How to lose weight/get fit at 50 years old? Help!

annettedifelice wrote: »

suruda wrote: »

52, and have lost weight successfully using MFP. I find that it is even more important to accurately track and log your food. I use my food scale pretty faithfully. I used to be able to be more casual about it...I could just track "banana medium", taking the couple of seconds to weight that banana is important. When your calories are low, they all count even more!

Excercise is the bonus...will help you tone, feel healthier and happier. Feel free to friend me, I tend to have friends in our general age group so we can share similar experiences and challenges!

Sorry, I forgot to ask earlier. What is MFP?

MFP = Myfitnesspal

My weight gain began 10 years ago when, at age 48, I quit smoking & entered menopause. I simply ballooned, and I was frustrated when restricting food and walking did not work. Counting calories was the only thing that helped. I discovered that my diet had not been as good as I believed: I was erratic, eating too much or too little. Hours & hours on the treadmill at 3.0 mph did not help. Through calorie counting and varying my physical activity, I lost a great deal of weight--that returned when I stopped paying attention. Last summer I recommitted to calorie counting and exercise, and I've lost around 35 pounds.
I know that some people dispute that it is harder to lose as we age, but that has been my experience. It is what it is. My task it to figure out what works. I am lifting weights, and I walk 3.5 mph on the treadmill for 30-60 minutes daily. The treadmill is as much for my mental health as physical.
It is baffling when what worked in the past is no longer effective, but it can be done. I draw a lot of inspiration from others who have done it, and I have learned a lot about exercise. This can be a good place for that.

annettedifelice wrote: »

courtneyfabulous wrote: »

Eat less than TDEE but more than BMR. Try to gain muscle mass and do strength training to increase metabolism. Consume adequate protein. How is your nutrition?

I have started making my calories count with nutritional food. Sorry for the dumb questions but what are TDEE and BMR? Thanks for your suggestions!

Nutritious food is a fantastic adjustment! Great job!

TDEE is "total daily estimated expenditure" so all the calories you burn in a day. This is equivalent to maintenance calories (if you eat at maintenance you will neither gain nor lose weight, just maintain)

BMR is "basal metabolic rate" this is the amount of calories your body needs just to survive/exist each day to keep your systems functioning like beating your heart, breathing, organ function... this is actually where the majority of your daily calories are burned. This is your baseline calories, before you add in activities that burn extra calories (like moving, thinking, exercise)... you don't want your daily calorie goal to ever be set lower than your BMR or it can cause adverse effects like feeling bad, bad mood, brain fog, low energy, rapidly slowing your metabolism, hair loss, hormone disruptions, muscle loss, organ damage, and even can stall weight loss or prevent optimum fat loss.

Myfitnesspal should set your calories properly so you don't have to do the math yourself, but if you set your loss rate too high it may put you at too few calories. A lot of people want to lose weight as quickly as possible so they set their weight loss rate to 2 pounds per week which is a 1000 calorie deficit per day which is below BMR for most people unless they are very large or very active and so have a high TDEE and can afford a large deficit. But for weight loss a mild deficit and slower weight loss rate is actually much safer and more effective and promotes body fat loss more than muscle loss which is what you want. It takes longer but is worth it in the end.

If you are curious to find your TDEE and BMR I find this to be a pretty accurate calculator (it's still only an estimate, but it gets pretty close for me):

http://www.iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

I am in the same boat. I started to pay more attention to my carbs than my calories. Weight is slowly coming off. Look up Dr. Westman and kept. There are a few good videos out there.

annettedifelice wrote: »

courtneyfabulous wrote: »

What is "a bit active"? What does that mean for you?

Have you done a lot of dieting in the past?

I have done a lot of dieting in the past by cutting calories. I work (sitting) FT so my exercise is walking the dog and chasing children

Ok so here is a red flag- the fact that you don't really exercise, are sedentary, and have dieted in the past leads me to believe that you may have low muscle mass. Dieting on too few calories can cause loss of muscle, and dieting while not also performing strength training exercises can cause loss of muscle. You also start to lose muscle mass naturally as you age too.

Why is this a problem? Because having more muscle mass means a higher metabolism, and having less muscle mass means a slower metabolism. So you aren't imagining things- your metabolism probably has slowed down- but not really just from your age, but from your loss of muscle from age, inactivity, and past dieting.

Muscle mass is also a health indicator. Statistically, those who have more muscle are generally healthier and live longer, and the opposite for those with less.

Don't worry there's steps you can take to fix this: eating adequate protein and doing strength training exercises.

Take a look at the part of your food diary that shows your protein intake. On the app this is under "nutrition", under "nutrients". How many grams of protein per day is your goal, and how many do you actually get on average? Check back through the past couple weeks of your diary to see how you're doing on protein consumption. You want to think of your daily protein goal as a minimum you must reach, not a limit. If you see that you are not hitting your protein goal, then adjust your diet to include more. If you still have trouble meeting it just with diet then you might want to get some protein powder and have a protein shake each day or on days your protein is low.

Now for adjusting your exercise... walking and "chasing children" is great haha, but not enough. You need to do exercises that really work your muscles. Maybe start with body weight strength exercises - like squats, push ups, planks, lunges, that kind of thing. Then you'll probably want to also add in some weight lifting. You can start with a set of a few dumbbells and home workouts, and later maybe progress to using a gym if you find this isn't enough. But you can get a pretty great workout at home with just dumbbells so if going to the gym isn't your thing that's fine. Check out the YouTube channel Fitnessblender- they're my favorite for at-home workout videos and they have a lot to choose from, both body weight only exercises, weight workouts, warm ups, stretching, hiit, short workouts, long workouts, low impact variations, etc... and all for free. Or you can look into other resources or even make up your own workouts, as long as you get in about 3 hours of strength training per week - that could be 20 minutes 6 days a week, half an hour 5 days a week, 1 hour 3 times a week... whatever works best for you. You can slowly work up to that or do a little more or a little less, depending how you feel. Make sure to take rest days too (at least 1 to 2 days per week with no strength training so muscles can rest and repair. Walking or stretching is fine on rest days. You may need more rest days at the beginning while your body is getting used to strength training).

I hope this helps! I think you will have much better results if you make sure to consume enough protein and get in some strength training. That should help you maintain the muscle you have while losing weight this time, and increase your muscle mass when you are maintaining your weight (it's hard to actually gain muscle while in a caloric deficit, but you might gain a little at first since it will be new to you- they call this "newbie gains").

Have fun!

Check out this thread community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10502328/800-plus-day-consecutive-streak-logging-in-to-mfp-and-207-lbs-lost/p1

Did it at age 52 and 100 lbs overweight. In the 20 years leading up to that, the only thing holding me back from succeeding was me. But when I saw a picture of myself, my attitude ... and my results ... turn around completely. For some inspiration read my success story.

61 yo and in the best shape of my life..2.5 yr ago I could barely get out of a chair or walk up my steep driveway. Now I walk several miles per day, swim, lift more than my hubby, and even RAN a 5k last summer. 148 lbs lost. At our age we have the maturity and experience to do difficult things and hopefully get past the mind games a little easier.

Regarding "how" to do it--the same way you've learned to do anything else...small steps. Set a plan and stick to it! There's lots of info on this site about the methods and techniques.

I was going to suggest that you weigh everything you eat.. it seems you have done that and found you ate more than you thought. It's so very easy to do and things like condiments can add a ton of calories without weighing. Great job on your change, looking forward to hearing how you are doing.

I'm 62. I lost 25 pounds 2 times with MFP but have failed at maintenance. Here I am again, determined to get back to my goal weight. I used to jog but developed foot problems two years ago. I switched to some weight lifting dvds. I highly recommend you hang out on the fitness boards. I missed cardio so bought a stationary bike last year and bike 10 miles every morning before work while watching the news. I also do 5-10 min of weights 3 days a week. I weigh my food and log and will do that once I get to maintenance.

I'm only 5'2" and eat 1200 calories. It's tough as I feel like my metabolism has slowed a lot in the past decade. Maintenance for me is 1350 calories. Not much room for slipping up or having an ice cream Sunday! I try to taste the yummy stuff but have very small portions of it so I don't feel deprived. I also lost no weight for a few weeks when I started again, but stuck with it and am now losing a pound a week. Hand in there. Friend me if you'd like.