Hello! :) New to group & App

lynnmr333

Hello all. Glad I found this app and group. I'm actually looking for what piece of the weight loss puzzle is missing for me. I'm age 50+ and have been slowly gaining weight over all since age 50. I'm thinking it's the hormone piece which I least understand. Can someone direct me to a good book and/or group that could help? Greatly appreciated.

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome to the MFP Community!

I'm a skeptic about the hormone explanation, personally . . . even though it's being used in a lot of marketing lately for weight loss and fitness programs. (I'm female and 66, BTW, so I'm not just some gym-bro dude talking abstract theory 😉.)

For many of us, I think the bigger deal is that as we age, we tend to gradually and subtly move less in our daily lives. On top of that, if we do little or nothing to remind our bodies that we need and want to keep our young-person muscle mass, that muscle mass will slowly melt away as we age.

I don't know about you, but in my 20s, my job had more physical movement in it than my later jobs (partly active job vs. desk job, but also that even desk jobs have less movement in them than they did when I first started working at one in the late 1970s, pre-internet!). Younger folks are often remodeling/redecorating homes/apartments, doing work themselves that I currently am more likely to pay others to do on home/lawn (dunno about you), socializing in more active ways (dancing or hiking or playing outdoor games vs. dinner and theatre parties, for example); chasing toddlers, and more.

On top of that, as I mentioned, many of us (especially women, I think) aren't doing many life activities or exercises that challenge our strength and help us keep up our muscle mass. We may even let overall fitness slide a bit, in other ways.

At an extreme, that can create a negative spiral: The less we move, the less strong/fit we slowly become. The less fit we become, the less easy/fun it is to be active. The less active, we gradually lose more strength/fitness, as well as just getting out of the habit of doing active things.

Maybe that's not you, but it's common. If we move enough less, or eat enough more - or a combination - to be eating a mere 100 calories daily more than we burn via activity, we're going to gain roughly 10 pounds a year. That hundred calories is like half a standard serving of peanut butter, or around half an hour(ish) of moderate pace walking for a 150-pound person (or equivalent other movement)!

Weight creep is surprisingly sneaky.

The good news is that all of that is pretty reversible: Cut back the calories eating somewhat less (below calories burned), do some strength-challenging fitness-improving activities (which can be fun, not punitive) . . . weight loss happens, fitness improves, moving gets more fun and easier, and we're on a more positive course.

Easy every second, to do that? No, of course not. Changing habits requires a person to be wily, patient, persistent. But it's doable.

I feel like us 50+ folks even have some advantages: At this point, we know ourselves pretty well. We have experience with using our preferences, strengths and limitations to personalize routes to major life goals, by gradually chipping away at those goals. We've done it to accomplish things like getting an education, building a career, making a comfortable home, raising families, learning skilled hobbies, etc. We can use that same set of skill, apply them to weight management and fitness.

Best wishes for success!

Zinka61

I came here at the same age for the same reason. In the end, eating less and exercising more is what made the difference. It really was no harder losing weight in my 50's than it was when I was in my teens, once I started logging. I'm in my 60's now and still keeping it off.