Can old people lose weight?

catlover8035
catlover8035 Posts: 4 Member
edited November 27 in Motivation and Support
I am 73 and would like to drop a few pounds. I am using a 1500 a day calorie diet right now and doing some light exercise. If any can give me some help I would like to hear from you.

Replies

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Yes. If you do not have a food scale which weighs grams and has a 'tare' function, get one.
    The most important thing you can do to lose weight is to know what you eat, and how much you eat.

    Log your food and exercise accurately and honestly in your food diary and exercise log.

    Be patient. Be persistent. Be victorious.
  • Fursian
    Fursian Posts: 566 Member
    Hi catlover,

    You can absolutely lose weight, at any age. Can I ask where you got 1500 from? This may or may not be adequate calories for you to lose weight, depending on your personal stats (age/gender/height/weight, etc..)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Welome! Everybody loses weight in a calorie deficit. My grandmother weighed around 90 pounds, and she lived to be 98 years old. If you tell us what you need help with, besides assurance, and what you have to do yourself, we will be happy to provide it.
  • dukeofthedeck
    dukeofthedeck Posts: 21 Member
    Hi Catlover,
    Weigh and log your food intake carefully and also keep track of your activity. For what it's worth, I found that raising my activity level not only helped shed some weight but also made me feel a lot better both mentally and physically. Stick with it and you'll see results.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    Hi and welcome! Of course you can lose weight, no matter your age. I’m over 60, and am down over 30 pounds since the beginning of the year. I log every day and in addition to my intentional exercise I have made an effort to move more in my everyday life. It feels great-not only physically but mentally too :)
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    edited July 2018
    I used to care for the more mature audience. Yes you can lose weight. Though I would recommend focusing on getting enough protein. Protein is already hard enough to digest, but gets harder as we age. As an edit, if you can, resistance train. It does not have to be much. Look into resistance bands. Cheap and easy to use.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    When seniors go into the hospital many of them drop weight even if they don't need to. Weight loss can happen at any age. Stay hydrated, keep your electrolytes leveled out.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,868 Member
    I’m 63 and lose weight like everyone on here. Just follow the steps that MFP has you to set up calories and activity level. Hang in there!
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    You can lose weight at any age :) I'm 67 and am 4 months into maintenance after losing ~50 lbs. while I was 65/66. There are a number of people in their 70's and beyond who have posted their achievements in the Success Stories forum, if you wanted to do a search for inspiration.

    My advice would be to stay consistent. Slow and steady worked for me, and creating a routine for managing my meals and my exercise so that weight loss just became a habit. I found that the fewer decisions I had to make around food, the fewer chances I had to make poorer choices, since given the opportunity I would choose to sit on the couch eating ice cream and binging on Netflix :o

    Best of luck!
  • dejavuohlala
    dejavuohlala Posts: 1,761 Member
    I hope so or I have wasted four years of logging on mfp. Of course you can lose weight, it may be slower but yes eat the right things in the right amount and move a little more and you can lose weight. Good luck invite some from of a similar age on mfp and complete your food diary each day, you can then get tips from others
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