Long Journey but I’m Worth It!

Nice work: Sounds like you're off to a good start, @LeslieAWagner!

Part of the good news is that recent research suggests that our metabolism is pretty steady from our 20s until 60s, so you're in luck.

See, for example: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34385400/

What can happen, though, is that we gradually, imperceptibly even, develop habits of moving less in daily life as we age. Alongside that, it's common to gradually begin losing muscle mass (because we stop challenging it to remind our bodies we want to keep it). Both of those things are reversible, and it sounds like you have some things in your plan to do so. Good show!

I lost around 1/3 of my body weight at about the age you are now (I was 59-60), using MFP. It can work, with persistence, practical approaches, and patience . . . and the rewards are huge, IME.

Wishing you success!

@LeslieAWagner

My husband started, but it was three years after I did. He saw how much better I was feeling and how much healthier.

I never bagged or criticized (well, I sure tried not to!) but I did ask to go this doctors visit and asked the doctor what it would take to get him off so many meds.

His doctor looked at us and said,”Weight loss”.

I sat him down and told him how much he meant to me, statistically he’s likely to go first (he’s a fair amount older than me anyway), how lonely I’ll be, and he’s seen firsthand with both our moms how difficult it is for one spouse to manage home care of another.

That seemed to wake something up in him. He’s done OK. Every little step is an improvement. He’s off diabetes med, hopes to off blood pressure soon. Still obese, but he’s lost a size, and is definitely building muscle.

If all things, he took up aquafit (water aerobics) and just loves it. He’s the class clown, totally loses all inhibitions and shyness in the water. It’s such a hoot to see, I’ve joined him and I’m enjoying the classes, too.

The best thing you can do is teach by example. Nagging sucks for both partners. As an A1 Certified Pro Nag and subjugated nag-ee on a multitude of nagging subjects, we concur.

May I suggest that you not try to be much under your calorie goal routinely, if you got the goal from MFP and asked it to give you a non-zero weight loss rate? Sure, a little under is fine (so is a little over).

Your BMR would be estimated at around 1850 calories. (BMR is the amount you'd burn in a coma, doing nothing.) Even if you're fully sedentary, your TDEE would be expected to be around 2200 calories or so.
(TDEE =total daily energy expenditure, i.e., calories to maintain current weight). 1200 would be at least 2 pounds a week weight loss, which you can probably accommodate for a while at your current weight, but it's fairly aggressiv

Consider: Several of the habits you're trying to change will be easier if you don't try to push the accelerator all the way to the floor at every opportunity, y'know? You're wanting to reduce evening snacking, but have sub-par sleep and high stress - which is already challenging, since under-sleep and over-stress tend to spike evening appetite. Maximum loss rate increases the physical stress, makes appetite spikes by evening even more likely. On top of that, higher loss rate is more likely to encourage metabolism to slow a bit (less fidgeting, feel colder, etc.) via adaptive thermogenesis, and you're already feeling like your body's down-regulated a bit.

I'd suggest trying to start out sticking quite close to your MFP goal, like maybe +/- 50 calories, 100 at the outside. Then, when you add exercise, estimate the exercise calories carefully, add those to MFP, and eat those, too. There's a lot to be said for making the process easier, instead of trying to make it faster.

Just a thought.

Good job!!!

Btw, that shake vibration thing. Useless. You’d be better off spending that time doing gentle stretching or taking a slow walk.

LeslieAWagner wrote: »

I’ll need to figure something out on moving. Likely Gilad or some other online move it show. Lol

Any form of moving more is helpful. (Bonus points if it slightly, manageably challenges your current strength, endurance, or cardiovascular capability.)

It doesn't even have to be official exercise: Talk a walk in the park or public garden, play frisbee with some kids, dance to your favorite music, dig a new flower bed, learn to play pickleball, ride your bike . . . whatever.

If Gilad or other videos are fun for you - or at least tolerable enough that you'll want to do them regularly, look forward to it - that's great. For sure, exercise doesn't have to be miserable or exhausting in order to be useful for either of fitness or weight loss . . . in fact, that type of exercise tends to be counter-productive (via increased injury risk, fatigue, or teaching the unhelpful lesson that exercise is unpleasant (when it isn't)).

Even increasing daily life non-exercise activity can be useful, as a way to counter the long-term habits of lowered activity that many of us develop - slowly, unnoticed - as we age. Various people shared their ideas in this thread - not all of them may work for you, but likely some are viable.

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