Obesity after 50

lolasimmons403
lolasimmons403 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I was wondering how to start exercising for the first time? I am 52 years old and obese and I have lived a sedentary lifestyle for years and I want to change that?

Replies

  • frankwbrown
    frankwbrown Posts: 13,038 Member
    I would suggest a number of things to get started:
    1. It would be wise to consult a doctor before doing anything drastic.
    2. Educate yourself on nutrition: understand macro nutrients, micro nutrients, etc.
    3. Spend some time searching the discussions, for encouragement and inspiration.
    4. Decide if there is a particular diet you'd like to try. Avoid the extreme weight loss diets. The proven approach is one that aims for only 1 or 2 pounds a week.
    5. Recognize that you might find it quite hard, and you might get discouraged periodically, but don't give up.
    6. Also, understand that it is probably not just some short term diet that you need, but a lifestyle change that you commit to for the rest of your life.

    You've taken the first step, so continue forward. You will be happy you did so.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,264 Member
    For physical activity, start slowly, with something manageable, then increase gradually.

    The sweet spot is something enjoyable that's just a small bit of a challenge, but doable, that doesn't leave you wrung out or exhausted for the rest of the day. It can be something like walking, or pool exercise, or playing with kids, or dancing, or a yoga class, or anything, really. It doesn't have to be some fancy-named thing, or feel arduous, in order to be useful.

    Start at a level you can handle, maybe even just 2-3 times a week at first. (Rest and recovery is as important for progress as the activity itself.) Then, as whatever you're doing gradually starts feeling easier, make a change to keep that little bit of challenge in the picture. You can do that thing longer, at a higher intensity (such as walk faster), more frequently; or you can take on a different activity that seems fun and challenges you in a different way. Over time, with persistence, fitness builds.

    I started being active a little younger than you are now, when I was around 45-46, right after cancer treatment - surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, the whole nine yards. I'd been very sedentary before that especially in the preceding few years, so I was pretty depleted. I was class 1 obese.

    I did pretty much what I described. In my case, I took a yoga class a couple of times a week, then started doing a few minutes of the most helpful yoga exercises daily. I took some other group classes, trying things out, eventually a "weight training for women" class that was really good.

    A couple of years on, there was a rowing team for breast cancer survivors forming in the area, and - with trepidation - I joined that. It was hard, but so much fun! I got addicted, became a regular rower (indoor on machine in Winter, outdoors on water in Summer), and started to do other activities to benefit my rowing: Adult swimming lessons, more strength training, aerobics, cycling, and more, at varied times. I even competed in rowing, indoors and out, even winning some age group place medals.

    If you had told 45-year-old me that I'd be doing that stuff *ever*, she wouldn't have believed you. I surprised myself. You can, too.

    Despite the activity level, I stayed overweight to obese for about another dozen years: It was easy to eat the few hundred extra calories daily that that exercise burned. Finally, at age 59-60, I faced the fact that I needed to get my eating in hand, and reach a healthy weight. That's when I started using MFP, and calorie counting. I lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight in about a year, and have been at a healthy weight for 5+ years since, still very active. (I'm 65 now.) Losing weight was easier than I had expected, frankly, not to mention more beneficial: I wish I had done it years earlier.

    Lots of different ways of eating can work, especially in a calorie counting context using MFP. IMO, personalization to our own preferences, strengths, and limitations is really key.

    Myself, I pretty much kept eating what I'd been eating, just in different portions, proportions and frequencies. It was a process of gradually remodeling my eating, within a calorie goal. It was basically this approach:

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

    There's nothing sacred about that, and many different eating plans can work. The best idea, IMO, is to find one that makes the process easier for you personally.

    I think we have some advantage, as older folks. We know ourselves really well. We have experience working patiently with our strengths, and working around our limitations, in order to gradually accomplish long-term goals in other areas (education, home improvements, family, career, etc.). We can bring that knowledge and those skills to bear in improving fitness and health, too.

    You can do this! It's definitely a "slow and steady wins" kind of scenario. Wishing you maximum success!
  • LtHammerhead
    LtHammerhead Posts: 33 Member
    Some good advice here. Getting your eating in order is the hard part.
    As far as exercise, start slow and make achievable goals and measure it all (so you can see the wins). For example, plan a 1 mile walk. Then 2 mile. Then 3. Then go back to 1 Mille and see how much faster you are with the same effort level.

    Personally when I started I set a big goal (run a marathon), then made a plan to do what seemed impossible. Then I followed the plan and realized it wasn’t impossible.
  • frankwbrown
    frankwbrown Posts: 13,038 Member
    You might find this discussion interesting:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10841733/at-goal-successfully-maintaining-so-why-am-i-doing-this-all-over-again
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Going for walks on the regular is a great way to start being active and getting your body used to moving.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    Best advice I can give you in think long term goals that incorporare your diet, resistance training, & some cardio.

    Resistance training is extremely important to all ages but after age 50 evidence shows that it reverses sarcopenia.

    Sarcopenia is clinically important as it is a major risk factor for physical frailty, falls, prolonged hospitalisation, dependency and earlier death.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4066461/

    Around age 50 we begin to lose 10% of our muscle mass every ten years if not resistance training. Our bone density decreases as the reasoning we hear of advanced age people with more brittle bones. Which decreases our quality of life and actually shortens it very quickly.

    If we are eating in a caloric deficit, resistance training helps to retain muscle mass as well.

    You can see why it's so important.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,481 Member
    In all honesty, tie on a great pair of comfy walking shoes and hie thy butt out yon door.

    You’ve got to start somewhere and walking is easy, cheap, and generally available.

    There’s people here who swore they couldn’t exercise. They started by going to the end of the driveway, adding the fence post the next day, a mailbox, a telephone pole the next, until they covered a mile or two a day.

    You don’t have to go all Jane Fonda with perfect clothes and hair. I think that’s a misconception our (female) generation buys in to. 🤷🏻‍♀️

    It tickles me to see older women working out with full makeup and tidy hair. The young ones don’t bother. I salute them for just getting it done — and not putting pressure on themselves to shave their pits.



  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Another vote for starting slowly, with walking.

    Also good point above about resistance training. Do consider joining a gym at some point and taking a few sessions with a personal trainer. I've moved a lot and joined a lot of gyms. All gave me 1-3 sessions with a trainer for free. Some have had small group classes for very cheap or free. I had a great small group class at a YMCA that gave me the confidence to go into any gym cold and get a workout - but I never had to do this, as all provide orientation and at least one sessions with a trainer.

    Also after this and other small group classes I was comfortable creating a home gym when I moved yet again and didn't care for any of the gyms in my area.
  • YellowD0gs
    YellowD0gs Posts: 693 Member
    In addition to the great advice above, if you plan to start walking, or pounding away on a treadmill, make sure to include some stretching, especially of the legs, hamstrings, Achilles, and feet! Two and a half years ago, I was very much in the same place as you describe, when 2 heart attacks compelled me to get off my butt and start exercising! I lasted about 3 months pounding away on a treadmill before plantar fasciitis kicked in. In a word, PF sucks! My PT for that remarked on the high correlation between cardiac survival and PF, likely due to the sudden change from a sedentary to more active lifestyle at this point in our lives, stressing that tendon that has received little use for so long. Stretching is an easy thing, and it may not seem like it's doing much...but don't miss it!

Categories