Losing Weight After 50

I think most people get more weight-loss benefit from managing calories than from exercise. I have to work really hard for the better part of an hour to get around 300 calories of exercise, and skipping eating 300 calories takes no time at all, and much less effort.

Had you been walking much before the 3 miles? If not, maybe that was just a bit much for a start. I went for a 4-mile walk the other day, after not doing any distance cloase to that for several months, and really paid for it knee-wise, because my knees are not that fab to start. I've been rowing & spinning regularly, but walking is a different stressor, and I should know by now that I personally need to work up in distance over a period of time, not just jump back in. It usually helps me to ice the knees after exercise that provokes them.

It's also possible that walking isn't the exercise for you, even though it's excellent for a lot of people. I don't walk as a main part of my activities because that's definitely true for me. (I just try to walk far enough, often enough, that I keep conditioned for things like art fairs and music festivals, where walking is key to having fun.) But other activities work for me, I've found, after experimentation. I do OK with exercises that don't have much impact or knee torque, so rowing & cycling work well for me. But individual circumstances/conditions vary.

Is there a pool near you? Water exercises are easy on the joints. Something like yoga or Tai Chi could also be something to try. Strength training is great, and automatically scaled to our current capability level, because one can start with lighter weight.

I lost around 50 pounds at age 59-60, and didn't really change my exercise level at all to do it. (I was pretty active, but had been since I started rowing in my mid-40s after decades being mostly sedentary.) So, eating changes alone are enough for weight loss, but exercise is good in other ways.

I always say: Sensible calories for weight management + well-balanced eating for nutrition + exercise for fitness = best odds of long-term good health . . . which is what most of us want, right?

Best wishes!

I'm 50, while I lost my weight 5 years ago and I'm maintaining now.

Where we are hormonally (menopause) can definitely effects things physically as in sleep and all the not so fun side effects. Keep in mind age isn't the reason we can't lose weight and keep it off, the its all about how much we eat and how we move (or don't move). Maintaining isn't difficult as long as you keep the same principles as you did while losing.

Engage in activities and exercise you enjoy and that are low impact if you have any limitations or pain/discomfort like your knees. Build upon any exercise you do slowly doing to much too soon is going make you sore and possibly injure yourself. Congrats on the loss so far.

I'm having great success after 60 and encourage you not to wait. I've learned there are 3 related facets to physical well-being: weight, health, strength; and each has a primary method of control: calories, nutrition, exercise. Using the methods to improve the facets is moving me so much closer to well-being. After a year I'm physically a different person in many ways.

It sounds like you made a couple of mistakes that many others and myself have learned the hard way too.
(1) Exercising past the point of pain yesterday discourages you from exercising today. For me the "no pain no gain" approach is discouraging. Walking is my thing too, but I began doing a slow mile every day. After a week I increased to 1.2 miles. Over a year I've slowly increased to 3 miles with an 8% incline.
(2) Expecting to lose weight fast by exercising more. Weight isn't going to drop fast without damaging health or strength. The fastest weight loss I've ever seen are people on chemo therapy. Biggest loser weight loss are not the long term winners I plan to be.

Instead of dieting then gaining it back, I'm improving my behaviors that resulted in my obesity by planned eating eating for weight loss and nutrition and by daily walking for strength. Commit to a year of serious effort and you'll achieve beyond your highest hopes.

logemana wrote: »

Hi I’m Amy. I’ve lost 23 lbs using MFP and have another 40 to go. Trying to increase my activity and took a 3 mile walk. But my knee hurts. Trying lose weight after 50 is a little different for me. I will say it’s more about the food than the exercise for me. Thoughts?

When I started walking again at age 47 I started with a mile and worked my way up.

When my mom was in her 70s she was training for hiking in the Grand Canyon and for her 80th and 81st birthday went hiking in the White Mountains. (I pet sat the dog )

mmapags wrote: »

missysippy930 wrote: »

mmapags wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

Age isn't really the main factor at all for weight loss.
Losing weight is always mostly about how much you eat whatever your age.
Injuries aren't unique to aging either - I started wrecking my knees and back way back in my 20's and 30's.

There are some differences in that the rate of fitness improvements and recovery from exercise are slower as you age. I definitely have to train a bit smarter rather than go all out all of the time. But my volume of exercise is higher than ever but I've built that up steadily and progressively over a long time period.

For health and fitness my 50's have been a great decade and losing the excess weight has noticeably reduced the pain from my old injuries.

Keep it up Amy, it's worth it.

I'm 67 and I completely agree.

I am 67 too. I am losing weight in my 60’s and it isn’t any harder than it was when I was in my 20’s.
I bought into the whole idea that, “it’s harder to lose weight over 40”, and figured, why try?
It takes commitment, dedication, and perseverance, no matter what age you are, and most people, with no medical issue that could affect weight loss, can do this. There are many, many people here, adults of all ages, that have done, and are doing it.
I exercise more now, than I have done in decades. Losing the weight has made a lot of difference in my mobility.

I agree. I lost 40+ lbs in my 60s. The real issue is that most of us let ourselves get more sedentary and do less to preserve muscle mass as we age. I understand why. Career and family responsibilities, especially if we have a desk job, time pressure. It is more difficult than when we were young to stay active.
But, if we increase out N.E.A.T. (or keep it high) and mind our calories, we can lose weight just fine. I feel that the age thing is really an excuse for these other factors.

Personally, I walk, intentionally or otherwise, 4 to 5 miles per day (sometimes more) and weight train 3 to 4 times per week. I am at the lowest weight and body fat I've been since I was 30. I'm am fit and can do pretty much anything I ever could. I just may not be able to do it as often. As sjomial pointed out, recover from vigorous activity becomes a little more of an issue.

All of this.

I lost all of my weight starting at age 52. I'm 56 now. I weigh less now than I did when I was 13 (a traumatic school weigh in burned that weight into my brain!).

I have purposefully worked to increase my N.E.A.T. because I'm short and tiny and like food too much to eat how many calories I'd get if I were sedentary.