Hello

2rn6y2vjwd

Hi everybody. I am restarting this to lose 20 lbs. that is my starting goal. I’ve been carrying an extra 30 lbs around most of my life. Right now I walk 3 miles a day at 3.5 miles an hour I bought a rowing machine to add upper body strength. I am 67 years old and need to get this weight off to make getting old easier.

Nova

Hi, welcome (back) to the community!!

AnnPT77

2rn6y2vjwd wrote: »

Hi everybody. I am restarting this to lose 20 lbs. that is my starting goal. I’ve been carrying an extra 30 lbs around most of my life. Right now I walk 3 miles a day at 3.5 miles an hour I bought a rowing machine to add upper body strength. I am 67 years old and need to get this weight off to make getting old easier.

It sounds like you're off to a great start! Managing the calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure is going to be the key factor in weight loss, but exercise lets us lose at the same rate while eating more, plus has benefits for health and strength - so useful as we age!

I'm your age, 67 (and female), but lost weight with MFP (50ish pounds) at age 59-60, now maintaining.

I'm also a rower, for almost 22 years now, on-water and machine. I'd encourage you, when using your rower, to go slow at first and focus on learning good technique. It's not necessarily an intuitive movement pattern. While the rowing machines that simulate on-water rowing do have benefits for upper body, over half the power comes from lower body: Legs, glutes.

People who don't get technique down early often find it hard to get a more intense workout later, because they can only increase strokes per minute, not power. Most rowing machines do have an adjustment, but it's not resistance, it's simulated "boat feel". It should be very possible to get an intense workout on a low-ish setting and at moderate strokes per minute, but it takes the right technique. Fixing technique after other habits are in muscle memory . . . well, that's more difficult than investing the time to get it right up front.

Machine rowing can be great for cardiovascular fitness, some strength challenge (though less than strength training), and for burning some extra calories. It can also be pretty fun, though I enjoy rowing on water more than I like machine rowing, to be honest.

I'm cheering for you to have great success with your weight loss progress . . . for me, getting down to a healthy weight made an utterly huge improvement in stress on my joints, in reduced discomfort/pain from joint issues that had already developed from previous decades of overweight/obesity, and in overall quality of life in various other ways. So worth the effort!