55-65 year old women's success?

countrycreek · July 2019

@making_tracks you look fabulous and happy! Thanks for inspiring us!

coolgirl11 · July 2019

It's 80% diet 20% exercise....i have struggled with weight all my life. I am 52, went through menopause at 45. I hired a trainer and have a nutrition plan on MFP. I have come yo the realization I will be loghing my food for the reat of my life as that is how I lose weight. I have done every diet program out there including Keto and to be honest the only success that I've had on any of these is when I'm actually journaling the foods that I eat all of the diets work. It's after the fact that's more important what are you doing once you reach your goal weight. So if I have to journal my food the rest of my life to get where I need to be then that's what it is I need to lose about 40 lb. So far so good I'm down to in a week!

amerman5kim · March 2020

Hi Girls, all of these posts are so helpful and inspiring. I am new to this whole community and myfitnesspal. Today is my first day. First day, exercised at the gym, gave up sugar and bread. Second day should be easier than day 1. Does anyone have some wisdom to share with a 58 year old woman?

ryanaamos · March 2020

I am 62, been working out with a trainer since Oct 2019. I got stronger but didn't lose any weight. Jan went on regular low cal diet. After 3 weeks the cravings were killing me! So I went keto. Finally I have started to lose weight. 18 pounds in 5 weeks. It is extremely hard to lose weight at this age, BUT I finally have the time to take care of ME and I am doing it. It feels great to be stronger and working on the thinner. Think of it as your new normal. Live like the you, that YOU want to be.

LoriAnna62 · March 2020

Way to go amerman5kim on getting to the gym and giving up the sugar and bread!!! This is my first day here, too. I'm 57 and have gained and lost the same 5-10 pounds about a million times for 45 years or so....refined sugar and flour are my addictions. I finally started asking God for help and he answered my prayers. I haven't had added sugar since the end of June 2019. At the end of September I bought Jason Fung's book "Obesity Code" and started gradually working into intermittent fasting. I started at 173# and am currently at 153#. My goal is 135#. I eat two meals close together - a late lunch around 1:30-2:00 and supper at 5:30, about 1200-1400 calories total and very clean food. I cook everything from scratch and choose lots of veggies, fruit, lean meat, whole grain, etc. It's taken a long time for my brain to adjust and be happy without refined carbs! I spent the majority of 3 months depressed. But now I feel SO GOOD. It's so worth the effort it took to get here. I also have an elliptical and stationary bike at home and spend about 45 minutes exercising 6 days a week. I don't know enough about this site to know how to be "friends", but it would be great if we could encourage each other!

cory17 · March 2020

@LoriAnna62 What you're describing is where i'm trying to head. Off the addictive chips, not eating late, mine yoyos the same 10 lbs over and over, it's like my body is fighting this.
@amerman5kim How's it going? I've given up sugar too, it's a fight at work though.

ndm531 · March 2020

Hi Ladies, congratulations on your success! I love hearing how you have alll made adjustments in your nutrition and activity levels as you work towards success. I am 66 and March 2019 I got a little help in the weight loss journey - it’s callled chemo. I certainly don’t recommend the diet but it is effective. I initially lost 50 lbs, when I couldn’t eat anything. Then I got a better handle,on finding healthy things I like and I started walking. I lost another 35 being healthy. So the irony is that except for the fact that I have a nasty case of cancer, I am much healthier now than I was pre-cancer diagnosis! I feel great, blood pressure is good, a1c down below 6, and I actually have cheek bones again. Life is good!

Leezy55 · August 2020

Hello, just checking if this site is still active. Female, I will be 66 next month. Have lost 31 lbs and am 41 lbs from goal. Would love to hear from counterparts.

jjlbrick · August 2020

Hi, I’m 64. April 1st 2019 I signed a pledge to ride a bicycle every day for 30 days. I Kept riding in May June etc.
April 1st 2020 I had muscles my legs weren’t flabby I had lost 3 lbs. I had eaten everything I wanted in large quantities. May I brought my summer clothes out of basement found beautiful things that didn’t fit last summer either they weren’t going to fit this summer. I started a donation pile but The donation center was closed. It was a sad day. I liked these clothes skorts, shorts etc. I started logging my food in early May found mfp in June. I’m not following any particular diet plan. No food is BAD. Just portion control. Exercise I’ve ridden every day for 491 days. I don’t usually eat my exercise calories that’s how I gained weight.
As of July 31 2020 I’ve lost 24.2 lbs. the skort I’m wearing today the waist didn’t meet in May. I never thought I’d zip it let alone button it again.

BMcC9 · August 2020

Three years ago, (May 2017) I was almost 59, just over 180 pounds (5 ft 3 / 5 ft 2) BMI obese for my age and height. (October birthday)

141.2 or so is the borderline between BMI overweight and BMI normal for me. Being over 60 and not "super-active default lifestyle" (even before work-from-home became my norm) aiming for the dead-center of normal BMI (124) was not even CONSIDERED as a target.

It took two years of slow&steady, but I made it to 135. (didn't discover MFP's monthly Ultimate Accountability Challenge until maybe halfway through - but it was a HUGE element to my eventual success.)

In April 2019 at age going-on-61, I declared myself at maintenance (the first time) - left the UAC in May or June 2019 thinking I would be FINE just heading off on my own (too-loose tracking though the 2019 summer and fall, but still weighing in everyday) and all stayed nicely within target range until the Holly Daze season (Christmas / New Years 2019 / 2020) when I started staying a bit too high above what I had chosen as the top end of my maintenance range, and flirting toooo close with that borderline back out of normal into overweight.

So I came back to UAC in March 2020 (two weeks before Canada Shut Down) which REQUIRED tightening up on tracking and therefore higher self-awareness / reality checks and by mid-April I could declare "working to stabilize again" (added the difference between shedding-calorie intake and maintenance-calorie intake in small increments over a 6 week period instead of all at once) and I am still sitting nicely within an average daily weight variant of lower-to-upper 133.X

Daily fluctuations don't phase me. I know from experience (and am easily reminded as required by a graph of 3 years of accumulated daily weigh-in data on my Wii Fit Plus) that simply resuming "normal eating / activity levels" the next meal or day WILL result in weigh-in auto-self-correction within just a few days.

The days that are over into 134.X or even low 135s are always the day-afters where I had eaten within calorie goal, but had a heavier or higher salt meal, like stew-on-toast or a national-brand oven-ready pot-pie or else the day after a pre-planned Special Meal event.

Special Meals / outings are now savored and become Special Memories. I no longer tend to treat the entire day leading up to the event-meal as a free-for-all - like auto-overloading on the bbq pre-meal high-fat-but-nothing-special bowels of chips&snacks nibbles that are usually spread out ...

I save all the "already pre-planning-to-go-over" room for an extra cob of corn (which we never have at home because DH can't eat it), seconds of MEAT, and two different desserts instead.

From the time I started "stabilization-into Maintenance" (the second time) in April 2020 I have remained steady week-to-week.

Keep in mind ... this isn't a race. Faster (unless under direct medical supervision for some specific reason / life-threatening condition) is NOT the best long or even short-term strategy.

It WILL happen. You WILL get there.

My two favourite meme / posters are:

General Attitude:

and When Life Happens, and you get thrown a curve ...

Trina2040 · August 2020

Still here and still counting. Up a bit from my original 49 lb loss. Logging in everyday, staying active and now trying to drop the 9 lbs I gained. Five years and counting.

AnnPT77 · August 2020

Still here, still logging/counting most days. Mostly in maintenance since losing from obese to healthy weight in 2015 at age 59-60, but had my weight slowly drift up from 120s (lbs) to mid/high 130s, so back in October started intentionally drifting it back down veerrrrrryyyy slowly, like half a pound a week or less, intentionally. Have lost 9-10 pounds since then (depending on the day

), now sitting at about 129 at 5'5", at age 64.

Pandemic shutdowns made my eating plan work a bit more consistently since March, having removed routine temptations of restaurant meals and craft beer at the brewpub!

Bummed out that rowing club is still limited access, so I haven't been doing my regular on-water rowing this summer, nor my previous twice-weekly spin classes at the Y. Truthfully, my exercise schedule has had ups and downs since WInter, but the last few weeks I've been pretty consistent with a steady state short, pretty easy (UT2/aerobic) rowing machine workout 6 days a week, and 3 days of irrationally supersetting weight lifting. It'll have to do: Better than nothing.

cosafe1 · August 2020

I am a 65 year old female with weight to lose and I would like to join this group and make friends here so that I read what others are doing. I don't like to exercise so need motivation and I like learning new things that other people are doing to help them on their fitness journey. Feel free to add me as a friend as I will be looking to find people I can also add as a friend since I am newly returning to MFP. I want to stick with it and make a change in my fitness this time. I believe there is a quote: "Half measures avails nothing." Wishing everyone the best!

seamonster99 · August 2020

Hi, I'm new to this thread. So much inspiration here, thanks to all of YOU! I'm 56, 5'8, currently 187lbs. Finally in meno as of spring! Stepped on a scale June 6, 2020 and was horrified to see it kissing 200, 198.6 to be exact. I've been logging/counting every day since and making some headway. Long term goal weight is 140, short term is ~182 by the end of Aug. Harder to lose weight now, but intermittent fasting seems to help, am finding a 'new to me' rhythm. Primarily walking and some moderate hikes, some weights and light workouts. Am learning a lot. . .

charmmeth · August 2020

This is a great thread: thank you for all the inspiration. I too am 56, hit 88kg/195lb in lockdown and am working to get it off again. Nearly half way there now... (and nearly back to my pre-Easter egg weight!). Doing workouts most days; I find the low impact workouts at Bodyfit by Amy and at Scottish Ballet for 55+ suit me very well.

cherys · August 2020

I'm 56 and a month ago started working out with a personal trainer four times a week. Started feeling stronger and more energetic but saw no weight loss. So I came back to MFP to log the calories and have lost 3lbs in 10 days. Really glad to have found this thread. My current mindset is do what you can - anything is better than nothing. A short walk is better than the sofa. A long walk is better than a short one. Water is better than endless cups of black tea with milk etc. I want to lose 35lbs in total. To keep it off means an overhaul of entire lifestyle not a diet then back to normal. I need to build a new normal. That's what I'm aiming to do right now.

springlering62 · August 2020

58, 5’7”, SW 222+, current weight 131.

I was thin up til having kids but this is the best shape I’ve ever been in. I gots muscles peeping out.

DiabeticDer · August 2020

I am 58 year old Type 2 diabetic. Started low-carb lifestyle in April 2018. Have lost 86 lbs!! SW = 212, CW = 125.8, GW = 119.

It can be done!!

Tejaco · August 2020

Hello PianoRun,
I am fifty-eight and was never more than ten pounds overweight until menopause. I ballooned up to around 165 at menopause. I don't really know my top weight because I stopped getting on the scale, you know how that is? I didn't diet because I'd heard all these awful things about yo-yo-ing and gaining the weight back. I used MFP to log what I ate for a couple of weeks and I tried to cut back, but nothing changed. So I lived with it until I learned about the Whole Food Plant Based diet/lifestyle. The emphasis was all on health, with lots of science behind it. I was interested in their info about reversing heart disease and diabetes and preventing cancer and Alzheimer's. I studied it for months, "transitioning", and then I went all in on my birthday. The pounds starting dropping as swiftly as they had piled on at menopause. I don't even exercise, though I intend to get better about that. I've now plateau'd with about ten pounds more to lose. Maybe exercise will kick those last ten pounds. But even more importantly, my cholesterol dropped from 270 to 193, my skin cleared up, my hair and nails improved, I got more energy, my sleep improved, my mood improved and I stopped getting recurrent UTIs. I love knowing how healthy I'm eating and that I'm impacting climate change and not requiring the deaths of animals for me to live. If I'm stuck with these ten pounds going forward, I'm no worse off than I was before menopause, so I'm good with it.

Good luck with your goals! I hope you find what works for you. I'm so relieved that I have.

Age: 58, Height: 5'3", SW: ~165lbs, CW: 133lbs, GW: 123lbs.

nwaslosky · August 2020

Hello all. New to the thread but already optimistic that I can have the same success that others have shared. I'm 5'4", 58, and I have jumped to 153#. It seemed like I gained 15# overnight after menopause. I think my weight gain is due to stress and not having a program where I am accountable on my diet and exercise. My goal weight is 135# and I am going to track the food and schedule the workouts. Hearing your successes will help me work towards making my own.

55-65 year old women's success?

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