Active 40+ athlete

meggoos

Hi Everyone,

I’m new to the MFP community. I am a 44 year old woman who has struggled with my weight since puberty. I am a very active tennis player and play 4-5 times a week.
I have yo-yo dieted and every time I stick to a strict meal plan I find my tennis and athletic performance goes down so I get frustrated, give up and go back to my old habits. My tennis performance is back go fine but I would love to be able to eat healthy, lose weight and get stronger. I don’t know where to start. Any help or advice is appreciated. I have about 50 pounds to lose.

tomcustombuilder

Try to take in your carbs an hour before tennis. You’ll find being carbed up will give you energy when you actually need it. That will usually allow for being able to get by with lower calories overall while still having energy for your sets.

ninerbuff

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

Try to take in your carbs an hour before tennis. You’ll find being carbed up will give you energy when you actually need it. That will usually allow for being able to get by with lower calories overall while still having energy for your sets.

This. Also, things like gel packs or chews if you lose energy while you play. Since they are fast carbs, you'll burn them off easy playing.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

claireychn074

Pick a slow loss of weight and - sorry - you might just have to pick either the aesthetic you want or performance. Some people manage to look just as they want whilst competing / undertaking sport, but for some of us we have to choose. I look better (imo) when I weigh a bit less. But I perform better when I’m a bit heavier. I know a couple of pro sportspeople who have modelled, and they say they can’t be lean enough to model when they’re training for competitions.

It’s not the same for everyone but it’s certainly true for me 🤷‍♂️

AnnPT77

Everyone is different, so I'm not going to say this is true for you, but . . .

I started out about 50 pounds overweight, and already a long-time recreational athlete (rowing, boats when possible, machines when necessary). I was also 59 y/o.

I accidentally lost weight too fast for a while (because it turns out MFP underestimates my calorie needs), and I did become weak and fatigued. However, if I kept my weight loss rate moderate, my performance stayed fine. Moderate = something in the range of 0.5-1% of current weight per week, preferably toward the lower end of that especially as one gets closer to goal.

I get that we all want to drop weight fast so we can get back to normal routine . . . but frankly that's often a likely on-ramp to yo-yo loss and regain. The right combination of loss rate, body size, and performance is likely to be pretty individual, but cautious experimentation should help you dial in a routine/result that works.

You mention a "meal plan" and I'm not sure what that means in your case. For me, eating foods I like, dialing in appropriate calories, and trying to get good overall nutrition over a day or few, all while eating foods I personally enjoy, was a good approach. Some "diet plans" short change carbs (which as others have said can be important for athletic performance), or healthy fats, or protein. Sub-ideal nutrition can hurt performance, of course . . . and good nutrition is a little more difficult on reduced calories. (What really matters is not the percents of macronutrients, for example, but the absolute amounts, especially for protein and fats.)

There were certain cases where I found that a well-timed and well-chosen snack gave me the best results for energy level and staying sated/satisfied.

Weight training spiked my appetite, but I found that a small quick-carb snack before lifting, and/or a small protein snack after, helped smooth out that problem. Example snacks would be some hard candy or dried fruit before, and lowfat string cheese or a hard-boiled egg after.

I also found that when I took back-to-back classes at the Y (spin, then kettlebell), I felt better in the second class and the rest of the day (including recovering better), if I had a quick snack in between. Examples that worked were one of those no-sugar-added applesauce packets, or shelf-stable lowfat chocolate milk (the latter in my gym bag cold in a small insulated bag with a small "blue ice" to keep it cool).

Honestly, it's possible that some of the effect was psychological not just physical . . . but as long as I felt and performed better, I didn't really care.

The specific strategies that help will differ from one person to the next, I think (based on reading others' stories here on MFP). But I think the general principles would apply to most: Losing weight slowly to keep energy up, and experimenting to find the right foods/timing to please your particular body.

Best wishes!