Slowwwwww

Do you use a food scale to weigh everything you eat/drink? If not, you’re probably eating more calories than you think you are. Start there.

Four pounds in three weeks is great! You may just need to change your expectations!

Calling @AnnPT77 for the over 55, can’t lose weight answer.

You are doing great! Weight loss is slow, as it should be.

1lb a week is good safe weight loss.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

In weight loss never use the words only and lost in the same sentence. If you’re losing it’s working.

If you want to be a bit disappointed, fine. Adjust your plan to try to make it better? Fine. But if your brain is trying to tell you this is a disaster or failure, that’s your brain trying to trick you into quitting. Personally I think our brains hate weight loss. There’s no other reasonable explanation. Keep working. Never quit.

blueberrymuff98 wrote: »

Thankyou! Yes I use measuring tools and scale - maybe I am expecting too much !

Yeah...probably need to temper expectations. 4 Lbs in 3 weeks is a good rate of loss.

blueberrymuff98 wrote: »

Thanks for encouraging words! I weigh tomorrow and will see what happens-I remember when I was younger that losing weight was so much easier-it seemed I could just think it and it would happen! Not so anymore! I’m going to keep on plugging on though- for my health!!

I would wager that most of us were more generally active when we were younger. Even when I was a teenager interning in an office setting, there was far more moving around going on than now where everything is automated and/or done on a computer.

The first time I lost weight I was in my mid 20s...didn't really need to lose weight, but I decided to cut out sodas at the urging of my dentist. I lost about 10 Lbs like nothing...I also didn't own a car and walked and road my bike everywhere and worked landscape construction. I actually thought something was wrong with me and made a Dr. appt because I wasn't trying to lose weight or anything...I was already pretty lean.

4 pounds in 3 weeks is good! It's slow and steady I'm afraid. I like to reward myself at milestones. Coming up to 14pounds now so I'll do something for that. Good to keep up motivation!

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Do you use a food scale to weigh everything you eat/drink? If not, you’re probably eating more calories than you think you are. Start there.

Four pounds in three weeks is great! You may just need to change your expectations!

Calling @AnnPT77 for the over 55, can’t lose weight answer.

Wait, what?

I don't think the "can't lose weight" answer is different over 55. (I'm 65, OP, lost 50+ pounds back in 2015 at age 59-60, now hanging around here in year 5+ maintaining a healthy weight, after previous *decades* of obesity.)

You're doing absolutely the right thing, adjusting expectations. The dumb reality TV shows (Biggest Loser is the classic example) and tabloid headlines or blogosphere clickbait ("Lose 20 pounds in 30 days on Doctor XYZ diet!!") spread the idea that crazy-fast weight loss is normal.

It's not, and it's not healthy, either. It's not sustainable (alongside a normal life, especially) for the amount of time it takes to lose a meaningful amount of weight (weeks to months or even years). It doesn't help a person learn *anything* about how to maintain the loss. And more, but now I'm ranting.

So, you've already taken on board the idea that a pound a week is pretty perfect, in real life. That's a good start! (Pound a week, 50 pounds in a year: Nice!)

I suspect Quiksylver wants me to say this, so I will: Aging in itself is not the main thing that makes many of us have calorie needs that decrease as we get older. It's muscle mass loss (primarily from not challenging the muscles with exercise (or work!) so they stick around instead of atrophy), and reduced activity. The reduced activity is kind of about average changes in lifestyle. (For example, in college I had a cafeteria job, on my feet lifting and carrying for hours, and walked or rode my bike miles every day to get around campus. I was slim and strong. When I graduated, I got a desk job, started driving most places . . . and got fat and weaker.)

The reduced strength and extra weight conspire to make movement less easy, and less fun, so we tend to do even less, creating a very negative spiral . . . . to reduced calorie needs by middle age if not sooner.

The good news is, both those things are almost totally in our control. We can regain muscle (via exercise, especially strength exercise), we can move more (not just exercise but also daily life habits**), and we can regain the ability to move that makes moving more fun again. Virtuous cycle, yay! Feel better, look better, gradually have higher calorie needs? What's not to like about that?!?

You're making a good start, with the weight loss. Add a little fun exercise, when you can, and progress accelerates. (As an aside: If you have time and inclination, while you're dealing with the foot healing, check out seated exercise videos on YouTube. They come in many intensity levels: Some of the ones for wheelchair athletes are *quite* intense. Those folks don't mess around!)

** For examples of moving more in daily life:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

P.S. Fast weight loss would be a Really, Really Bad Idea while you're healing. Healing requires calories, and healing requires nutrition. Fuel your healing!

Wishing you great success in reaching your goals: Keep going, you'll get there!

If you have a Roku, there is a free channel called 'Fit at Any Age' that not only features the famed Sit and Be Fit series hosted by Mary Ann Wilson, RN, but lots of other exercise choices for balance, strength and increased mobility. Sit and Be Fit videos are also available on YouTube.