50 year old hoping to lose 50 Lbs!

You’ve got this! Smash it 🙌

You should think about it as requiring 50 weeks (e.g., a year) to lose the weight and then the rest of your life to keep it off! So, what you are saying is that you want to change the way you eat and exercise for the rest of your life.

Well, alrighty-then!

Given what a big change this is, a bit of preparation is in order. A good start is analyzing what you are eating and how you are exercising right now. Type in your foods for a week, eating more or less naturally. (If you're impatient, do it retrospectively.)

Then, start to plan forward. Play around with MFP to see what parts of your daily intake can stay and what can go. Play around with different workouts to see how the calories fit in. Think about what times of day you get hungry and what foods will fill the gap. It really helps to have a few go-to meals for breakfast and lunch that have well known calories. Plan on making them yourself and bringing them to work. If you drink booze, think about how you are going to minimize that, since it uses up a lot of your calorie budget (and lowers self control).

It also pays to think about your whole week, generally eating less during the weekdays in order to have a little margin for the weekends.

Somewhat less appreciated is the fact that eating often fills in for a lack of other entertainment, particularly in the evenings. I found that it helped a lot to find something to do after work (swim, ride, run), delaying dinner into later in the evening. But, it could be anything that fills your time up and keeps your mind occupied.

You can do it. I lost 65lbs when I was 50. Just watched my diet an no exercise for the 1st 50lbs. Started doing PiYo and DDP w/ my wife and lost the next 15lbs

Luchi6919 wrote: »

Hello everyone! I don't know if this is possible, but I want/need to lose 50 Lbs! I'm 50 years old, so I'm thinking this is going to be incredibly hard! I'm not sure I can do it, but I'm very hopeful! I know I could use some motivation from anyone that's willing to kick me in the butt when I slack off! Hope you all are happy and staying safe!

Truly, it need not be all that hard.

I lost about 50 pounds here back in 2015, obese to a healthy weight, at age 59; and have maintained a healthy weight since (after 3+ decades of previous obesity).

In fact, as @Jthanmyfitnesspal pointed out in his very helpful post, it's good to consider that the weight loss phase will take some time, and that it's simply the on-ramp to permanently weight management and improved health.

In that sense, the easier you can make the process, and the more you think of the weight loss phase as practice for eventual weight maintenance, the better the results. Personally, I had a rule during weight loss that I wasn't going to do anything - except eating fewer calories than previously - that I wasn't willing to do forever. That meant weight loss was a time to experiment and learn a way to eat (and exercise) that balanced appropriate calorie intake with tastiness, good nutrition, satiation, social connection, occasional celebrations and all the other good things we get from our food.

Way too many people buy into the myth that the more painful and extreme the "diet", the better . . . as if being overweight were some kind of sin that required painful expiation, rather than just a process where we learn to eat the right amount, happily, in a sort of calorie-budgeting method similar to the financial budgeting process most of us are familiar with.

Just as in our financial budgets we need to cover life's necessities (housing, utilities, etc.), we need to use our eating budget to get adequate nutrition and stay satiated. Also, most of us are able to afford some treats with our discretionary calories (the ones that remain after necessities are covered). There's no need to consider particular foods "bad" or "off limits": It's about figuring out how often, and in what portions, those things are going to work.

Jthanmyfitnesspal gave you a good outline of a process you can use. There's a more detailed write-up of a similar thing here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

This is a good overall starter post (don't be put off by the joke-y name):

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

And in general, there's pure gold in the "Most Helpful Posts" sections of each forum topic, especially the ones in "Getting Started" and "General Health, Fitness and Diet". Here are direct links to those:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-health-fitness-and-diet-must-reads#latest

Best wishes for much success!