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katherinefrith
katherinefrith Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi I’m new. Just glad to be here with the group. Im 76 years old, and I have 70 lbs to lose. I have arthritis in my knees and I am trying to get in shape for a trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel in November.

Replies

  • bradkcrew
    bradkcrew Posts: 1,721 Member
    The trip sounds like a fantastic motivator! You've got this!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,269 Member
    Hello, and welcome!

    With patience and commitment, you can make major progress by November . . . and based on my personal experience, I'm betting you'll be surprised and gratified at how much better you feel, in many ways. Age is no barrier! (I was a mere youth of 59 when I started on MFP, but people succeed here at ages well beyond that. I'm 66 now, in year 6+ at a healthy weight after previous decades of obesity, and very active.)

    I'd encourage you to find ways to make the process easy for you personally (not a matter of white-knuckled will power every minute, or self-deprivation), because losing a major amount of weight is inherently a long-term goal (weeks to months), so sustainability is important. On top of that, finding the happy healthy habits helps to keep weight where we want it long term, once we reach goal.

    Weight loss is mainly a matter of calorie balance, getting calorie intake a manageable bit lower than calorie burn (from everything we do all day long, not just exercise). With your upcoming trip, I'm guessing that if you aren't already active, you might want to start working on fitness a bit, too.

    Exercise doesn't have to be extreme, miserable or punitive in order to be effective. My advice would be to start with something that's very doable, but just a small manageable bit of a challenge. As your fitness improves, you can gradually increase duration, frequency, intensity, or type of activity to keep it manageable, keep your energy level high (vs. getting persistently fatigued), and keep making fitness progress. That's the right approach, IMO, for anyone of any age (based on personal experience as well as coaching education).

    Wishing you huge success here - you're really going to enjoy that trip!

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