How to Make SMART Goals

Whether you’re trying to lose weight, build muscle, or run your first 10k, goal setting is an essential step for helping you be successful. 

And as a dietitian, one exercise I’ve found to be helpful for clients who are looking to make changes to their current habits is to create S.M.A.R.T. goals. 

Essentially what S.M.A.R.T. goal setting does is it helps define a clear strategy and outcome for your goal.

And by doing this, it helps you better stick with and make progress towards your desired lifestyle change. 

So, let’s break down the components of a S.M.A.R.T. goal and then talk about how you can get started with goal setting at home. 

For the purpose of this article, we’re going to use the example: I want to lose weight.

Specific

Oftentimes the goals we set are quite broad. And the problem with that is broad goals are incredibly difficult to take action on and know when we’ve actually achieved them. 

So, rather than “I want to lose weight,” a more specific goal would be “I want to lose 20 pounds by August.” 

Already, your goal is setting you up to know when you’ve achieved success, rather than feeling like it’s never ending.

Measurable

In addition to being specific, your goal should include ways to monitor your progress along the way. How you measure your goal will depend on what the goal is. 

In our example of losing 20 pounds, some tools for measuring progress include using a scale to monitor your weight, measuring your waist circumference, or tracking calories or macros.

And while you need at least one, it’s okay to use more than one measurement. 

As with the first step, try to be as specific as possible.

Our goal now becomes: “I want to lose 20 pounds by August. I’ll track my calorie intake in Lose It! every day and weigh myself in the morning on Sundays.”  

Already this goal makes it much easier for you to take action, compared to “I want to lose weight.” 

Attainable

This one is a biggie. 

In order to be successful in your lifestyle change, it’s important to be realistic with yourself. After all, the worst case is you realize you can actually do more than you thought you could. 

And you can always set a new goal once you’ve achieved your current one. 

However, if you set a goal that’s unattainable, it can leave you feeling frustrated, upset, and wanting to give up. 

Especially when it comes to weight loss, eating healthier, or increasing physical activity, make sure to be honest with yourself on what is possible.

Things to take into consideration include (but are not limited to): current lifestyle and schedule, budget, genetics, and physical impairments. 

So, if you want to lose weight, the first step is setting a weight loss goal that you feel is realistic for you personally.

It’s also important to make sure that it’s a safe amount of weight for you to lose both in general and within your set time frame (which we’ll touch on more below).

Relevant

This step is all about assessing motivating factors. 

Just because your doctor tells you to lose 20 pounds, doesn’t mean that it’s something you really want to do.

And if you don’t have the motivation to work towards that goal, chances are you’ll have a much harder time being successful. 

So, before making a goal, it’s important to recognize why you want to make the change in the first place. And then once you’ve identified it, write it down somewhere or find something that can serve as a reminder. 

For example, if you want to lose 20 pounds so that you can have more energy to run around with your kids or grandkids, put a picture of them on your fridge as a reminder. 

Or maybe you want to lose weight to get off your diabetes medication. Put your goal A1c level from your doctor by your alarm clock as motivation to get up for the gym in the morning. 

Time-Bound 

Have you ever noticed that you’re more productive when your boss or teacher gives you a firm deadline? Goal-setting works similarly. 

For this one, you can have an actual deadline such as a scheduled vacation or race, or an amount of time that you feel is reasonable for achieving your goal.

Whichever you go with, my main advice is to try to keep your deadlines relatively short. 

So, rather than losing 20 pounds by August (say that’s 4 months away), it’s better to start by wanting to lose 5 pounds over the next month. Then after this month, you can set the same goal again, or re-evaluate and adjust your goal. 

Putting It All Together 

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at how our goal has changed:

Initial: I want to lose weight.

SMART: I want to lose 5 pounds over the next month. I’ll track my progress by weighing myself in the morning on Sundays and track my calorie intake in Lose It! every day. After 1 month, I’ll re-evaluate and adjust my goals as needed. My ultimate goal is to lose 20 pounds by August so that I can reduce my A1c and not have to go on diabetes medications.

It’s a much longer goal, but it’s so much more helpful. Now you have a roadmap for what and how you’re going to get to your desired change. 

And remember, some goals will have additional goals within them. 

For example, if you want to lose weight, one thing you’ll have to do is eat fewer calories. So how are you going to do that? One option could be packing, rather than buying lunch at work. 

So, for this goal within a goal, I still recommend going through the SMART framework: 

S: I will pack my lunch 4 days a week to bring to work. 

M: I’ll prep all my lunches on Sunday so that I can just grab a container to put in my bag each morning. At the end of the week, all 4 containers should be gone.

A: Important things to think about would be:

• Who are going to eat lunch with if before you normally went out to lunch with your coworkers. Are some of them willing to eat in the break room too?
• Do you have a break room?
• Is there a fridge and a microwave?
• Do you already have the food containers that you’ll need? 

Think through all potential barriers to adjust your goal so that it’s as realistic as possible.

R: Reasons why this might be important for you can be: going out to eat is expensive and often higher in calories than bringing your own lunch. Or maybe it saves you time not having to leave the office to grab food. 

T: For the next 2 weeks I’m going to pack my lunch 4 days a week and then re-evaluate to see if I want to reduce or increase the number of days that I bring my lunch. 

New goal: For the next 2 weeks, I’m going to bring my lunch to work 4 days a week. I’ll do this by prepping all 4 meals on Sunday and storing them in individually-portioned food storage containers. I can store my lunch in the fridge at work and reheat it in the microwave. After 2 weeks, I’ll re-evaluate and adjust as needed.

Focus on One or Two Goals at a Time

When you decide that you want to make a change in your health, it can be really easy to think of a laundry list of things that you want to change.

But my advice is to start with just one or two changes at a time, let them become a habit, and then move on to the next. 

This means that if you want to lose 50 pounds this year, there are a lot of smaller goals that lead to that main goal, such as: 

• Work out for 30 minutes 5 days a week. 
• Reduce calories to X calories per day. 
• Tracking your intake in Lose It! daily.
• Limit going out to eat to just 2 times per week. 
• Eat more fruits and vegetables. 
• Drink 8 glasses of water per day. 
• Reduce intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and treats. 

But rather than overwhelming yourself, start with just one or two. And as mentioned above, make sure to make even these smaller goals S.M.A.R.T! 

Calculate Your Ideal Calorie Intake as Part of Your S.M.A.R.T. Goals

If you want to track calories as part of your weight loss or maintenance plan, this calculator can help determine your ideal daily calorie intake.

Note: This is intended to be a general guide only. For more individualized recommendations, please talk with your doctor or dietitian.

The Bottom Line 

If you’re looking to make goals to improve your health, it’s important to set yourself up for success. And one effective way of doing this is making sure that you’re setting goals that are S.M.A.R.T. 

When thinking about ways to make your goal measurable, don’t forget about all the ways that Lose It! can help with tracking your progress! 

By logging your food intake, you can keep track of things like calories, macros, types of foods, timing of meals, and dining out frequency.

You can also use your app to log exercise, water intake, and weight changes.