Anybody 50+ out there?

SharonH912

Hello I'm interested in any help I can get to get this weight off. I just think that it's easier for people 50+ to understand my struggle! Please feel free to add me as a friend no matter what your age! All the help I can get will be greatly appreciated!

linda513

I just turned 57! Weight loss is extremely slow at our age, and it seems as though we have to restrict calories to a very low level. As if getting older isn't bad enough, we can hardly eat! I'm happy to be your friend.

katyjane49

Hi. I am 54 and find it disheartening sometimes when I track everything and am in deficit and do exercise then the scales refuse to budge. Feel free to add me. Unfortunately I am a bit of a technophobe and have no idea how to add friends. Lol

rsclause

55 here, the only way I can lose is deficit combined with exercise. Exercise for me is running 25 to 30 miles a week so I can have room for wine and beer.

SharonH912

Thank you all for the comments! It's great to know I'm not alone. But I can't figure out how to add friends either. But I'm glad for anyone that does to friend me!

Caraleemac

I'm 56 and have struggled with my weight all of my life. I lost 20 lbs last summer and have gained all of it back. I feel so overwhelmed at the thought of starting again since I have lost and gained so much over the years. I need to lose at least 40 lbs, but could really lose twice that and still be a reasonably sized person.

2essie

Hi Sharon I have sent you a friend request. I am 66 years old and have lost 40lbs. Anyone wanting to send friend request just tap on the persons avatar, when the next screen comes up, double tap on the persons avatar and ten choose 'invite friend'.

rsclause

I lost fifty pounds but found twenty of them back, it happens. I am not out of control so it's all good. I just need to cut back a bit on the booze and keep my exercise at current levels or higher. Right now trying to shed 10 pounds and drop my body fat to 18%.

cory17

to friend someone open their profile and click on the button "add as friend"; the other person then has to accept the request
couple of forums on here that might help:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10549544/women-ages-50-for-may-2017#latest
and there's another group that's called "55-65 year old women's success?"

Took off weight last year and have gained it all back, lost my mojo but am here today, so that's a step I guess.

likeiwas

Very tough to loose when you are older. Restricting calories to a to a very low level will not work in the long run. You should never ever go under 1200 cals/day unless you are under a doctors supervision. It will wreak havoc on your metabolism and you will end up actually gaining weight. Sounds counter-intuitive but absolutely true!

rsclause

I do much better on a slight deficit than a big one. The big deficit makes me feel sick and weak.

derek9964

Derek 52 from the northeast U.K. Anyone feel free to add me

rdmitch

I really don't think that it's hard to lose if your older. I am 62 and have fluctuated all my life but every time I set my mind to
losing I am successful. The problem seems to be keeping it off....that's where I mess up every time. I always get lazy and go back
to big portions. If I would just get on the scale once a week during maintenance it would solve my regaining problem.
My goal back in January was to drop 30 lbs. I changed that to 40 in April and hit it in May. Now I'm going for an extra 5 lb. "buffer"

I am the worst follower of healthy eating diet plans, people would cringe at my choices. I don't weigh food, I estimate
calories counts ( but I am an excellent estimator) I don't eat icky yogurt, almond milk, flax seed or any of that healthy
stuff people here are posting about and spending hours cooking up. For me some Cocoa Puffs and coffee in the AM,
Salad at lunch, chicken and broccoli type dinners. I eat frozen dinners all the time snack on candy and chips and do minimal
exercise. Count your intake and eat less than you burn. Simple math wins out every time.

The point of all the above rubbish....don't let your age make you think you're not able to do this. Follow the calories
your allowed, remember your older and your metabolism is slower so account for that fact.
You can easily do this if you set your mind to it and don't let being a senior be an excuse! We're supposed to be
smarter than that.

Wishing you great success and looking forward to hearing of your winning loses.

wild_mustard

I'm 56 and I've lost and gained over a lifetime, like many of us. I have realised that it is only going to get harder to get back to where I'd like to be, so I am taking charge and using MFP to help.

While there are challenges to losing weight (or maintaining weight loss) when we are no longer teenagers (time commitments, mobility, etc), as rdmitch mentioned above, it comes down to learning how to keep track of intake so that you know when you have taken in what you need for the day. That, combined with moving your body through space (or when seated, if that is your only option), is pretty much what we need to do.

I think the hardest part is that most human beings lack the attention span and dsicipline to stick to what they think they SHOULD be doing - me included! Changing habits takes time, but it can be done. Pick one thing you want to address and work on that. Give yourself a time frame. For instance, you could decide: I am going to take a brisk walk once a day for 10 minutes. I am going to do that every day for 2 weeks. At the end of the two weeks, see how you did. If you were able to do this, and it felt good, challenge yourself to another 2 weeks. Or a month. After a month, it will have become a habit. And you can up it to 15 minutes. Or keep it at 10.

Change one or two things at a time. Track yourself to see how you did. Continue, or make changes, or add things.

And hang in there, because you are not alone. There are a lot of us out here who are not 20 anymore!!!

petercoologeorgen

I'll be 64 in a couple of weeks. As was said above, things dlow fowm, we begin to need meds and the aches and pains seem to stay. I find that any activity is better than sitting on my butt to watch television. I find that we eat out a lot. That is damaging. Quality of sleep is poor (snoring, nocturnal washroom visits, knee pain). The first step is to identify our problem. The next step is to attempt a vorrevtive action. The third step is to always feel blessed for being given another day to live. Keep trying.

AnnPT77

SharonH912 wrote: »

Hello I'm interested in any help I can get to get this weight off. I just think that it's easier for people 50+ to understand my struggle! Please feel free to add me as a friend no matter what your age! All the help I can get will be greatly appreciated!

Buncha good ideas in this thread, FWIW:

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10254997/40-year-old-women-and-older-who-has-lost-40-or-more-lbs-how-the-heck-did-you-do-it

kyriggs77

I'm 58 and been on low carb/keto for 8 weeks and only lost about 8lbs. It is a slow process. My daily calorie intake has been around 1000 and find it hard to add more calories, but been told over and over that 1000-1200 is too low. I know I need to add more exercise but giving up foods I love is hard enough. I use Pinterest to save low carb recipes to replace a lot of my old favorites but now as a low carb/sugar substitute.

TonyB0588

SharonH912 wrote: »

Hello I'm interested in any help I can get to get this weight off. I just think that it's easier for people 50+ to understand my struggle! Please feel free to add me as a friend no matter what your age! All the help I can get will be greatly appreciated!

Yes. Fifty plus One. It's not impossible. Goctor told me to lose 10 lbs and I lost 13.

rdmitch

TonyB0588 wrote: »

SharonH912 wrote: »

Hello I'm interested in any help I can get to get this weight off. I just think that it's easier for people 50+ to understand my struggle! Please feel free to add me as a friend no matter what your age! All the help I can get will be greatly appreciated!

Yes. Fifty plus One. It's not impossible. Goctor told me to lose 10 lbs and I lost 13.

You nailed it.

sosteach

I am 58 and I have lost 25 pounds (75 to go). I started by making small goals and building from that. Like I will walk twice a day. It might have only been around the block but I did it. And then I will give up all sugar. You get the point...do not try to do it all at once or it can be overwhelming. Currently I eat 1200 calories a day, walk a minimum of 45 minutes a day, and do a fun dance fitness class twice a week. Weight loss aside I feel so much better physically and emotionally. Your best tool is your mind...I decided I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and I will do this!

louiseisbeautiful

Hi Sharon. I'm 57 and double the weight I should be. My son introduced me to this app and I have been using it for a whole 5 days!!

louiseisbeautiful

I haven't quite managed the exercise bit yet but have been using the app since Monday and feel better already :-)

dancerinadeux

Hi there... I'm 52, will be 53 this summer. I have struggled with my weight all my life. I finally realized that my weight issue was largely tied to my emotional eating issues. So I hired a therapist on TalkSpace to figure things out. For the first time in my life, I am having success. Having tried Paleo and some other things, I really don't think losing weight is that complicated. Calories in, calories out. You want to lose weight, you need to track your calories because it is really, really, REALLY easy to eat too much food. Everyone is different but for my body (I'm tall and muscular), I need protein to kill the hunger pangs. So I make sure I am getting enough. Another thing that has worked for me: fasting. I basically don't eat breakfast any more, just coffee with milk and honey. I don't feel deprived or weak from not eating. I noticed a while back that I wasn't that interested in breakfast a lot of the time. I decided to listen to my body and it's working. I am down 10lbs since April. I had a couple of slow weeks as I was still working things out with the therapist but once I figured out my food triggers and how to deal with them and got my exercise plan in place, the weight started coming off. I'm now dropping 1-2lbs per week regularly. Exercise is crucial, you've got to be burning enough of what eat to see a difference on the scale. I have been keeping my calories to around 1200-1400/day total and I do not feel deprived at all. If you fill up on lots of vegetables and a good amount of protein, your hunger will be satisfied. FWIW, I do eat some carb but I keep the portions reasonable and I try to only eat it a few times a week. So... my recipe is: AM Fasting, Enough Protein, Tracking Calories, Exercise, Lowered Calorie Intake. I don't think it's really anything magic, just simple science. I hope you find some success, good luck!

dancerinadeux

Just a few more things: in working out my plan with my therapist, we took a good look at sugar intake and I realized it was in a lot of foods I was eating. Sugar will make you want to eat and it will make you want more sugar. I do my best to eat only natural sugar in fruit now and low amounts of that. Really helps as well. When you stop eating sugar, your appetite will adjust to normal. I stopped having constant hunger pangs. That's why I like fasting too, it teaches you what a real hunger signal is. In our food obsessed culture where we celebrate everything and do everything with food, it's very easy to get confused and to know when you are actually hungry and need to eat and when you are using food to comfort yourself or feel your feelings.

jb_2011

Hi! I'm 62, I started MFP in Nov. 2010 and lost 65 lbs. in a year and a half. Over the next 4 years I gained almost 30 back by getting lazy with logging - I thought I'd learned how to control my eating but obviously not!! Things got really bad after my mom became ill and passed away, whew, that was beyond difficult. Yep, I was definitely stress-eating...which I'm prone to anyway. Something clicked at the beginning of this year, though, I decided it was time. Since January I've lost 16 by paying attention to what I eat, keeping calories between 1350 and 1450. Some days I take a break and splurge a little. All I do for exercise is walk, I have a couple of great dogs who keep me going every day, and I do a lot of gardening. I can't jog or do jumping jacks anymore due to an injured knee from doing jumping jacks, lol. Back in the early MFP days I tried to tell myself I could do heavy aerobics and jump around like a kid. It was fun while it lasted, haha. Now I've settled in on just taking long walks and eating less. Feel free to add me, I'm always open for new friends!

Tattooedmom44

Hello everyone. I'm Angie. I'm 50. 3 1/2 years ago I suffered a stroke. After discovering healthy eating, meal planning and weight lifting, I'm in the best shape of my life

alannabanana75

Hi, I'm 56 & into my third week here at MFP. Feel free to add me

b3achy

Over 50 group here... http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/100593-over-50-group...

It's moderately active, but more importantly, you can find folks of our own age there...