Losing just 20 lbs

Drink 32 oz of water after breakfast and lunch - by dinner you will just be eating to get your nutrients.

Focus on hydration, maybe vitamins, and eating a colorful plate and you should see the difference. It may take weeks to get your body out of starvation mode (if you've been eating 1200cal and working out a lot then you may be in starvation) and to regulate water retention. It took me 6 weeks of eating consistently (bc of all the dieting and lack of water) to finally see my metabolism increase and the lbs drop. I finally listened to doing it the healthy way, and that takes a little time.


If you care to continue reading:

I eat 3 times a day around the same time so my body can trust it's not in starvation mode. Intermittent Fasting and Keto both work for my temporary weight loss, but I'm not going to do that everyday for 5 months so the weight jumps right back up when I stop.

I was told by several coaches the 1200 and low carb thing is not a good idea and I need to eat more if I'm going to workout 4x/week, have energy, and not be in starvation mode. I was working out and not eating much for 2 months and gained 12lbs....crazy. So I decided to listen to the experts (kind of). They told me to eat 1600-1700, but 1500 is what I think is best for me so I can afford to miss a workout. I also like to stay under 90g carbs daily, but they do allow me to go up to 150g. And my carbs are complex from vegetables, beans, and sweet potatoes. From time to time, I will add 5 baby marshmallows, 1 tsp of brown sugar, and a bunch of cinnamon on my baked sweet potato... NOT going to stop my weightloss.

I second volume eating to help with satiation and feeling full. This thread is so helpful https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10563959/volume-eaters-thread

Basically you take whatever you like to eat and put it on top of/with a HUGE bowl of salad or cooked vegetables. Eat it and and you will be stuffed. I eat one of these dishes almost every day (my favorites are taco salad, cheeseburger salad, pizza salad, and falafel/hummus salad). None of these salads require dressing, because the toppings are so filling/moist. I also skip breakfast most days which allows me to concentrate my allotted calories in two larger, hence more filling, meals.

Go slow. Be patient. Log everything. Eat lots of Fiber. Eat at least 20% of daily calories in protein. Stay active. Ride through the down times. Don't give up.

Make these changes permanent and your body will eventually respond. I have about 20 pounds total to loose. I have already lost 8-9. I am 53 yo and 5 foot 3"

Wish you success and perseverance. Get a checkup maybe to see what your doctor says?

Hi I am 57 and have over the past year lost 30lbs to my goal weight. I think quite a lot about what I eat an experiment with meals that would be low calorie but filling (stir-fry and rice for lunch ofr instance). I also found that I needed to do regular exercise (and I ate back the calories).

I set mfp to begin with to lose 2kg per month and that just about worked for me (measured by my monthly mean weights). Once I only had less than 5kg to lose I adjusted to lose 1kg per month. I think I pretty much stuck to that; nonetheless, just before Christmas, I hit a plateau. It was frustrating but in the end I made the choice to eat at maintenance for about six weeks (from Christmas until my birthday in February). I actually regained 2kgs (so much for mainteance!). However, from mid-February the remaining very few pounds came off quickly. I've been been in my wider maintenance range (75kg+/- 2.5 kg) since last November, but in my more defined version of maintenance (75kg +/- 0.75 kg) for about two months now. So it can be done but I would suggest that even with not much to lose it's probably worth setting interim goals and taking it in stages.

I've lost 20 lbs since the middle of March. I'm 66, 5'10. Have a lot more to lose! I was 205 and now am 185. I was so desperate I was thinking of getting my gut cut, but instead I browsed all those sites to see what people were eating and how they were handling the gastric bypass surgery. I thought I'd try some of the suggestions from their food coaches, and this is what I did: Spend 30 minutes on every meal. Chew each bite at least 20 times and pay attention. I didn't always do it, and I didn't do it perfectly, but I tried it. I still have to force myself to eat slowly and dawdle over my meals, to weigh and measure, to shrink my stomach and stay away from volume (I am a volume eater). Also hard was to not read or watch TV while I ate. I set my calories at 1200 but always went up to 1400 or 1500 (setting at 1200 served more as a warning than as a goal). I disciplined myself to log everything I put in my mouth so I could see the macros and calories of what I was eating. It is educational. If I go off my general plan, I have to log it anyway! I try to walk moderate pace at least 30 minutes a day, six days a week. I use headphones and listen to history books on tape because that keeps my mind off how bored I am with exercise. When my grandson is around I end up eating junk with him, but I just log it and keep on keeping on. I think the real key to losing weight is to eat slowly, chew thoroughly and pay attention to the food instead of mindlessly munching. That's really what helped--I realized some foods or food preparations I didn't really like so I experimented and adjusted. I'll admit, the slow eating has been a struggle at times, but very eye-opening.

I'm in the same boat as you. I'd LOVE to lose just 20lbs... but as I get older (58 y/o) it seems like it's two steps forward three steps back.

Feel free to friend me ~

Well, I lost about 30 lbs in my 50's. It went pretty quick, really, maybe 3 to 3 1/2 months? I was eating net 1200-1400 a day and seldom felt hungry at the higher end of that range. I'm 60 now and my weight has been creeping back up during "maintenance" and Covid, so I just took off 10 again. I'd like to see if I can go a few lbs lower. I'm experimenting with eating about 1700 calories every day and then aiming to burn at least 300 in exercise (mostly walking my dog and doing gardening/yard work) I'm never hungry, and I'm still losing very, very slowly at this rate, which I guess would be around 1400 net many days. The advantage of eating so many calories is that I don't binge often or as badly (because I'm not hungry!), which really set me back at times in the 6 years between my initial loss and this loss, especially when I tried to eat 1200 net calories. This spring, I don't feel deprived or like I'm "dieting". Some days I burn a lot more than 300 calories, but I stick to my 1700ish calories. Other days I burn less and so I eat right up to my calorie goal. This has created a routine for me that takes a lot of the drama out of wondering where I can fit in another snack if I exercise or what I might be able to eat. I know about how much food I can safely eat per meal, even before I log it. Also, I pre-log every morning, with an eye to not only my calorie goal but also some nutritional goals, like potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C. I see friends here who are losing 100 lbs or so lose faster than I am, but I try not to get envious. I'm at an ok-enough weight and am focused on eating as if I weighed a little less with the expectation that if I do it long enough, I *will* weigh a little less and be used enough to eating this way that I don't creep up again. You may find you lose faster at the beginning, and then it will slow down. That is the time to be patient and keep eating the way you plan to eat permanently.

Good morning to everyone from an icy Cape Town. Reading through you posts has really helped me a lot. My biggest problem is motivation and sticking to an eating plan. I also need to get back into an exercise regime, but once again, for some reason the motivation is lacking.

Any help and guidance would really be appreciated. I need to get back to feeling good about who I am and this 51 year old body.