Lack of Motivation

hulady133

I am over 50 and feeling discouraged. I am wondering if it is worth it to try to change at this age. I need to realize that it is still important and that my life can get better. I have medical issues predominantly around my diet and lack of exercise. Any encouragement is welcome!

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Fursian

Hi hulady133, welcome to MyFitnessPal

I'll start off by saying that I'm not 50 yet, so I can't be much help there. I just noticed your post and that you've gotten no responses yet so wanted to reply just to offer you some reassurance that there is quite a few people here who are 50+, and a few threads with groups you can join, even here in this sub category, if you like. There's a few older people that I look up to on here.

Timely, I read an article today about a 117 year old women who died just recently. It got me reading further about another oldest person who was 122 years old. Who knows, theoretically you could have another 70 years or so. It got me thinking anyway, so thought I'd share.

I hope things start looking up for you, and that you can get into a better place with your diet and exercise.

LiveOnceBeHappy

Man, hopefully you’ve got 30 years left. My license plate on my car is NTDEDYT. Not dead yet! LIVE!

jeri30

I'm 53 yr old woman and, yes, you can and yes, it's worth it. I really think you should check out the Growing Bolder website, which also has a tv show and a podcast that you can download and listen to. It's about people who are 50+ that are living their best lives. They talk about their work, personal lives, and health, including 70+ yr old marathoners and people who through their work and volunteering are making a positive impact in their community and professions. it's growingbolder . com remove the spaces before and after the dot

You really need to work on your mindset and learn to ignore society's messaging (US's & other's messaging that is; many other society's still respect their elders) that older people don't or shouldn't have lives worth mentioning. We should and do have lives worth living to look forward to.

Learn to be kind to yourself. It feels threatening, I know, esp in the beginning, because we're not used to it, but do it. Part of that is committing to taking care of yourself physically so you can live your best life. You deserve to live your best life with as minimal bad health and in as good as health as you can manage.

Taking care of yourself physically & mentally is a part of that. I learned this while I was on the wellness committee at my former job: people who take care of themselves physically and are active and capable, when they get really sick with bad health, they only tend to suffer the ill health for about 6 months before they die; people who don't take care of themselves will be sick for years and unable to do things/limited in what they can do for years before they die. Which sounds more appealing to you? The 6 months or the years of suffering? Me, personally, I'm trying for the 6 months.

AnnPT77

I went from a total couch potato to competing as an athlete in a couple of years starting just before I was 50 (47, IIRC), and I wasn't always competing unsuccessfully either, in terms of age group results. This was right after full bore cancer treatment - surgery, chemotherapy, radiation - the whole 9 yards. (I figured out that I needed to do some exercise in order to regain strength, energy and even happiness, and was lucky enough to stumble into a sport I loved.)

Unfortunately (because I'm an undisciplined, hedonistic aging hippie flake, basically), I stayed overweight/obese for another decade or so, even though I kept working out 6 days most weeks, and along the way got surprisingly fit for a fat 50-something woman. (Why did I stay fat? Simple: I kept eating too much.)

Finally, at 59, nothing else I tried had brought down my high cholesterol and very high triglycerides. My doctor was getting increasingly insistent that I take a statin. I didn't want to, so I finally committed to try losing weight. Soon after I started, I suddenly had severe acid reflux and heartburn very regularly, something I hadn't experienced previously. Tests showed that I had gallbladder adenomyomatosis (which isn't stones or sludge, rather a different condition that can mask gallbladder cancer). When they took it out, it was an ugly, thickened cholesterolized thing with actual holes in it. That sealed the deal on weight loss.

You mention health issues. At the start of weight loss, I also had borderline to high blood pressure, some osteoarthritis (mostly knee and hip), a torn meniscus (probably 2, but only one was scanned/diagnosed), osteopenia, severe hypothyrodism (medicated), and maybe some other things I'm forgetting.

As I lost the weight, my cholesterol came into the normal range (and has been there ever since, almost 9 years), my triglycerides ditto, high blood pressure ditto . . . without meds for any of that. After the weight loss had a bit of time to sink in, my arthritis pain gradually became less severe and less frequent.

More than a decade on from diagnosis, I haven't needed the knee surgery my orthopedic surgeon said was in my future (though it's probably still somewhere out in my farther future, realistically). I'm much stronger, and have better endurance, so home chores that were very tiring for me in my 40s are easily achievable at my current 68.

Yeah, I've still got osteoporosis and hypothyroidism, but I guess a person can't win 'em all. Those aren't much bother at this point.

Getting fitter (even while staying fat) was a big quality of life improvement. Getting to a healthy weight was a huge quality of life improvement, too. The combination is absolutely gangbusters. I feel better at 68 than I did in my 40s, more capable. Life is better.

I'm not some kind of super-special motivated person. Like I said, I'm a hedonistic aging hippie flake, and I have a limited budget of motivation, willpower, or discipline. I figure that if I can do this, pretty much anyone could do it.

I don't (never did) huge hours of exercise daily, just started with something manageable and increased gradually (duration, frequency, intensity or type of exercise) as I got fitter. Before I retired, which is when most of the fitness improvement happened, I was only working out for half an hour to an hour most days. (I do a bit more now, in retirement, because it's fun, but it still doesn't overwhelm my daily schedule.)

I don't eat crazy bunches of exotic health foods or deprive myself, I just try to fit reasonable amounts of nutrition into my eating routine and calorie budget via foods I enjoy and find filling, plus a few indulgent treats just for joy.

This doesn't necessarily require some miserable diet of low-calorie "superfoods" with no treats ever, or a punitively intense, unpleasant exercise routine (let alone both). Being unfit or fat aren't sins we need to expiate by suffering.

Honestly, I was surprised to find how much simpler it was to lose weight than I'd thought. (It wasn't psychologically easy every second, of course, but it was manageable, and the mechanics were simple.) I'd also been surprised how much pleasanter (fun, even) it was to become reasonably fit, and how it could happen within a manageable daily time budget. (I think there are a lot of things people convince themselves are daunting, so they don't need to try. I did that for years.)

Apologies for the long ramble.

TL;DR: People can change at 50, if they decide to do it, and take positive but manageable steps in that direction. In my experience: Life can get better. Health can improve. A person doesn't need to make themselves miserable in order to make progress. It's more than worth the effort.

I'm cheering for you to commit, and to succeed: The improvements are soooo worthwhile, IME, I want them for everyone.

Best wishes!

MaggieGirl135

Sure hope so! Early 60’s here.

OhioDido

My father lost 100 pounds when he was in his 60s and 70s by managing his calories and exercise.

Never too late.

You’ve got this.

ridiculous59

Read "Thinner This Year" by Chris Crowley and Jennifer Sachek. Download it from your local library if you don't want to purchase it. It changed my life. Yes, it is so very very worth it (I lost 90 pounds in my 50's).

AnnPT77

OhioDido wrote: »

My father lost 100 pounds when he was in his 60s and 70s by managing his calories and exercise.

Never too late.

You’ve got this.

Now that you mention it, my dad lost a bunch of weight in his 60s, too. I can't remember that I ever asked him how much he lost, but it was a very visible change, for sure multiple tens of pounds. He saw a photo of himself I took at Christmas, decided he was too overweight, and committed to lose.

This was well before calorie counting was practical, so he lost the weight in one of the ways people had already been doing for decades: Cutting back on treat foods, fried foods, etc., that he knew were higher in calories. To maintain, he watched the scale, and cut back a bit when he saw it creeping up. He stayed slim for the rest of his life, probably at least another 20 years.

Hobartlemagne

I'm 51 and this year I've lost about 2/3 of my Covid-era fat. I'm keeping at it until its all gone.
This is the age when you ABSOLUTELY should get fit. Excess fat starts causing too many problems.
My Dr said my blood pressure was noticeably better after I lost 20 lbs.

Corina1143

I've lost about 90 pounds since I turned 50. Took me about 20 years total. (60 pounds in 6 months about 22 years ago. Gained 20 back quickly when my dietitian quit before I got control back. 50 pounds from Feb to May? 2023). I'm 74 now. Still a little to lose. No hurry.

Adventurista

i have found the shares, ideas and strategies here profoundly encouraging. Think it comes down to 'keep trying' ~ rest as needed, and try more as able. Explore what works, adjust as needed, and hold onto your reasons why... (re)commit daily, as often as needed... keep doing things that strengthen motivation, perseverance, determination. Just refuse to quit. We are all worth doing these thing!

Hilbrown

I’m 55, I’ve recently found my mojo for the first time in years! I’ve lost 2st 9lb and I have 13 lbs to go to goal….you need to do this for your health, it’s not about how you look, or how your clothes fit or the numbers on the scale…that is just an added bonus. I was on my way to diabetes or worse and I knew it, I was addicted to sugar! I no longer have any sugar, sweeteners or anything with flour in it, I have fruit with breakfast and after lunch but that’s as sweet as it gets. None is so much easier than some! And the weight has dropped off in 6 months xx