Women over a certain age, harder to lose weight

debsindemand

Hi...

My name is Deborah. New to MFP. I've worked out all my life and right up until my mid 30's was really lean and fit. I'm 44 now but in the last 15 years have gained a massive 50 lbs. Nothing has changed in terms of my diet and/or intensity/frequency of my workouts. The only thing that has changed is me getting older (obviously).

Anyway, about 3 months ago I hit my heaviest weight of 179 lbs and was totally depressed. What was I doing wrong??? Well, I'm not quite sure what I was but after some research, I have started eating 5 smaller, high protein/low carb meals a day and getting weekly Vitamin B12 shots. As of today I weigh 164 lbs so I've lost a total of 15 lbs. Good, right!!!

I just wanted to share my story since I'm new to this. I love the calorie counting Dietary Page and the Exercise Recorder. The planner takes all the guess work out of EVERYTHING!!! I truly think MFP will keep me motivated to get to my weight goal.

Please share any of your tips for weight loss or for keeping hunger at bay with me, I'd love to see what others are doing. I see people on here have lost over 100 lbs!!! Great Job!!!

zericaaaaa

hi! welcome to MFP! recording my food and exercise on here has been my saving grace with losing weight. although I'm still a baby (21 yrs old lol) I think that this website can help immensely with the weight loss process. besides my own motivation, I attribute a lot of my success to MFP. just keep doing what you're doing! it seems to be working!

rosebette

I hear what you are saying. As we age, our metabolism decreases, so losing is harder. This is not an excuse but a reason, and we have to be more vigilant about calorie counting and staying within our limits. I'm 55 and eat maybe half of what I ate when I was 40. I managed to lose a bit of weight but am currently plateau'd on a net of 1200 calories a day! I have one cheat day a week, but I remember those days when I was under 40 and every day looked like my current cheat day, yet I still was thin.

debsindemand

I hear you! @Rosebette. It's definitely gotten much harder for me! Good to know it doesn't get easier so I'll have to stay on track with my calorie counting! You look GREAT tho, it gives me hope!

@Zericaaaaa Look at YOU!!! 38lbs lost! Congratulations and thanks for the encouragement, I think I'll do better on here than I was by myself. Cheers!

KLangleydoula

Hi! Congrats on your loss so far! Feel free to friend me!

vicbre2010

Hi Deborah, thanks for posting about your experience with B12 injections. I have been wanting to try it to see if it would give me more energy since i just joined my local gym. I never have any to workout so maybe B12 shots may help me. I'm a 45 year old, female in pretty good health but I do take blood pressure medicine once a day. I need to lose 40 lbs. to be at a healthy range & I need energy to go to the gym because right now, I struggle to make myself go.




Vickie

Raclex

Hi! I'm about to turn 43 and must say that MFP has helped me tremendously as far as what I thought I was eating vs what I really was eating!

I started lifting about 2 months ago, and although I do not have a lot of weight to lose (approx. 10-15 lbs), I just recently started really logging. So trail running once a week, capoeira once a week, yoga once a week and strength (lifting and calisthenics) twice a week, along with logging a net 1510 calories a day have helped me bust out of this plateau. I'm losing slowly but surely. And getting stronger!

Making sure I hit my macros, logging accurately and diversifying my workouts have really jumped started my journey.

*Edited for spelling mistake

Junthe

Hiya, remember as you age, you also lose muscle mass. Muscle boosts fat/weight loss so a bit of resistance training will see you on the losing track.
Good luck

Adc7225

I really wonder about the older we get the harder it is to lose weight - Yes, as we age our bodies change - I am not really sold on the harder part - different yes!

For myself I lost weight in my early 20's, was is easy YES - why because I did things that were not the healthiest. I am not saying that all 20 something’s are doing things unhealthy but given that people in their 20's vs. say people in their 40's eat very differently it may seem easier for those in their 20's. I think this go round I have focused more on my health and listened more to my body, I think as we get older we think more about our overall health.

I know when I eat poorly, I feel it! Yesterday was full of fried foods and I am struggling to get through this day. It's kind of funny, my workout buddy (38) thought that we deserved to eat what we did (it started with a Tempura Lobster Tail and went down-hill from there) after all the working out we have been doing and though I warned him he may be sorry - the first thing he said this morning was he wished he had listened to me. We are what we eat and we can only put out a product of what we put in - Great Intake = Great Output. A lesson learned over time

It may seem harder and like it is taking a long time but try and think of it this way - your body is a lot smarter now and it is making changes for the best overall outcome

MsWendyjc

47 here and have just rejoined to kick this ...
Would love to have others around my age to share supporting each other!


Good luck to all )x

Maryam2014mfp

I'm 47 and I certainly find it harder; but I'm going to keep trying to lose and eat healthy. Add me if you would like

babs987

Hi all,
I'm a 53 yr old female, 5'7" and recall the days when I was a slender toned 125 lbs.cwell,vthose days are gone and at my age, I wouldn't want to be that thin ! Even the doctor cringed when I mentioned 125 lbs! It's been a struggle at times to get to where I am right now but I'm determined. I started right after vacation in July with following the Atkins diet induction phase. 2 weeks with no sugar, less than 40 g of carbs per day. I lived on meat and eggs. Was it hard? Omg yes. Was it worth it? Omg yes! I lost 13 lbs in 2 weeks, granted a lot of it was excess water gain, but it's what I needed to detox from all the sugar that I loved. Once the induction phase was over, I transitioned to more of a weight watchers type program. I eat fruits, but in moderation. The one thing I must have is sugar in my coffee. I can't stand the taste of the artificial sweeteners ! I can't recall the last time I had a cookie and I honestly don't miss it. Even I'm shocked! I. Telling you, I was a carb o holic and if I can lose the weight, anyone can.

adolforamirezb

I'm helping my mom with the same problem. Her metabolism slowed down and even if she was . Try to drink two glasses of water before breakfast!! It will help you speed up your metabolism. Well and some quinoa from time to time. high on protein and low in calories will make you feel full.

I hope this tip is useful to you

Adolfo

h7463

Hi Deborah!

I'm 51, 5'5", 132 lbs, 17% BF, and my personal experience is, that it's not so much harder to lose weight. The hard part for me is realizing, how much more efficient my body has become, and I simply don't require as many calories as I used to. I'm training 5-6 times per week, heavy lifting, HIIT, limited cardio. My maintenance is still under 2000 calories per day, my BMR is about 1300 calories. That's not much wiggle room, when I want to shed a bit of fat.
Don't give up! Just watch those pesky calories! I bought a better digital food scale and better reading glasses for food labels...

BTW...what's up with those Vitamin B shots? I'm taking one Super B Complex pill a day, reasonably priced at Walmart, and absolutely painless to swallow.... Due to my training, I double up on multi vitamin, take some fish oil, flax seed oil, and I have been drinking green tea for a long time. This has worked for me. But shots? No way.....lol

Good luck on your fitness journey! :flowerforyou:

VibrantAnnette

Hi Deborah,

sounds like the same path i went through. super athletic and fit all my life, reached age 40 and i started having small weight gains, then by 45 it was out of control. Now I'm 53 and 100# overweight (aka: chronically obese).

It was a long journey to regain control of what was going on. I'm not into diet fads because I've always been on a high quality foods nutrition diet. On visual inspection doctors always told me 'youre eating too much, not exercising and menopausal'. So I fought back and ordered a hormone saliva test panel, which proved i wasn't menopausal and in fact i had adrenal exhaustion. No one knew how to treat that. Because of their iincorrect assumption on my diet and exercise, i sought a better team of medical professionals and strongly preferred listening to my bodies intelligence.

At age 50, a book was published that was a life-saver, 'adrenal exhaustion, 21st century stress syndrome'. Some of the techniques in the book helped me get energy back and sleep through night again which is when adrenals recover. Still i wasn't recovering fast enough, and doctors put me on 'absolute zero exercise' at age 50. this was so my adrenals could recover. But I'm a type A and that was devastating to my fitness and weight goals. I did what they said and made some decent recovery, let's say 50%. After leaving the job causing all the stress, i also made major gains in recovery, 80% now.

I started MFP at 51, and it helped me identify critical items: chronically undereating typically 800 calories a day, zero potassium intake in diet. I shared my MFP log with my new doctor and she ordered some nutritional testing and a new hormone panel, nutritional testing is by SpectraCell. it's unique, look it up online. tells you how your existing deficiencies create responses in other nutrients in your body, and your bodies response to an excess of nutrients too. I started addressing those items and things improved a lot, energy and adrenals at 90%.

At 52, I was introduced to a book by Dr. Natasha Turner, called "hormone diet". i followed it for 3 days and lost 4" around my waist and 3#. obviously i had inflammation for some reason. so i followed her guidelines for a few months and lost 26# permanently and eliminated joint pain and released to exercise as my adrenals had recovered! This year i am addressing the last few items in her book, still critical as I've identified insulin resistance as a critical issue, along with leaky gut. Adding omega3 (krill and fish oil sources) is fixing both issues and fast! In one week on omega3's I've lost 5#. Oh, and now I am peri-menopausal according to what my body says, and the hormone tests too.

I wish you the best in your journey! send me an invite to connect so we can encourage and support eachothers goals and successes!

bobbiefrank

Hi I am 44 and was a athlete during high school and college. I got married and had 5 kids not to put the blame on having my kids.I am 5'11 and weigh 225 right now I am reaching for the goal of 185.My husband and I do cardio tennis twice a week and we weight train the other 4 days. I have changed my diet to eating every 2 hours. Make better choices for my meals and watching my portion size.

lindawitz

I'm with you. I've got a few years on you though! I've found that walking and doing some form of real sweat producing activity a couple of times a week is helping. Best of luck to you!!!!