60 yrs and up
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I am a male and will be 71 in two weeks. Got lazy for a couple of years...easy to blame covid but that wouldn't be true, just lazy. We did move in the last year which did add stress (eating). Fortunately one house sold moved into new house and I am now being extremely careful. I have lost 20 lbs since the end of April by watching what I eat and now trying to walk 12,500 steps a day. My blood pressure is still elevated today it was 156 over 90. That makes three days under 160/95 which means I can now start getting back to swinging kettlebells which I happen to like working with. They are fairly easy to use and are both aerobic and anaerobic!!! I will start using tomorrow and plan to use three days a week.6
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Hi @danfinn01 and welcome.1
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I am a male and will be 71 in two weeks. Got lazy for a couple of years...easy to blame covid but that wouldn't be true, just lazy. We did move in the last year which did add stress (eating). Fortunately one house sold moved into new house and I am now being extremely careful. I have lost 20 lbs since the end of April by watching what I eat and now trying to walk 12,500 steps a day. My blood pressure is still elevated today it was 156 over 90. That makes three days under 160/95 which means I can now start getting back to swinging kettlebells which I happen to like working with. They are fairly easy to use and are both aerobic and anaerobic!!! I will start using tomorrow and plan to use three days a week.
Good luck0 -
Just got back from a five day trip, helping friends pack up to move houses. Lots of strenuous activity, and I had to be extra mindful re: the muscle I pulled in my back last week. I of course fell off my diet, but oh well. I'm home now and back at it.2
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Timberlan127 wrote: »Timberlan127 wrote: »Timberlan127 wrote: »Welcome to all the new people!! I'm doing ok right now. I've had a couple of hungry days but I've hung in with them. Eating more protein has helped me with the hunger. I've been walking more. Progress is slow but steady with some fluctuations still happening. I have found if I just keep doing the right things they even out over time. This is a tough journey and it's hard not to get impatient sometimes. But I am feeling better and feeling more in control of my progress. I hope you are all doing well. The good weather should help us all to get out more and move more.
Restarting exercise for me was a very slow progression since I was recovering from a bad couple months of vertigo and I had just spent 2 years basically just sitting on my couch. I was worried about making my lower back pain worse (exercising did just the opposite) and I was worried about falling due to the dizziness from the vertigo. So I started with a very slow 5 minute walk around my house where I could steady myself with a wall or countertop if I needed. I added a minute a day and gradually increased my speed. I think the slow progression was key to getting back into exercise. It helped me avoid injury and build my confidence that I could indeed do this.
I'm finding the same thing. With me it is my knees. But slow steady progress seems to be helping them too. I try to do a little more each day. The only discouraging part I'm finding is that I can't seem to move faster without risking a fall because the knees seem to give out on me now and then. They also hurt more the faster I try to walk. I'm hoping as I lose more weight that will improve.
In general, I've found that the stronger/fitter I get, the less frequent or severe chronic pain (or even discomfort) is. Finding the right level of challenge - to make progress but not injure myself - is the challenge.
So far (🤞), I've found that patient progression will let me do nearly anything I want to, that isn't completely contraindicated by some prior injury/problem. The trick is finding the right patient route.
When first working out, it was harder to distinguish discomfort that was maybe unpleasant but wasn't making things worse, from pain that was deepening some underlying problem/injury and making things overall worse long term. With experience, it seems like I can better distinguish between those things in the moment, and better manage them.
Weight loss has definitely been a help, a big one, for me. It helped balance as well as the stress on joints.
That gives me hope. I have read that before. I can already feel some difference. The knees don't hurt as much as they did when I started. I need to find some exercises that will strengthen the muscles around the knees. I can walk with no problems but stairs, getting out of chairs, or walking up hills are all tough. So I know the muscles around the knees are not as strong as they should be. So that is definitely something I need to work on. I'm glad to hear that the more I lose the better the knees might get.
@Timberlan127, will your doctor refer you for physical therapy? That really helped me. According to what they told me, for many people, strengthening muscles around the knee is an important intervention, and good physical therapy people are really skilled at figuring out which muscle groups are the main problems.
In my case, it wasn't so much knee strength (I'd already been working out for probably a decade by then), but more related to some tightness in my hips, and they gave me exercises to help that. In addition, they gave me great assessment and instructions to help me walk and (especially) climb stairs in ways that would reduce stress on my knees in the future.
It may not apply to you, but some advice they gave that was extremely useful was the observation that as I went up stairs, I was sort of using the leading/front leg's knee to pull myself up, which is more stressful. They encouraged me to think about pushing from the lower/back foot, when climbing stairs - that put more of the work into the calves, not so much on the knee. I can feel a difference, when I work on that.
For knee exercises, maybe see what "Bob & Brad" on YouTube have on video: They're professional physical therapists each with decades of experience, and they have videos on many topics, self-help oriented. (I think some of their advice about diet isn't exactly on point, but that's a bit out of their professional scope of practice, so . . . .). Their exercise recommendations seem good.
@AnnPT77 Thank you!!! I have been considering that for a while but keep putting it off. It's time I try something new. It's scary to think my knees are so weak that I have trouble getting up off a chair. I definitely need to start doing something about it. In the mean time I will try Bob & Brad on You Tube. I hadn't thought about looking on You Tube. You always have such great ideas. Thank you for taking the time to share. Just knowing that you have been through some of these things and are doing better now helps a lot.
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Hello everyone. It is nice to see a thread for us 60s people. I am back on mfp for I guess the 10th time. Not really sure, I've lost track. But I have been logging consistently for a month, the best I have ever done. And I have lost 22 lb since the first of May. Developed mild diabetes last year. So losing weight is the priority in my life. I have battled obesity since the age of six. It got really bad over the last few years. I'm well over 200 lb overweight. I can't even walk around the block without it almost killing me. So I'm concentrating on my diet for now and not so much on any exercise. I do look forward to being able to walk around again though. Feel free to friend me. I log in several times a day, and like to support friends.8
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@mybentley7
Congratulations on your successful start! How do I friend you?0 -
ShelleyBeth_61 wrote: »@mybentley7
Congratulations on your successful start! How do I friend you?
They've made it really complicated to friend someone on mfp, at least on the app. First you click on the person's name, and then you click on view profile, then you have to click on "mfp profile", then you click on the friend icon, which is the one with three little people characters. From there you can send a friend request.1 -
Hi - just turned 60 and I’m starting on this weight loss journey yet again. Would love to make friends and be a motivational buddy. Add me!2
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Hi @mybentley7 - 22lbs off since May 1?? 👏 👏 👏 , I started at basically 300lbs and agree with you about focusing on losing/controlling food first (and foremost) and then adding activity/exercise. I am now around 250 and feel amazingly better & more mobile but still have primarily a food focus until I get below 200 for me.
Hi gocat55 & ShelleyBeth_61 and welcome 🙂6 -
Hi- I am 67 and just lost 110 lbs and am looking to get muscle 💪 back up, lost alot of muscle while dieting. Starting weight maintenance program now to try to maintain weight at what it is but need muscle mass back.5
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Hi- I am 67 and just lost 110 lbs and am looking to get muscle 💪 back up, lost alot of muscle while dieting. Starting weight maintenance program now to try to maintain weight at what it is but need muscle mass back.
Good for you 👏 👏 👏 and for everyone reading this - make sure you eat lots of protein while losing weight to preserve as much muscle mass as possible!2 -
BCLadybug888 wrote: »Hi- I am 67 and just lost 110 lbs and am looking to get muscle 💪 back up, lost alot of muscle while dieting. Starting weight maintenance program now to try to maintain weight at what it is but need muscle mass back.
Good for you 👏 👏 👏 and for everyone reading this - make sure you eat lots of protein while losing weight to preserve as much muscle mass as possible!
Yes, and . . .
Exercise of some type also helps maintain muscle during loss: Remind your body you want to keep muscle, by using it.
It doesn't need to be some extreme thing! If you can walk a bit, walk a bit. Go slowly, don't overstress - just gradually increase, respecting your current capabilities, just making a small challenge, avoiding injuries.
If you can't walk yet, look at chair exercise for seniors (AARP, Silver Sneakers, YouTube - whatever you can access, can handle).
If you can make patient, gradual, manageable-challenge progress, you'll amaze yourself with where you are in a few months, I promise. Quality of life improves!6 -
Hi, all. Just checking in. No significant changes here. Just the daily grind of caregiving and work. Weight is fairly stable and I'm on a slow downward trend.
Trying to maintain that "attitude of gratitude". Some days I'm successful - some days I'm not. 😁
Caught up on all the posts. This group is an inspiration to me. Thank you all for the fine examples you set. Helps keep me in a positive frame of mind.14 -
Hi all,
Reading all your posts but have been dealing with life’s issues, so I haven’t posted recently. Things are looking up, and I’m much more positive about my weight loss and focusing much more on my health. I’m of the same mindset as BC ladybug. I’m focusing on eating right at present, and will try to focus more on exercise when I get to about 200 lbs. at that point I’m hoping to get more energy.4 -
There's a crazy paradox about exercise: the more you move, the more energy you have. Isn't that amazing? And it doesn't have to involve jumping up and down in a fitness class, or peddling to loud music in a spin class (though I loved my spin classes before the studio closed!). Exercise might just be a short walk, or a chair yoga video on YouTube. It all depends on where you're at in this weight-loss journey.
Check with your health care provider first of course, but really, movement isn't a penance. It's a privilege. It's a celebration that here I am on the right side of the grass.7 -
ridiculous59 wrote: »There's a crazy paradox about exercise: the more you move, the more energy you have. Isn't that amazing? And it doesn't have to involve jumping up and down in a fitness class, or peddling to loud music in a spin class (though I loved my spin classes before the studio closed!). Exercise might just be a short walk, or a chair yoga video on YouTube. It all depends on where you're at in this weight-loss journey.
Check with your health care provider first of course, but really, movement isn't a penance. It's a privilege. It's a celebration that here I am on the right side of the grass.
I so agree with this statement! I had to very slowly increase my activity and was amazed at how good I felt when I exercised. My energy level is so much higher now. I used to feel just drained all the time. It's important to start slow, increase gradually and be consistent. If all you can do is 2 minutes around your living room then do that and keep doing it. Increase as your fitness level improves. You'll get there. And you'll feel better and be able to do many things you weren't able to do before
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ridiculous59 wrote: »There's a crazy paradox about exercise: the more you move, the more energy you have. Isn't that amazing? And it doesn't have to involve jumping up and down in a fitness class, or peddling to loud music in a spin class (though I loved my spin classes before the studio closed!). Exercise might just be a short walk, or a chair yoga video on YouTube. It all depends on where you're at in this weight-loss journey.
Check with your health care provider first of course, but really, movement isn't a penance. It's a privilege. It's a celebration that here I am on the right side of the grass.
100%. I started getting active right after cancer treatment, when I was still class 1 obese. (This was the whole nine yards of cancer treatment: surgery, chemo, radiation, anti-estrogen drugs.) That cancer diagnosis had followed a couple of years of extra-sedentary life (caused by various crises in my job and personal life), though I hadn't been routinely active for decades. I was pretty completely physically depleted, weak, exhausted, just diagnosed as severely hypothyroid, with sleep interruption insomnia every night (only ever able to sleep in chunks of 90 minutes or less).
I started really gradually, with gentle yoga classes a couple of times a week. Gradually, I started doing a few minutes of yoga most days at home, then took some other group classes that seemed manageable (including "Strength Training for Women"), got some low-impact aerobics videos, etc.
Over the course of a couple of years, there was a huge evolution in my strength and energy, and an even bigger - massive - improvement to my overall quality of life. This, while staying class 1 obese the whole time, so just from the exercise/fitness.
Movement is a wonderful, beneficial thing. It's some years on, now, but I bless my stumbling, gradual, inexpert efforts to get moving back then, and can't imagine - frankly - where I'd be if I'd waited until I was thin to be more active.
Both weight loss and improved fitness have big benefits, and they can be pursued separately or together. The key thing with being active is to start wherever we are, with just a small manageable bit of a challenge, and proceed gradually from there. Magic can happen - slow magic, but magic nonetheless.
It's a myth that exercise needs to be some miserable sweaty gym-y thing that we don't enjoy, in order to have benefits. Any manageable, slightly/manageably challenging increase in movement is the on-ramp. From there, we'll get fitter, and as we get fitter, we can do just a bit more. Such great rewards!6 -
Melwillbehealthy wrote: »Hi all,
Reading all your posts but have been dealing with life’s issues, so I haven’t posted recently. Things are looking up, and I’m much more positive about my weight loss and focusing much more on my health. I’m of the same mindset as BC ladybug. I’m focusing on eating right at present, and will try to focus more on exercise when I get to about 200 lbs. at that point I’m hoping to get more energy.
😘0 -
Ok, now I feel a bit silly.
Ridiculous and Ann, you’re both right. I think I’m making excuses. Exercise does seem to give you more energy , as strange as it sounds.
I’m going to try to drag myself to the gym tomorrow and see what I can do. I’m so tired of feeling drained and exhausted. Also, I need to just move my body, so I don’t feel so stiff.
One reason my goal was 200 lbs. is that at that weight I hope to stop taking one of the prescription drug’s whose side effect is tiredness. I hope when that happens, my energy will increase.3
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