MyFitnessPal Newbie

bookworm707

Hi! I am a newbie and hopeful this space is what will finally work! I am 54 and for the last 30 years I have started every new week with a promise that on Monday everything would change; I would be mindful of my food choices and exercise. I am tired. Menopause has done a number on how I view my body and I don’t love what I see when I look in the mirror. I don’t feel healthy. I always try to go it alone but no more, I need accountability and a community. So, I am going to give this a try! I look forward to this journey and learning from others!

Nova

Hi, welcome to the community!!

AnnPT77

This absolutely can work, with patience and persistence, if the calorie counting approach suits a person.

It was perfect for me: Like a fun, productive adult science fair project. I lost from obese to a healthy weight at age 59-60 (of course menopausal by then), and have been at a healthy weight since . . . that, after around 30 years previously of overweight/obesity.

To me, what's key is to experiment and find tactics that can become new eating and activity routine, something that continue almost on autopilot after grooving in the new habits. That implies eating foods we like (that ideally add up to good overall nutrition) at an appropriate calorie level, and finding ways to move more (exercise and/or daily life) that are ideally fun, but at least tolerable/practical.

My experience has been that the effort is more than worth it.

If you're looking for accountability/community, maybe take a look at some of the challenge or motivation groups/threads in these parts of the MFP Community:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/challenges
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/motivation-and-support

Those tend to be pretty interactive/supportive. You can read their intro posts, get an idea of how each one works and what the "culture" is like, and maybe join in on one (or more) if it suits you.

Wishing you success!

christinabf

This works! I am 52 years old and have also been going through all the changes that come with this age. It’s hard to remain body positive when menopause is affecting you. I gained 10 lbs in the past year by doing nothing different than I’ve always done… just perimenopause wreaking havoc on me. I decided to start logging my food and exercise. I’ve lost 4 lbs in the last 4 weeks! It was tough for the first 7-10 days, but I’m used to it now. I plan to keep it up until I’m back up my normal weight, and then I’ll probably stick to it to avoid gaining weight back. I’m glad I started doing this before my weight became a problem.