SUGGESTIONS

Mimiofcapecod

I turned 65 this year (how the heck did I get to that number!) I have always had to watch my weight, but most of my life I was at average weight. I developed Afib a few years ago and one of the prescriptions I had to take had a side effect was it made you gain weight. I finally convinced my doctor to change the prescription and I am hoping I can really start to lose weight now. I know at my age it is harder to lose the weight anyway and am looking for suggestions of things to try. I drink a LOT of water during the day and have an apple watch and try to get as many steps in a day that I can. I am hoping to start doing weight training again. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you.

AnnPT77

Mimiofcapecod wrote: »

I turned 65 this year (how the heck did I get to that number!) I have always had to watch my weight, but most of my life I was at average weight. I developed Afib a few years ago and one of the prescriptions I had to take had a side effect was it made you gain weight. I finally convinced my doctor to change the prescription and I am hoping I can really start to lose weight now. I know at my age it is harder to lose the weight anyway and am looking for suggestions of things to try. I drink a LOT of water during the day and have an apple watch and try to get as many steps in a day that I can. I am hoping to start doing weight training again. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you.

Take heart, there are lots of us here who are 60+ who've lost weight. I lost 50+ pounds at age 59-60, and now (at 65) have been maintaining a healthy weight since.

Since you've joined MFP, I'm assuming you're willing to log your food. There are some skills to be developed to do it accurately, but you'll get the hang of it, and it can be really powerful.

For me, it worked to get a calorie goal from MFP's guided setup, then follow that for a month to figure out whether it was on-target for me. If it isn't, you can adjust from there based on your own experience data (4 weeks should be enough when menopausal). I'd strongly suggest *not* going for a super-aggressive weight loss rate, especially right at first. A common rule of thumb around here is to pick something in the 0.5-1% of current weight as a loss target, with a bias toward the lower end of that as more sustainable.

Note that MFP expects you to set your "activity level" based on your life *before* any intentional exercise, then log the exercise when you do it, and eat those calories, too. That keeps your weight loss rate the same, with or without exercise, and lets you get the health benefits of properly-fueled exercise.

Personally, I didn't want to do some kind of tricksy fad diet, so I logged my food, reviewed my logs, and gradually tweaked my food choices to balance calories, satiation, nutrition, tastiness, etc. If that approach sounds appealing, there's more about that here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

If you would prefer some kind of meal plan or other more structured approach, that's also an option. If you kind of outline how you think you might like to eat, maybe someone here would have ideas for you.

It's good to do some strength exercise while losing weight, so that one keeps as much of current muscle as possible while losing fat. (Not having extremely low calories, and making it a point to get adequate protein, will also help with that.) For anyone, (re-)gaining muscle is slow and effortful, and that's extra true for women our age, so keeping as much as we can along the way is a high priority. Beyond that, anything you enjoy that involves moving more can be exercise: Walking, cycling, gym stuff, swimming, dancing, games like tennis or golf, etc., and more.

The easier and more natural the total process is, the higher the odds of success. Sometimes people think it's necessary to suffer to lose weight, as if a little bodyfat were a sin we needed to expiate, so they eat in
boring/unpleasant ways, and do punitive amounts of disliked exercise. Fortunately, that's not true. Eating the right number of calories of nutritious foods we enjoy, and moving in fun ways, will do the trick.

Those are the basics, IMO. Wishing you much success!

P.S. You might enjoy this thread for some similar-age MFPers:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10718336/60-yrs-and-up#latest

Like lots of long-term discussions, it has lots of pages. Be aware that newer posts will be on the last pages, so don't be alarmed if page 1 looks old!