snacking throughout the day. 

In order to lose weight, you need to stay hydrated. Also, if you are doing workouts, you need to be hydrated and full of energy. 

It is suggested to drink 8 cups, that is 64 ounces of water, every day. So, that’s your goal for next week. 

And every week, you can review and take up this goal again or make it a daily habit that needs to be reviewed every week. 

It is also important to track your hydration levels on a daily basis. So you can use an app, chart, or food journal as well. 

What you can do is get yourself a reusable water bottle and find out how much water it can hold.  

You can use rubber bands to place around the bottle depending upon how many times you need to refill to reach your hydration goals. 

For example, if you have a 24-ounce bottle, to reach your 64 once a day, you need to finish it three times where you will reach 72 inches. So, in this case, you can use three rubber bands. 

So, how it can be the SMART goal or to check it, you can set it out on different parameters : 

S (Specific):  You’ve decided to drink 64 ounces of water in a day which is specific. 

M ( Measurable):  Every day when you complete your 64 ounces target can be accounted for one, where getting all days in a row will tell you the success for the week. 

You can even go further and go by the number of refills of your bottles per day to reach your daily target and track its progress. 

A( Achievable):  Drinking 64 ounces of water in a day is definitely achievable. 

R ( Relevant):  Hydrating yourself daily will help you in your long-run healthy lifestyle. 

T ( Time-Bound): You set a deadline for completing 64 ounces that is within the day, so you have to time-restraint. 

Add Non-Starchy Vegetables To Two Meals Per Day Daily For Next Week

Fiber is a crucial nutrient for the body, and the more fiber and water your meal contains, the more likely you will be full and still achieve your calorie targets. 

Since you feel satiated, you’re also more likely not to overeat or snack on the meals. 

What you need to do is consistently consume fiber by adding it to your meal. So, add non-starchy veggies such as broccoli, leafy greens, carrots, asparagus, and others. 

These are low in calories and high in fiber. It keeps your digestive system upto the mark preventing any gut-related issues. 

So what will be your goal?

“ I will add 1 cup of non-starchy vegetables in two meals per day for the next week.”

To make sure and track your goals, you can use meal-tracking apps or even a photo diary of your meals.  

Let’s analyze how this goal stands on the parameters of SMART goals : 

S ( Specific): You are specifying that you are going to add 1 cup of non-starchy vegetables in two meals per day, so it is detailed enough to stand on this parameter. 

M ( Measurable): You can track your progress by checking with two meals a day whether you added 1 cup of vegetables or not. Similarly, you can also measure it by the day of the week. 

A( Achievable):  It is definitely achievable. Just make sure to add non-starchy vegetables to your shopping list. 

R ( Relevancy):  Adding fiber to your meals on a daily basis will keep you healthy and free from digestive issues, so for overall health goals, it is relevant. 

T ( Time-Bound): You are setting up deadlines here for every day as well as every week as well. 

Increasing Your Step Count for Week By 1,000 Steps Per Day

Walking daily and more is the best to increase your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). 

Consistency is the biggest challenge where you need to develop habits of taking more and more steps each day. 

But with that, it is also crucial to increase your step counts every day, and that cannot be possible without setting a smart goal towards it. 

So rather than aiming for an ambitious target of 10,000 steps per day, it is better to set a goal for increasing your step count by day or by week. 

Increasing your NEAT can help you enormously in your weight loss targets. 

It is also important to find a way to measure your steps which is best with a wearable device with an app to record your steps. 

You can set your daily or weekly goal, which also rewards you. It reminds you to get going and get in the habit of walking more and more in the day. 

The SMART goal you need to set here will be – 

“ I will increase my weekly step count by 1,000 steps per day.” 

Let’s see how it stands on the parameters of the SMART goals  

S ( Specific): It is specified that you want to increase your weekly step count by 1,000 steps per day. It gives you enough information to act on and prevents it from being vague.

M ( Measurable): You can track your progress by checking whether you are growing 1,000 steps every day or not. 

A( Achievable):  You have to see how you can make these regular steps. Perhaps, find yourself a garden or ground nearby, or it can be your terrace or street. 

You need to make sure that you can achieve a higher number step count every day without needing to get away from your house too far. Also, put it in your schedule. 

R ( Relevancy):  Make sure it is relevant to your weight loss goals or long-term health goals as well. 

T ( Time-Bound): You are setting up a deadline here for every day as well as every week to review the past week. 

More SMART Weight Loss Goal Examples

  • I will get 8 hours of sound sleep every day from 10 pm to 6 am for next week.

  • I will replace at least two of my current unhealthy food items or snack with another healthier alternative every week. 

  • I will do daily logging into a food journal about my daily intake, food habits, observations, and more at the end of the night before sleeping. 

  • I will buy one small or big weight management product every month. 

  • I will give at least 15 minutes of my time to exercise daily right after wakeup for next week.

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