Hello!

kellycaddel1824
kellycaddel1824 Posts: 4 Member
in Introduce Yourself
New to discussion group. Looking for women going thru menopause and trying to lose weight at 55 plus.

Replies

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,645 Member
    Hi, Kelly. Welcome to MFP!

    There’s lots of ladies here who have lost weight at your age and older.

    I started at 56, and lost over 40% of my body weight. I’m starting my third year of maintenance.

    In all honesty, it wasn’t that hard. I chose a calorie goal, was flexible enough to adjust it when needed, weighed and logged and tried to stay within my calorie goal. (My calorie adjustments were always upwards, since I moved and exercised more the less I weighed, because I just doggone felt better. That meant I got to eat more. YMMV. but….New habits of exercise and food choices beget even better habits and food choices.)

    The hardest part is creating the habit of weighing and logging; not beating yourself up if you have a day or a week off plan; and simply the learning the mechanics of tracking. MFP made it simple to do.

    Maintenance is determining to continue the good habits I learned, and determining not to be in the high percentage of people who put it all back on.

    I can truly say, I am not a unicorn. If I can do this, anyone can do this.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,571 Member
    Good words from Springlering62 above!

    I'm similar, female, 5'5", lost about 1/3 of my body weight at age 59-60, and nowadays still hanging around here to maintain a healthy weight (and kibitz TBH), now age 67.

    I'm pretty much a hedonistic aging hippie type, so if strict discipline, willpower or motivation were essential elements, I'd still be obese. (Those things are great for those who have them, no question! But they're not my strong points.)

    For me, what worked was finding new, relatively enjoyable habits - patterns of eating and activity - that I could keep up long term almost on autopilot when other parts of life get demanding . . . which they always seem to do, eventually. That meant finding ideally fun (or at least tolerable) ways to include more movement in my routine day (exercise or daily life stuff), and ways to eat that balanced appropriate calorie intake with tastiness, practicality, affordability, nutrition, etc. It doesn't need to involve some arduous combination of strict eating rules, deprivation, and punitively intense unpleasant exercise, for sure.

    It was sort of like a fun science experiment for grown-ups, figuring out what worked for me, and grooving in those new habits.

    You can do this, too! A good start is to read a bit in the Community (especially the "Most Helpful Posts' part of the "Getting Started" and "Health and Weight Loss" areas), and start logging what you eat now. For me, some of the first ways to reduce my calorie intake (semi-painlessly) just jumped right out at me when I started logging. I've seen others say the same.

    Best wishes!

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