60 yrs and up
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@sandramarshall200
Welcome. You joined us "Seasoned Citizens" by posting!1 -
1st Question. What should I eat that will be low calorie but high volume right now? I’m absolutely ravenous, but have less than 100 calories left, know I will go over but don’t want to go too far, I’ve had eggs and chicken kokoro today0
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sandramarshall200 wrote: »1st Question. What should I eat that will be low calorie but high volume right now? I’m absolutely ravenous, but have less than 100 calories left, know I will go over but don’t want to go too far, I’ve had eggs and chicken kokoro today
Hi, @sandramarshall200, and welcome to this 60+ thread!
I can think of two ways to answer this, from my individual perspective. I hope one or the other might be helpful, maybe. Just my opinions, though.
Answer #1:
Maybe the right-hand column of this handy chart would help?
Source: https://www.workingagainstgravity.com/articles/17-macro-tracking-tips
For clarity: That's a random source. I'm not necessarily endorsing the whole article let alone that site, but I hate it when people take info from sites, don't link/credit them. That's cheesy. Cheese is not low calorie or high volume, although some people do find it sating. 😉
Answer #2, probably less applicable in the moment, but more about overall plan and trajectory: Maybe you've already figured this out, but different people are sated by different things. Common ones are protein, fats, or high volume/low-cal foods like non-starchy veggies. For some people, even specific foods turn out to be helpful. A couple of common ones are plain potatoes (like a baked or boiled potato) or oatmeal, though those are not universal.
For me, it took a little experimenting to figure out what combination of foods (eaten on what schedule) kept me relatively full and happy, at least until close to the time the next scheduled meal or snack was coming up.
For me, also, there was about a two or so week period where my body seemed to be . . . mourning old habits? . . . and I was somewhat hungry. After I toughed that out, things settled down some (and I was working on experimenting with different eating routines in parallel).
If you have a rare day where you're particularly and unusually hungry, consider whether it's worthwhile to eat above your goal, maybe even up to maintenance calories. Eating one day at maintenance - loosely speaking - will delay reaching goal weight by one day. Sometimes that's worth it, if it helps with sustainability (so you can keep going), or with energy level (so fatigue doesn't sap calorie burn out of your day). However, if you are a person who needs to be self-strict, that may not work for you. You know you best.
Some people find that consistent getting overall good nutrition will help with feeling sated more often - so getting enough protein, enough fats (close to goal levels), plenty of varied, colorful veggies and fruits for micronutrients and fiber. Some people find that eating relatively more of so-called "whole foods" vs. "highly processed foods" is helpful (though those are vague terms at best!).
There's also an affect where fatigue can trigger hunger, so managing stress (as much as feasible), getting as much good quality/quantity of sleep, and not overdoing exercise can be helpful, since those things can help avoid/reduce fatigue.
One of the things I think we 60+ folks have going for us is that we tend to know ourselves pretty well, have insights about what's going on with ourselves, if we sort of tune into that channel, and exploit that self-knowledge in a canny way.
Best wishes!5 -
Wow, what a welcome. Such helpful information. I will treasure it. I chose the non starchy veg, and a tiny portion of my homemade low sugar apple cake. And I don’t mind going over a bit. I’m fledging a young one next week, off to Uni, so had to do physical shopping today and it wiped me out. If I’m still hungry in a while, might have a bowl of porridge, punk rocker me!4
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Welcome to the new arrivals! 🙂
It was a full moon tonight so my dragon boat club had a moonlight paddle. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was like glass, a soft, warm breeze, and a boat load of wonderful women ♥️
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@ridiculous59 - what beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing 😘
@sandramarshall200 - when I am hungry and not much calories left, I find what fills me up is an apple (dried apple slices especially as take longer to eat), baby carrots, beef jerky + I drink some more water!
I also try to have low-calorie veggie soup on hand (make a big batch periodically and freeze portions) to supplement with on those days which I can eat as is or dress up with some chicken or something and use as a meal potentially too if enough wiggle room.
The other thing is to go to bed lol.4 -
Hey all, so much quiet! Have a great weekend and check in anytime 😊
How are all the newbies doing?
My food is slowly coming back under control and my vacation gain slowly leaving...which I am super grateful for.
But still up about 5 lbs from vacation a month ago, and I leave in 2 weeks for Hawaii!! Which I am delighted to do, of course, but on the weight front is a little troubling. Would be nice to at least be back to my prior vacation starting point...1st world problems I realize 🙃
Keep on keeping on folks!3 -
BCLadybug888 wrote: »Hey all, so much quiet! Have a great weekend and check in anytime 😊
How are all the newbies doing?
My food is slowly coming back under control and my vacation gain slowly leaving...which I am super grateful for.
But still up about 5 lbs from vacation a month ago, and I leave in 2 weeks for Hawaii!! Which I am delighted to do, of course, but on the weight front is a little troubling. Would be nice to at least be back to my prior vacation starting point...1st world problems I realize 🙃
Keep on keeping on folks!
Enjoy your upcoming vacation. Hope to get back to Hawaii one day. What island you visiting?
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We love Kauai and it is our normal go-to island, but this time we're doing it a bit differently as we are taking a repositioning cruise to Hawaii from Vancouver, BC and will visit Maui & Oahu from the ship, then stay an extra few days in Maui & renting a car to check it out properly before flying home.
Whereabouts in Hawaii do you like to go?1 -
Happy Sunday! Cruise sounds really nice way to visit the islands. We like Kauai too. Poipu area. Maui is nice too, but really built up. Like the Kona area on the Big Island.0
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Greetings, all. I haven't checked in here in weeks. Good to see you all are sticking to it.
No significant change in my situation. We took my wife to California over Labor Day to see her family. She stayed with her sister for five days after we returned. That was a welcome little break.
Finally back to walking the dog most nights. Did gain a couple of pounds while away. No biggie - I've got the scale headed in the right direction again.
I'm going to try to check in here more often. Thanks for leaving the light on!👍9 -
@BCLadybug888 Have fun in Hawaii. It's one of our favorite places to vacation as well and we're heading to the Big Island in mid October. The Cruise idea sounds wonderful! Please report back to us how you liked it.1
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@alteredsteve175 Good to hear from you. The California trip sounds like a welcome change to your normal routine as well as your wife getting to spend time with her sister. Glad you've been able to get back to logging and exercise.1
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Hi, all! I'd love to hear from some of the new folks again, too: How is it going? Any questions or roadblocks you're dealing with? Maybe someone here could help?
Also, it's always great to get updates from the longer-time 60+ participants. @BCLadybug888, your upcoming vacation sounds wonderful. I still regret not visiting Hawaii when my college roommate was there for grad school, and haven't gotten around to going there since. (When my husband was alive, we did backwoods canoe camping vacations, which I loved, but I'm not confident enough to do it solo. Now, I usually vacation at rowing camps or visit friends/relatives in other parts of the US.)
@alteredsteve175, I'm happy to hear you've had some pleasant changes in your routine (and a little break from it recently). Hang in there!
@ridiculous59, the dragon boat event I planned to participate in has been cancelled. I'm bummed out. There are hopes for next year, so I plan to try again.
So, not much unusual in my world, just going on with my usual maintenance routine and rowing/biking activities (since the weather's still decent).
My most favored rowing double partner (age 75 BTW) had been out for a while with some ribcage pain, but this week has felt able to rejoin us, which makes me happy. The rest of us (mostly 60s, 70s) aren't letting her carry the heavy boats yet, because we know her and worry she'll do too much too soon (as many of us would!). But she says the rowing has her feeling better, not worse, so that's hopeful.
Last weekend, I went to a local small-town "Fall Feastival" with that rowing friend plus one from my "Elder Orphans" group. ("Elder Orphans" = people who are 55+, don't have a spouse, children, siblings, etc., to help them out with things, and who have some special issues around stuff like estates and health care. We help each other with stuff, socialize, etc.)
At the Feastival, I hit the food trucks hard . . . vegan black bean tacos with pickled-cabbage slaw, semifreddo, a chocolate salted caramel cupcake, a cinnamon roll, and I forget what-all else. Totally worth the (rare) heavy indulgence, in my book. My scale weight spiked up for a couple of days from the extra sugar (water retention weight), but is back down in the normal zone now (from Saturday to Tuesday). I may have a bit of true fat gain (fraction of a pound), but I'm not stressed about it.
Today, tree trimmers are on my agenda, should be here soon to trim some really big maple trees that are on my property, but hang over my neighbors' lawn close to their house. A couple of smaller branches have broken, so I want to get the dead or compromised branches cut before Winter ice and snow come.
Random photo contribution: This pretty white-tailed deer stayed right next to the trail - maybe only 6-8 feet away from me - on my bike ride the other day.
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Great deer photo, @AnnPT77. Very rare to get that close. I usually just see the white tail flagging me from a distance. 😁3
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It's been a very busy and hectic summer for me. I think that after two years of relatively quiet COVID summers, once things opened up, I jumped in with both feet and ended up doing too much. We had a few days away in May and then again in August but the rest of the time its been go, go, go. For the most part I was doing things I wanted to do. And it was totally my own fault. But in retrospect, it was just too much. Lesson learned.
And so as the last day of summer approaches (tomorrow) it's time for a re-boot. When the weather cools (it's only 2C/35F this morning) I switch from salads to soups for my lunch. I have a small bag of beets that I'll make into borsht today and I have several containers of both cauliflower and broccoli soups in the freezer that I made over the summer. I had nearly 16,000 steps yesterday so that was a good start. My daily exercise goal is to walk the dogs plus something else. The "something else" is usually yoga, weights, paddling, or another walk with my girlfriends. Other things have interfered with the yoga and weights over the past couple of months but I'm back in the game now. Bring on Fall!!!!4 -
Hello all. I’m struggling to negotiate the site. Couldnt find you all!
I’m doing ok, despite a weekend away. Also contemplating a shift from salad to soup. I love making soup. I’ve been logging for 3 weeks and I have lost over 3 kilos, which is about 7 lbs. Got to be happy with that, although I can also see where I could have done better. starting to weigh food properly instead of guesstimating, and of course now I know what 1 oz of cheese looks like. Getting to understand that basing all meals around carbs has led me to 230lbs. Even the little I’ve lost has helped me feel better, I had awful rashes under my belly and breasts and that’s gone. I don’t know if this is the same for others, but I have remembered that failure at lifestyle change isn’t about getting so hungry I go and bust my gut in Macdonalds, it’s about letting little bad habits creep back in, like the biscuits with my tea or the late night toast. I am enjoying eating more mindfully. And I’m really happy that my darling husband who does a lot of the shopping and cooking has taken m my need to lose weight on board.5 -
sandramarshall200 wrote: »Hello all. I’m struggling to negotiate the site. Couldnt find you all!
I’m doing ok, despite a weekend away. Also contemplating a shift from salad to soup. I love making soup. I’ve been logging for 3 weeks and I have lost over 3 kilos, which is about 7 lbs. Got to be happy with that, although I can also see where I could have done better. starting to weigh food properly instead of guesstimating, and of course now I know what 1 oz of cheese looks like. Getting to understand that basing all meals around carbs has led me to 230lbs. Even the little I’ve lost has helped me feel better, I had awful rashes under my belly and breasts and that’s gone. I don’t know if this is the same for others, but I have remembered that failure at lifestyle change isn’t about getting so hungry I go and bust my gut in Macdonalds, it’s about letting little bad habits creep back in, like the biscuits with my tea or the late night toast. I am enjoying eating more mindfully. And I’m really happy that my darling husband who does a lot of the shopping and cooking has taken m my need to lose weight on board.
There's a thing that looks like a little ribbon on the top right corner of threads (conversations). If you touch or click on that it will turn blue. Now the conversation is "bookmarked" so at a later time you can look at your "Quick Links", and then "My Bookmarks". The conversation should be in there. I use MFP on my phone most of the time and my Quick Links are at the bottom of the screen. I'm not sure where they are if you use a computer, but they'll be on your screen somewhere. Hope that helps 🙂
Congrats on losing 3 kg! I was 232 pounds when I started on here so I hear you. Especially the part about basing meals on carbs. And those little bad habits can undermine all the good work a person has done in a day. See? You're figuring it out. Good job!3 -
Happy Saturday! Unscheduled weekend here. Will definitely get some walks in and maybe an indulgence or two. Hope everyone can enjoy the day!5
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Thanks ridiculous, I love your name. Can I be personal and ask what you weigh now? I’ve just looked at my weight tracker and it’s a depressing series of sharp ups and downs, with a long rise in the middle whenI didn't track for a year. I started to say to myself that my body obviously sets to this weight and then stopped. There is no rule that I have to spend the rest of my life in the obese category. I am going to reset myself . First goal is under 200, also under 15 stone and less than 90 kgs!
I went to a Scrabble tournament yesterday, and ate some millionaires shortbread. I don’t even like it! But I won’t eat something again just because it’s there. I was hungry though, and I had no healthy food with me. Lesson learned.I also had a small piece of cake, but I love that!
Grand daughters birthday party today, so I’ll see if I negotiate better.2 -
sandramarshall200 wrote: »Thanks ridiculous, I love your name. Can I be personal and ask what you weigh now? I’ve just looked at my weight tracker and it’s a depressing series of sharp ups and downs, with a long rise in the middle whenI didn't track for a year. I started to say to myself that my body obviously sets to this weight and then stopped. There is no rule that I have to spend the rest of my life in the obese category. I am going to reset myself . First goal is under 200, also under 15 stone and less than 90 kgs!
I went to a Scrabble tournament yesterday, and ate some millionaires shortbread. I don’t even like it! But I won’t eat something again just because it’s there. I was hungry though, and I had no healthy food with me. Lesson learned.I also had a small piece of cake, but I love that!
Grand daughters birthday party today, so I’ll see if I negotiate better.
I lost 90 pounds and then settled into a "happy weight" of around 145. It took me three years to lose my weight because I continued to enjoy "life events" such as birthday cakes, Christmas, and a glass of wine with homemade pizza on a Friday night. To my way of thinking, I had to be able to lose weight while still participating in certain things, otherwise, how would I be able to maintain? It worked for me and I maintained my weight for about three years
And then I retired. My big challenge has been "free range" eating because this new life doesn't have the same structure as it did when I worked. Unfortunately I've allowed a bit of creep and am currently working on that. My clothes still all fit, just not as comfortably. It's a constant battle but I'll get it figured out......🙃4 -
Hi, and welcome, @sandramarshall200: Congratulations on the excellent start!
Seven pounds in 3 weeks is pretty fast. Maybe you already realize this, but it's normal for the first weeks to lose a little faster, especially if we're reducing carbs below our previous levels. (The body holds a little extra water to digest/metabolize carbs, so we see that water retention drop on the scale, in addition to whatever fat loss has been triggered by calorie reduction.) It's also normal to have some ups and downs on the scale from water retention shifts from day to day, so don't get discouraged by any short-run outcome that's not what you may've hoped. Averages over a month or so tell the true story.
I don't know about you, but I found food logging really helpful: It made it easy for me to see where I was "spending" calories on things that just weren't that important to my satiation, nutrition, or all-round happiness . . . kind of as you found with the millionaires shortbread. I did things like reduce the amount of pasta in my standard serving, increase veggies; eat fewer sandwiches, and the ones I did eat open face or on a lower-calorie bread/wrap; etc. Small changes in eating patterns really add up!
I hear you on the "eating things because they're there" habit: That was one of mine, for sure. Perhaps surprisingly, I find that I enjoy my food more now that I'm being more selective, choosing only things I enjoy and find beneficial, rather than just shoveling in mediocre foods I don't truly value, just because they were in front of me.
You're already having some great insights, and learning from things that didn't go as well as they could've, which is perfect. Weight loss (weight management, long term) is really about calm, effective analysis and problem solving, IMO, to change our normal eating patterns. I worry about folks who treat weight loss as a quick, extreme project with an end date after which things "go back to normal", or who seem more oriented to a guilt/anxiety approach to food and eating, and it sounds like you're avoiding those altogether: Good show.
I'm betting you'll also find more wins along the way even before getting to goal weight, things big and small that are similar to your finding that your rashes are gone. There's a great (huge!) thread about those "non scale victories" here, and it was really helpful/motivating to me while I was losing weight. In case you or others haven't seen it, it's here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv#latest
I hope you'll continue to stay in touch here, let us know how you're doing. Wishing you continuing success, all the way to your goals!
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Happy Monday. I'm back swimming and hiking after almost a month off. It feels so good to be back.
Yesterday was such a beautiful day to hike. The trees aren't quite changing yet, but the morning has a bit of a chill in the air. My sister and I only hiked about 3 miles yesterday just to get back in the groove. It's one of our favorite trails with a decent elevation gain. Those are some of the moments I'm most grateful that my body has and is responding after all the years of abuse.
I'm in the process of launching a new business and finishing up the final tidbits for an art show I'm in. All of this activity has taken my eye off the health prize. I'm excited, tired and a bit overwhelmed. But, things are slowly coming together.
I have been lurking and reading everyone's posts. While I'm not posting as much right now, it's so helpful to read your updates.
Welcome to our new folks!
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For those of you who are up for very technically dense research papers, I'm going to post this interesting link:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/inflammation-and-metabolism-the-role-of-adiposity-in-sarcopenic-obesity/7D14E6172713E0A15C7BD60A7E65AE7A
It's particular relevant to those of us obese/overweight, and aging. Right now, the full text is available for free, but that may be time-limited (it sometimes is).
A somewhat accessible quote from the last part of it, noting that "sarcopenic obesity" is the tendency to lose muscle mass more extremely as we age, so become more frail, if obese:Treating the condition of sarcopenic obesity is complex as diet-induced weight loss, aimed at reducing fat mass, can accelerate muscle mass loss . . . . The incorporation of exercise, ideally including both resistance and aerobic exercise training, during weight loss is a potent strategy to minimise weight loss-induced muscle mass (loss) in older adults. In addition, dietary strategies such as higher protein intake may further enhance muscle mass retention.
Oversimplifying, the overall thrust is that obesity plus aging can lead to both increased loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia), and to insulin resistance (precursor to diabetes), and that those conspire to increase our odds of losing function, of earlier frailty, of earlier mortality or disease, and more. Excess weight (adiposity) is itself something that increases harmful systemic inflammation, and contributes to decline that is often attributed to aging, but that may not be as inevitable as presumed with increasing age.
This graphic kind of summarizes the progression (but I get that even this is somewhat technical):
(Anabolic resistance, loosely, is difficulty in gaining muscle, maybe including tendency to lose it more rapidly.)
Still oversimplifying, the interventions that can help us (synergistically used together) are:
* Getting enough high-quality protein
* Spreading high-quality protein through the day
* Losing weight to a healthy weight
* Exercising, both cardiovascular and strength exercise, but especially some strength-challenging exercise
* Reducing saturated fat intake in favor of other fats
Those things work together to reduce negative systemic inflammation, help us stay strong and functional, improve odds of longer lifespan, decrease chances of frailty, and more.
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Oh my gosh AnnPT77, I could probably be a case study for this condition! Years of on and off dieting with associated loss of muscle make me a very likely candidate for sarcopenia as I get older. I have never heard this term before now so something to be aware of. Thank you for providing this succinct summary.2
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Oh my gosh AnnPT77, I could probably be a case study for this condition! Years of on and off dieting with associated loss of muscle make me a very likely candidate for sarcopenia as I get older. I have never heard this term before now so something to be aware of. Thank you for providing this succinct summary.
The key thing is, now you're working to avoid/delay this. (I know this from this about you from this and other threads). That's huge.
I'm for sure in this picture, too . . . but also wanting to put the bus in reverse gear, to the extent feasible. It's possible, I believe. (I think the authors of the paper do, too - it feels like they're writing with some urgency because of that.)
If anyone has the science background - or the force of will - to read the actual research paper, there's good and insightful stuff in there - more nuance than my amateur summary. To read something like that, I need to look up terms as I read, and I know I don't catch all the subtleties, but I still think it's useful to try to take it on board.3 -
The toughest part for me of over 60 is all the strange little stuff our bodies throw at us. Is it the beginning of something which will be really bad or is it just a little annoyance? And how long it takes for things to recover really sucks. Even being "healthy" pretty much every day can be a new surprise. sigh.
Sorry to whine. Just catching up here with folks.3 -
Good info! Thank you!0
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I went swimming today. I was told not to swim last year, and missed it so much. I’m mainly using my arms, and I came out as soon as it started to hurt, but I feel so much better for it. I will go 2 or 3 times a week.
Thank you everyone for welcoming me. I think I need all the help I can get!
Thanks for the article. I’ve only had 8% protein today. That’s clearly something to watch3
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