All Men/Women between Ages of 50-60

Hi, there. I totally agree the biggest challenge is what's going on between my ears to convince myself to eat what I know intellectually is the right amount. Despite wanting more than the right amount.

FWIW, years ago I had a similar experience -- shedding a few pounds seemed harder than before. The things I used to do pretty regularly to drop 5 pounds weren't working. I wondered if it was age. When I started tracking calories, I realized it wasn't age at all. I had changed careers to something that was a lot less active, and all I had to do was to adjust my calories for that decrease in activity. It all worked just like before after making that adjustment. I hope something similar holds true for you and you find the formula for your own success.

leos_daddy wrote: »

Thanks for the response, Ahoy. I will say that since the pandemic, I'm sitting a lot more than I did before. My job requires sitting most of the time but while I was in the office, I'd get up and speak to a co-worker instead of sending him/her an e-mail. I was also more than likely to walk around and speak to colleagues. I do walk my dog now that I'm working from home but not moving around nearly as much. That said, I do think that getting older also contributes to lesser metabolism and stubborn weight loss/gain.

Recent research on that subject suggests that metabolism is quite steady from 20s until around 60.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34385400/

How much we move is pretty important: Not just exercise, but also daily life movement. Ideas for increasing daily life movement here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

Some won't apply to you, but there are so many people contributing to that thread, that I'd bet some will. Even fidgeting has been found, in relevant research, to make up to a couple of hundred calories difference per day, comparing a fidgety person to a very placid one of the same size/other characteristics.

On top of that, we can lose muscle mass as we age, if we're not doing things to keep challenging it. A pound of muscle at rest only burns a tiny number of calories more than a pound of fat (which is also metabolically active), though, like around 4 calories different per pound per day. My best guess is that people who are stronger/fitter tend to move more in varied ways through the day, just because it's easier and more fun to do so - that would be a plus for calorie burn. (I'm livelier at a healthy weight than I was as an overweight/obese person, for sure, even though I was athletically active for the last dozen years of being obese.)

I'm 66. My metabolism still seems fine, as far as I can tell. Maybe I'm just genetically lucky, though - no way to know.

Best wishes for success!

You can do it, just keep active and watch those calories and you will see improvement. Good luck.