What is going on ? My age ? Or my metabolism since I stopped smoking HELP

deadfan2

Need some help here or guidance on what i am doing wrong. I went on a low carb diet 5 years ago ( Atkins) and lost 40 lbs In 11 months. I ate mostly chicken fish and lots of greens also also eggs and I used fitness pal to chart all i was eating.
I am 57 yo male and put on 20
Lbs since I stopped smoking ( after 30 years )in 1 year or so.ago So I thought I just go right back to the Atkins diet and also low calorie in take ( approximately 1000 to 1500 Cals per day. I do about 8k steps per day walking ( I live in nyc )
I want to pull my hair out in 6 weeks I only lost 4-to 5 lbs. and when I looked back at my weight tracking 5 years ago eating basically the same or even less now. I lost back then 11 -13 lbs even the fitness pal app tells me now after my meal completions that if I keep the same calories as today I will be 15 lbs less in 5 weeks.
What am I doing wrong ? Ugh help

JagaSrik

I don't think you are doing much wrong, one thing to consider is your age , as we get older usually some percentage of muscle will be lost yearly and hence you gain fat and to burn that fat it will take more time then younger yourself, yes with all natural ways. So keep patience and keep on moving. Good luck.

airforceman1978

I gained a lot when I quite smoking because I would just nibble on things to satisfy that urge of hand to mouth you get from smoking so I switch to toothpicks and that help me even after 10 years.ill still get that urge to smoke

lauragreenbaum

First of all, congrats on quitting smoking!! This is the best thing you can do for your health, so way to go. And I also think you're on the right track. It does get a bit harder to lose weight once we're over 50. Just keep at it and be patient.

maureenkhilde

Are you weighing everything you eat? If not you may want to consider buying a food scale. Fact is everyone has a tendency to under estimate calories they are actually eating in a day. We should be counting all the sauces, like oils, salad dressing, oil for cooking as well as meats, vegetables, breads, and so on we eat.

Here on MFP, the lowest they state a man should eat is 1500.

So if you put in your height, weight and age, as well as activity level MFP will give you an estimate of daily calories.

And if 20 lbs or so is what you are looking to loose you are right on track. The less one has to loose, the slower it will come off. In general with 20 lbs to lose you can expect a weight loss rate of .5 a week. And know some weeks it could be zero, other weeks, .25, some weeks maybe a pound, and some .5

You are working on losing the weight that is good. Only thing wrong, being human we are impatient and want quick results.

joyfait

Hello. I feel your pain. It can be done. And yes quitting smoking and age are both involved. I gained 30 pounds when I quit. Then I lost 20 of the 30...now I gained back the 20 I lost. I got careless though too..and of course I am older. I just celebrated 4 years quit. I try to remember my weight wasn’t always perfect as a smoker either. That helps my mental health stay quit and it’s true self talk...I had had weight problems off and on before...alcohol really plays a role in my metabolism. I feel like I deserve a couple glasses of dry red wine a night while I make dinner.....I mean I smoked 25 years for crying out loud! I surely can have wine! I am restarting this week and just joined MFP and I use Fitbit to track steps. I want to get back to 15k steps a day and eat around 1500 calories a day. That is my BMR. I know I will lose faster with 1200 but I think I get overwhelmed and feel deprived that low so I am trying this because I am fairly active. I hope my activity creates my deficit. Keep going. I will keep going too. I think we can do this. We just have to figure it out. I started using the food scale this week that I bought a year ago and never touched. I am finding weighing veggies allows more veggies than measuring them! Yippee!! Exciting when it’s my favorite roasted veggies!!

deadfan2

thank you

Expat75

Um, YAY no smoking!!!! Good for you that is amazing! Maybe you haven’t stopped to celebrate that win enough before you decided to be all mean to yourself about your weight....? Jump up and down a little, you deserve it!! Your lungs are seriously kissing you right now from the inside.

(Oh, and maybe add some weight training? Apparently it’s good for us old farts

But YAY no smoking!!!!! Do you realize how many people still can’t manage to do that?? Super major big deal. Don’t downplay it.

deadfan2

thank you so much for the kind words and inspiration expat75

deadfan2