Any women who lost their weight after age 50?

I'm 57. MFP was suggested to me when I'd lost almost 40 lbs and now I'm down by 65 lbs since February 2012. It's been quite the journey so far... Oh yeah.... I started at 300 lbs... and I'm barely 5 ft tall on a good day.
My calories stay between 1200 and 1500 (on a really rough day) but I swim laps 5 days a week plus do aquafit on those same days. Tonight it was 1.5 kms plus an hour of aqufit. Our instructor loves doing a core workout with loads of cardio in it too. On the weekends I walk.
It isn't easy but we weren't promised that life would be easy. I got where I was too easily. Now it's time to fix things before I end up in a wheelchair or worse.

I've lost over 30 lbs in about 15 months. I went slow. This is about endurance... In the end it's all about maintenance...

The good news is you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better.

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me. (I swear this saved my life.) I was happier once I gave myself a range:

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.

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(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

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I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal. (No hard science here, but I credit the zig-zagging calories with preventing plateaus.)

--As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
--As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

6) I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.
Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. )

Food is not the enemy.

Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time, now the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck

60 here! I'm in better shape than I've been in decades after losing 30+ pounds w/MFP and sticking with a moderate workout routine. I've got 8-10 to lose to reach my "ideal" weight, but at this point I'm feeling & looking pretty good.

After the holidays I plan on getting after it with a bit more intensity 'cos I want to look like the P90X woman in the turquoise bikini who posted earlier - dang, you look great!!

It's not too late unless we keep putting it off.

Started in Jan of 2012, mid 50's for age, lost 30ish so far. It can be done. good luck

inb4 an extremely long post from californiagirl2012

Sorry, but you made me lol.

bump

Hi! I'm 62, and have lost as much as 40 pounds this time around, and gained back a couple of pounds recently. I had surgery to remove a parathyroid gland a couple of months ago, and I am getting back into my exercise routine and mixing it up. Since the surgery, I feel like it's even harder to lose weight, and I feel even hungrier.