58 and trying (yet again) to get myself in shape

MizLandryEats

Hi, I just turned 58 and while I make fits and starts toward getting myself in better shape, nothing sticks. I would like to say I've struggled with my weight, but it's like I'm frustrated and fluctuate between ignoring it and raging at it.

I was a super skinny kid. I ate what I wanted, and in high school (class of 1983), I weighed 99 pounds when I graduated. But, late puberty and going into college things started to change. By the time I got out of college, I was about 125. Which would have been great if I had stopped there. But, except for a brief 8-month stint at Weight Watchers, I have never successfully lost or kept off any weight. I'm not a yo-yo at all...just a slow and steady incline up up up up. By 30, I weighed 156. Went to WW, and lost 20 in 8 months and kept it off for about two years, but then it crept up again, had two kids, went through menopause...yadda yadda yadda, now I'm at 211. (down from 215 a week ago). So, while I look at diets and try and get on eating plans the weight keeps creeping up and I am worried that there's nothing I can do to stop it. I feel like I'm utterly incapable of it.

At age 50, I decided to be someone who exercises regardless of weight. I didn't go gangbusters, but for the last 8 years, I meet with a trainer 2x a week. She's amazing and even though the weight kept going up, I am in better shape overall. I'm very strong. I love feeling strong. And, without the trainer, I doubt I'd do the balance and stretching that one should do as one ages. But, it's not enough. I still gained. At 50 I weighed 185 and thought THAT was the worst. I am not the type who sees weight go down with exercise. Just doesn't happen. But at least, since 50, I am consistent with my little efforts.

I love to cook. I love to eat. I am super social. I love to drink. Not looking to be austere, but would love to find the right balance so that I can still enjoy some of that some of the time. I'm fine with a steady and slow loss. I know that the only way to do a successful slow and steady is to be consistent. You don't get to cheat as much on a slow and steady plan, but I'm thinking the pay off would be better and there's less chance of gaining back. My goal would be to get it so that I don't even know it's happening.

Now as I careen toward age 60, the numbers are different. My cholesterol went up in the last year and my blood sugar just popped into the pre-diabetic range (just over the cut-off). This was a gentle wake-up call. So I'm trying to move toward a more plant-based, Mediterranean diet. And, I'm seeing a dietician on March 9.

So I'm back using MFP. I have a new apple watch. I just got my labs done in Dec and am due to check them again in April. I'm taking the old Catholic approach and used Ash Wednesday at a starting point to focus on healthy food and habits.

I'm also committed to hit the gym on a 3rd day a week and hoping after six weeks, to get that to four. I'm ok with slow and steady as long as I see progress.

So, here I go again.

Thanks for reading.

mtaratoot

Welcome to the Over 50 group!

This group isn't very well posted to, but the more of us use it, the more traffic there will be.
;
There's lots of good tools here on MFP. The database for logging food is one of them. Use it. It takes a little while at first to make sure you're selecting the right entries. Some of them are garbage. Most are put in my us users, and some are just flat out wrong. Some are just missing some information. Some are old and packaging of products may have changed. Be sure to check what you're logging so it reflects what you actually eat.

Then be sure to log EVERYTHING. Don't even try to cut down at first is one approach; just eat as normal and log. Then after a few weeks look and see what/where you want to modify.

I really encourage you to spend twenty bucks on a digital food scale instead of using cups and spoons to measure your portions. Cups and spoons are prone to errors from a few sources. One is simply that they actually aren't all the same size. There's also more opportunities for user error. Weighing in grams is easy and very accurate.

You can succeed at this. You just have to stick to it. That's how it works. I look forward to reading good news from your part of the world!

GinLee61

Welcome back! You're story could be mine, except that I stopped exercising regularly as my weight went up. By the time I started using MFP again I was 230 lbs and could barely climb a flight of stairs. I had to start out by doing seated exercise videos that I found on YouTube.

I'm 61 now and have been tracking faithfully in addition to exercising almost every day since January 2022. I am down 68 lbs so far and I feel great. I lost 50 lbs in the first 8 months and the other 18 over the past 6 months. My cholesterol and blood sugar have dropped back into the normal range. Even though my rate of loss has slowed I'm keeping steady and am determined to lose 27 more lbs to reach my goal weight then maintain.

I agree with all of the things that @mtaratoot has suggested.

You can do this!

Ray_4331

I second the idea for a food scale!!! I love logging everything I can by grams. It keeps me honest when my 2 tablespoons of dressing really end up being more... The scale tells me, I enter it and MFP adds it all up!

My approach when I was younger was to hit the gym, but now in my 50's that can only offset so many Oreos and other sweet treats. I am still working out, but now obsessed with tracking what I eat since that seems to have had such an immediate impact on my progress.

I still have my treats (wife made a delicious pound cake and chocolate ganache this past weekend), but at least I track it, see how I am doing and then work to be better in other areas, rather than saying, "Well as long as I had that, I may as well have a bag of chips and worry about what I eat starting next week."

You can do it!

chadkl

How has the journey been going?

MizLandryEats

Here's my update. Thanks chadki for askin! I have continued to work with my dietician and she told me about the Always Hungry? book by Dr. David Ludwig. I took a deep, deep dive into this as I have been very low-carb, keto averse. She told me to read about it before I made any decisions. And, this book/this author, was the first one that told it to me in a way I understood. And, his approach, his eating plan is not as severe as keto and it all seems to make sense. So, I started but couldn't commit totally as I was traveling and, well, quitting booze, even for 14 days seemed hard.

I started the plan in a half-arsed way on May 1, but with a few cheats. During that time, tho, I dropped 2 inches in my belly and I'm down nearly 6 pounds. All while not feeling deprived or hungry! I had no idea this would work so well.

As of yesterday, I officially began the 14-day Phase 1, which includes no booze at all. I'm on day 2. So far so good, but I am leaving on Friday to go to my parents' house in south Louisiana to help take care of my mom who had a fall and broke her femur. Avoiding all that yummy Cajun food will be a challenge so we'll see how that turns out.

Here's the thing that helps me follow the Always Hungry Plan: you can have fruit. you can have beans. It's a lot easier for me to stay on plan and off the grains and flours and sweeteners with those! The plan requires you get the right balance of macros: 50% fat, 25/25 of carbs and protein for phase 1. In phase 2 it switches a bit. Anyway, never in my life did I think I could do this, but I am doing it and without feeling hungry or deprived.

MizLandryEats

I should add that since that first post, I didn't do much from the first A1C of 5.8. It took a while to get my first appointment with the dietician and when I got my labs done again in April, my A1C shot up to 6.2. That's when I really took it seriously. I don't want to cross over into the T2 range. And that's when I read Always Hungry? and started to cut the carbs. My next set of labs will be in late July. If I don't see a change, I may give it up totally, but hoping my changing habits will shift some things.