Over 50 Maintenance struggle and ideal weight
Replies
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I’m 53 and approaching my 2nd anniversary of maintenance after losing 85# (at one point it was 99#).
Year one was a pure white knuckle ride from hell. Year two I’ve been bouncing around up 10, down 10, but today I’m at exactly the same weight as January 1.
There’s a brutal honestly that sets in when your recognize your new reality. To stay lean, you have to work at it. That’s it.
I found it helpful to seek out other health and fitness goals. Mine was to go whole Food plant based (which is a whole new set of challenges) and to become an expert at Pilates (a work in progress).
It’s not easy (at least not for me), but it’s worth it.
Yep, nowine4me, same here. Need to shed 8 to be back at my loss goal. Up, down.....what do I do? Keto, low carb, count calories and forget about macros?? It's driving me cray cray. I need to figure out the best macros for me. Currently doing Keto, but hating it and I need to quit stressing over all this because my hair is falling out!
Stay strong!
Hey @atkhorses I had trouble with falling hair on a super low cal, low carb diet. I quit the diet at that point but just wanted to reassure you that your hair will come back. I find my maintenance is easier if I keep my carbs a bit on the lower end but I lost with just a calorie deficit. I agree tho maintenance is not easy but it is necessary. I will never been that fat again!
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Age 57, lost 70 lbs 10 years ago determined not to reach age 50 in the "obese" category--and maintained for nearly 3 years. Then gained 40 back over about a 2 years, lost 30 and maintained 3 years, then gained 20 in less than 6 months. My goal now is to lose 25, but more importantly to really focus on the mental stuff.
I can peg my weight gain periods to three cycles of intensely stressful workplace and life events.
Stress eating is my kryptonite. It's all "you-deserve-this-treats" and "comfort beers" and "I'm too exhausted to work out" --when, in reality, I know that exercise is a great stress reliever and treating my body well is the best "treat" and "comfort" of all.
I am really focusing right now on the head game: I'm working on building the habits of regular meditation and breathing exercises to better cope with stress and improve my overall mental, spiritual, and physical well-being.
I recognize that how I act is directly tied to what I feel, and what I feel is a product of what I think, so when I feel like grabbing a "treat" or "comfort" food, I do a mental THINK-FEEL-ACT check-in to figure out what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling that has me acting that way. Then, I'm working on reframing what I THINK in a way that serves me (from "the CEO doesn't know what he's doing to our unit with these cuts!" to "the CEO has had to make some really tough decisions that I don't envy, and we'll adapt in time") , or just allow myself to FEEL the feelings I have rather than stuff them down with food.
And thanks to all ya'll-- knowing that I'm not unique in my struggle with my head is a comfort!11 -
Six years post-50 here, down 97 from my highest, 74 from December 2016. I had to change everything about the way I eat and I had to change my mind that it's not a diet and I need to adopt this as my permanent way of eating. I have one or two or three-day "off plan" days every so often, and I do weigh daily because that's what works for me, but it's my lifestyle now. If I want to live long and be healthy, I've got to remain changed.6
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cheryldumais wrote: »I’m 53 and approaching my 2nd anniversary of maintenance after losing 85# (at one point it was 99#).
Year one was a pure white knuckle ride from hell. Year two I’ve been bouncing around up 10, down 10, but today I’m at exactly the same weight as January 1.
There’s a brutal honestly that sets in when your recognize your new reality. To stay lean, you have to work at it. That’s it.
I found it helpful to seek out other health and fitness goals. Mine was to go whole Food plant based (which is a whole new set of challenges) and to become an expert at Pilates (a work in progress).
It’s not easy (at least not for me), but it’s worth it.
Yep, nowine4me, same here. Need to shed 8 to be back at my loss goal. Up, down.....what do I do? Keto, low carb, count calories and forget about macros?? It's driving me cray cray. I need to figure out the best macros for me. Currently doing Keto, but hating it and I need to quit stressing over all this because my hair is falling out!
Stay strong!
Hey @atkhorses I had trouble with falling hair on a super low cal, low carb diet. I quit the diet at that point but just wanted to reassure you that your hair will come back. I find my maintenance is easier if I keep my carbs a bit on the lower end but I lost with just a calorie deficit. I agree tho maintenance is not easy but it is necessary. I will never been that fat again!
Thanks CherylD! I need to drop 9 pounds then maintenance. However when o add more carbs I gain. This time I will watch calories as I add in more food. Pretty much don’t care to eat bread, cookies and cakes anymore. Crave fruits!! I hope hair will come back, I do feel it is the nutrition and hormones as I am 53. Nice to hear from youcheryldumais wrote: »I’m 53 and approaching my 2nd anniversary of maintenance after losing 85# (at one point it was 99#).
Year one was a pure white knuckle ride from hell. Year two I’ve been bouncing around up 10, down 10, but today I’m at exactly the same weight as January 1.
There’s a brutal honestly that sets in when your recognize your new reality. To stay lean, you have to work at it. That’s it.
I found it helpful to seek out other health and fitness goals. Mine was to go whole Food plant based (which is a whole new set of challenges) and to become an expert at Pilates (a work in progress).
It’s not easy (at least not for me), but it’s worth it.
Yep, nowine4me, same here. Need to shed 8 to be back at my loss goal. Up, down.....what do I do? Keto, low carb, count calories and forget about macros?? It's driving me cray cray. I need to figure out the best macros for me. Currently doing Keto, but hating it and I need to quit stressing over all this because my hair is falling out!
Stay strong!
Hey @atkhorses I had trouble with falling hair on a super low cal, low carb diet. I quit the diet at that point but just wanted to reassure you that your hair will come back. I find my maintenance is easier if I keep my carbs a bit on the lower end but I lost with just a calorie deficit. I agree tho maintenance is not easy but it is necessary. I will never been that fat again!
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I've maintained my goal weight (80 lbs lost) for 2 years and four months so far.
The only "lifestyle change" I made was in now getting the recommended amount of exercise.
I still eat all the things I used to love. I just eat them in moderate amounts.8 -
I'm 61 and have been maintaining 120-125 for a couple of years. I enjoy running and that is my main key to keeping my weight down. Training for long races gives me a lot of extra calories, so I'm not fighting my urges for an occasional beer or ice cream. I do have to watch out that those don't become daily indulgences, which sometimes happens. Obviously, my biggest issues come when I can't exercise as often - like when we go on long road trips. However, I'm also not usually as hungry then as when I'm training, and I really don't like fast food, so though I'll gain a few pounds, it's never all that much.1
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I lost half my weight from 250 to 215 or so by exercising in my mid 40s. I started tracking in my late fourties and lost the rest (down to 170 at my lowest). Agree with what others have said. Here I am, on a tracking site (I lost on another tracking site), maintaining. I'm currently at 192, but I've literally added 15 or more of muscle over five years. I do competitive rowing. I workout out, roughly, seven hours a week of hard training. I'm doing a training program that is similar (but not as many meters) as college rowers do, ready to turn 54 this year.
I've changed my "red line" weight a few times to keep up with the muscle development, but now it's 195 (not the same looking 195 at all as on the way down, completely different). If I get close to that, I start tracking again. I eat for nutrition now and have completely changed my relationship with food. I weigh myself daily and I'm always cognizant of what I eat. I'm also more plant based now and gluten free (originally for my wife's health but it turns out I had problems with gluten I didn't realized and might even be celiac). We don't eat any processed foods, which helps tremendously with keeping on track.
The common themes of those that keep weight off over a few years is the same regardless of age. Working out around an hour a day, weighing nearly daily, having a "red line" and going back to tracking/moving more at the first sign of gaining.5 -
I forgot above, my "ideal" weight is 188 currently. I feel great at 188 and I don't feel like I'm either big or small at that weight, so I'm around 4 pounds over that currently.1
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I'm 53 and just hit my goal weight after losing 60 pounds in 7 1/2 months. Now comes the hard part right? I'm so afraid of crashing and burning but I am just going to keep on keeping on with the tracking and walking! Being healthy after so many years feels way too good to go back to the way it was before.2
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You are wise to acknowledge that your struggle in mental rather than age-related. The mental struggle should be a bit less daunting for older women because we have the life experience of overcoming many challenging situations. We have "character" and determination!
I started weight loss at 59 and spent 2.5 years thinking about maintenance every single day. While losing 150, I thought about why I had failed to keep weight off before and what I would do differently this time around. I was determined not to go through this again. Now I've maintained for 2 years within a 10 lb range. I'm now peeling off that high end of 5-10 and plan to keep in under 5 going forward. The key is to go back into a deficit/portion control as soon as you hit the top end of your range. I'm not saying it's easy, but that it works. If it works, why not do it now rather than later!7
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