Advice from experienced losers in their 40s please!!

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  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    The longer you log, the easier it gets. I’m 52 and have been at this for 2 years (80# lost). Here’s my pro tip....select entries in a round number of grams. For example “butternut squash - 100 grams”. It’s easier math than ounces. All the old crappy entries, like “walnuts - 2.8 ounces” linger in your diary forever!

    Also, the bar scanner can be wrong and the recipe builder is your friend.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    I'm 50, started counting calories again at 48. I have lost 60 lbs. Yes, personally I do need to count carefully, weigh and log.
  • _piaffe
    _piaffe Posts: 163 Member
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    Almost 43 and pretty much all of the above. Best shape of my life. Focused on recomp, and fitness and athletic goals.

    Committing to logging is the way. But make that committing to logging with a food scale.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    I just turned 42 and lost about 40-ish pounds in 6 months.

    You do have to be a bit strict with yourself while trying to lose because you have to run at a deficit in order to see results. The margin of error is much tighter and weighing/logging is one of the easier ways to make sure you stay on target.

    If you take the long-game approach, the permanent lifestyle change really kicks in after you've lost the weight you want to lose. I no longer log now that I'm in maintenance but I do keep a loose estimate of my daily calories to make sure that I'm more or less where I need to be. I also still weigh in every couple of days so I can watch for long-term trends.

    That said, I'm pretty much back to life as normal, with the exception that I exercise more than I used to and that I now have an understanding of what a 'normal' portion size looks like (and I do keep my portion size references 'fresh' by weighing out a couple of meals a week). I do allow myself to indulge once in a while but make sure to balance it out over time.
  • mburgess458
    mburgess458 Posts: 480 Member
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    I lost about 30 lbs when I was 23 and then lost the same 30 lbs plus some when I was 47. No real difference for me but I was still able to exercise and everything so my approach wasn't all that different. It was actually easier for me at 47 because my friends weren't wanting to go out drinking all the time. Empty alcohol calories add up fast.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
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    I'd suggest logging for a couple of week just to assess where your diet is at. Then you can make some mental adjustments and go from there. Unless you know your intake, you're really only guessing.

    If you REALLY don't want to do that, then you need to mentally reduce your intake. Don't just sub "healthy" foods for unhealthy... actually cut back on snack, reduce portion sizes, or whatever is easiest for you to sustain.
  • Goal179
    Goal179 Posts: 314 Member
    edited November 2017
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    I am morbidly obese, so I am sure that my body functions much less efficiently than yours. So I am not sure that my example is a good one for you, but it may help motivate you. I am 44 and I have lost over 50 pounds. I do hear people talk about "set weight" and you can only lose as much weight as your body has pre-determined it wants to lose. But I believe that you can push past that regardless of age, body type or condition. It all comes down to your diet. It is a very good idea to be pretty strict on yourself after you reach a certain age. Limiting sugars, carbs, etc. at least until you get to a more comfortable weight is the best way to go. Watch the calories for a while until you become comfortable with what you can eat and what you shouldn't. Eventually you will learn your body and know what causes problems/weight gain, etc. Once you get to maintenence, you will need to strike a balance with what you did to lose the weight and what you did the gain the weight in the first place. =0) I absolutely log logging on MFP because I can download my stats and graph them and compare them against my mood, weight, exercise logs, ailments, etc. You can really develop a full picture of what is going on with you by just committing to logging.

    Age doesn't matter. You can do this. I still have 60 pounds to go, but I have no doubt that I can get it done. You can too. Find a eating plan that works for you. People will often say that food choices don't matter and only calories matter...but that can vary from person to person depending on your health and specific metabolism. Calories is the first place you should start, then clean up your diet from there. But calorie restriction alone should be able to get at least that first 20 pounds off. Understand your TDEE and BMR and all that good stuff to make sure you are not restricting calories too much and lowering your metabolism. Ohh and exercise helps. Wont' solve all of your issues without being coupled with good diet, but it definitely helps. Good Luck....you can do this!!!
  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
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    I logged but it didn't make much of a difference until I got a food scale and really learned what portion sizes are supposed to be. Quite the eye opener actually. Used a food scale for close to 8 months and then backed off using it as I've got a good idea (now) what the portion sizes are going to look like.

    Give you an example. Bought a whole new York strip loin this past weekend (couldn't resist $3.99 per lb) and took it home to cut into steaks. After trimming it and cutting it into steaks I figured I'd see how close I was to actual weight versus eyeballing it. Most are right between 7.5 - 8.2 ounces according to my digital scale.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    Goal179 wrote: »
    I am morbidly obese, so I am sure that my body functions much less sufficiently than yours. So I am not sure that my example is a good one for you, but it may help motivate you. I am 44 and I have lost over 50 pounds. I do hear people talk about "set weight" and you can only lose as much weight as your body has pre-determined it wants to lose. But I believe that you can push past that regardless of age, body type or condition. It all comes down to your diet. It is a very good idea to be pretty strict on yourself after you reach a certain age. Limiting sugars, carbs, etc. at least until you get to a more comfortable weight is the best way to go. Watch the calories for a while until you become comfortable with what you can eat and what you shouldn't. Eventually you will learn your body and know what causes problems/weight gain, etc. Once you get to maintenence, you will need to strike a balance with what you did to lose the weight and what you did the gain the weight in the first place. =0) I absolutely log logging on MFP because I can download my stats and graph them and compare them against my mood, weight, exercise logs, ailments, etc. You can really develop a full picture of what is going on with you by just committing to logging.

    Age doesn't matter. You can do this. I still have 60 pounds to go, but I have no doubt that I can get it done. You can too. Find a eating plan that works for you. People will often say that food choices don't matter and only calories matter...but that can vary from person to person depending on your health and specific metabolism. Calories is the first place you should start, then clean up your diet from there. But calorie restriction alone should be able to get at least that first 20 pounds off. Understand your TDEE and BMR and all that good stuff to make sure you are not restricting calories too much and lowering your metabolism. Ohh and exercise helps. Wont' solve all of your issues without being couple with good diet, but it definitely helps. Good Luck....you can do this!!!


    "Set weight" only matters insofar as your logging is imprecise.
  • kenyonhaff
    kenyonhaff Posts: 1,377 Member
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    Hi...lost 45 lbs and almost 44 in 10 months and skinnier than that in college.

    I didn't want to log. I didn't want to measure. But just exercising wasn't working so I had to do something different.

    So I logged and discovered my portion sizes were wrong and I needed fewer carbs and more protein. Although exercise was important I didn't have to be extreme about it.

    Just that difficult and just that easy.
  • gabriellejayde
    gabriellejayde Posts: 607 Member
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    I'm 50 now, but I'm down 75 pounds since April (7 months ago). Currently 180lbs. I have a desk job and a long commute, so I'm lucky if I walk more than 5000 steps a day. I lost the weight from diet alone. 1200 calories.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,980 Member
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    I lost weight faster in my 20s because I:

    1. Had an active job rather than a desk job
    2. Had more muscle

    Now that I am in my 50s with a desk job, being active requires a lot more planning and discipline. It's not my age that's the problem; it's my lifestyle.
    /pushes away from the computer to go work out/
  • onematch
    onematch Posts: 241 Member
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    I'm 47 and have lost 50 pounds over the past 6 months. It's definitely a lifestyle change for me, and not 'all or nothing'. I know from years of experience that that type of approach results in failure.
    I've chosen a lifestyle I can live with that still allows me to see progress on the scale. I log everything I eat. I limit (but do not cut out completely) processed carbs and sugars. I still eat fruit daily and drink wine weekly. I aim for high protein and less than 100 grams of carbs per day.
    This works for me and doesn't make me feel deprived.
  • rhiawiz57
    rhiawiz57 Posts: 906 Member
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    yes, i have to carefully track calories now that i'm over 40. what you don't really know can hurt you. and why can't you track calories long term? my 67 year old dad has been a daily tracker for 7 years after taking off 45 lbs, and it doesn't bother him to keep tracking. he says this is how he knows he's still doing what he needs to do to be healthy. i'm going to follow suit, because whenever i was "rejecting" careful counting and saying it wasn't realistic or sustainable, i was gaining weight!
  • sksk1026
    sksk1026 Posts: 213 Member
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    I'm 48 and losing weight steadily but I log all calories and my exercise-earned calories. It's so easy to overeat by just a couple of hundred calories which can tip you into weight maintenance instead of weight loss. Why don't you log everything for a month just to become aware of how many calories you really are eating, and then switch to eye-balling it? What you are doing isn't working so you need to try do something else. Part of weight loss is about experimenting to see what approach works best for you. It's too early to conclude it's your age! Even 1 week of calorie counting might be helpful.
  • ttreit
    ttreit Posts: 59 Member
    edited November 2017
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    Log for at least awhile if only for the educational purposes of really ingraining caloric load for various foods and weigh yourself at least weekly.

    After awhile if you want to get away from logging foods go for it, but keep weighing yourself. If your weight is not doing what you want (if it's not going down and you want it to or if it's going up and you want to maintain) just go back to logging until the scale is in your happy place.

    Don't feel like you have to log your foods for life if you just don't want to do that. But you need a data point and the scale can provide that. Just be committed to logging whenever you need to in order to keep the scale where you want it.

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