60 yrs and up

@BlessedGmaof4 The "magic formula" is to eat less than you burn, or as they say on here, CICO (calories in calories out). It can take trial and error to figure out your own "sweet spot" but I believe the best starting point is to input your stats into MFP, losing .5 or 1 pound per week. Measure, weigh, and log your food faithfully, and wonderful things will happen.

I think it helps if you find a tangible reason for losing weight, and not something vague like "I want to look good". Perhaps reasons like "because my health is important" or "I want to take a walking holiday" or "I want to have more energy to play with the grandkids". I had a couple of reasons: one was to stay healthy and not end up on meds for "lifestyle" diseases. The other was to paddle at the front of the canoe. When we go canoeing with our friends the husbands usually sit in the stern of their canoes and the women sit in the bow, because having more weight at the back seems to make a canoe handle better. And usually the men weigh more than the women. But I weighed more than my husband so I always sat in the stern. My goal was to weigh less than my husband so I could sit in the front! LOL

As for high carb, low carb, intermittent fasting, etc etc, they are just different methods of reaching the same conclusion (CICO). Try some on for size and see how they fit. But don't feel that you have to. Just plain old counting calories will get you where you want to go too. For me, I find that the more carbs I eat, the more carbs I crave. And for that reason I try to keep mine below 100. That's just something that I've figured out over the past 9 years. Other people do fine eating many more carbs than that.

I think that once you've found your reason, (whatever YOUR reason is) the other things will just naturally fall into place.

ridiculous59 wrote: »

For me, I find that the more carbs I eat, the more carbs I crave. And for that reason I try to keep mine below 100.

This is me too but I only wish I could do a bit higher carbs like you. On a non exercise day, if I do 30 carbs I gain. It seems to be mainly water weight as it will slowly come back off but can be up to a week or more for it to be gone. Our bodies are all different and react differently. I do eat higher carb on my exercise days as a planned day that I can get away with it but still below 100 carbs easily. For some reason my body tends to store carbs instead of burning them efficiently.

@BCLadybug888

Hi. Nice to hear from you too! :-)

Hi all,
Steve, I’m also looking forward to cooler, fall weather. Costco had snowsuits for sale last week!
Ladybug,
Congratulations on your weight loss for this last year. I think my body or my behaviour must be similar to yours. I’m slow at weight loss, but won’t give up. It’s now or never. I’m proud of myself as I went away for a couple of days, saw a musical, out for meals, and came home without gaining weight.
I’m not counting every calorie or weighing food. At this point, considering all the diets I’ve been on, and all the weight I’ve successfully lost in the past, I know what I’m eating as far as nutrition goes.
Ann, I wish I had the energy, and discipline you have. Still working on getting off some drugs which I think will help. I’ve definitely managed to increase my activity, even just walking.
Welcome to the new people on here.

Hi, @alteredsteve175 - always good to hear from you. Hang in there, you've proven yourself strong, kind, and capable, but I understand (somewhat) how difficult such a lifestyle-marathon effort can be, as time rolls on. Sending strength!

BlessedGmaof4 wrote: »

(snip for length)
With all the heat going on here I try not to turn on the stove as much as possible so been having a lot of sandwiches and salads. The sandwiches I could do without because of the bread and such. I used to buy the Sara Lee Delightful bread at 45 calories per serving but I haven’t been able to find any down here in a while. I love salads but kind of burned out on them at the moment. I just need to come up with some new meal ideas that I can afford.

Hi, @BlessedGmaof4 -

Have you considered "lettuce wraps" as a sandwich alternative? Basically, you just roll up your sandwich fillings in a lettuce leaf.

Something that's veggie centric, but maybe a little easier than salads, is to have some cut-up raw veggies. They can be cut up (prepped) a couple or so days in advance in bigger batches, ready to eat. Some things keep better in water in the fridge than just in a container. I don't know where you are, but here this is a great time of year for that sort of thing here: Prime garden/farmers market/farmstand season. There are even some, like cherry tomatoes or edible-pod peas, that take nearly zero prep work - just a quick wash.

There are also veggies that can be lightly steamed (like green beans) or roasted (like sweet potatoes, baby eggplant, beets etc.) in bigger batches and eaten cold as an alternative (or addition) to leafy salads. (I will often do the roasting in the later evening or earlier morning here in summer, when it's usually cooler.) I assume you're already including slaws and non-leafy salads (like cucumber in yogurt with herbs, beets with a little feta cheese, watermelon or other fruit salads, bean salads using canned beans) in the mix for variety. So tasty!

Cold soups are also good, and so easy: Just throw some good stuff in a blender, chill and eat. Cucumber or zucchini with yogurt and herbs, gazpacho, etc.

This may not work for you, but something that works well for me is a small portion of the higher-protein pastas (like red lentil or chickpea) with a quick sauce (marinara from a jar, even), and a big portion of veggies. Frozen veggies, microwaved, are great. Here, it's zucchini season, so a good lot of some grated fresh zukes, some seasonings, finely chopped onion or garlic, stir-heated quickly in a stovetop pan (or briefly in the microwave) is a nice thing to mix with spaghetti or other pasta.

(The high-protein pastas are admittedly a little more expensive than regular white pasta, but also have more nutrition - a tradeoff that might or might not work for you. I also like soy pasta but those tend to be a more chewy texture, so I prefer them in a pseudo-Asian format, i.e., cooked then mixed into a veggie-heavy stir fry with Asian seasonings.)

Another option I like is soft tacos or tostadas on the small corn tortillas. They're easy to eat, usually only about 60 calories each (for the tortilla) with some decent nutrients, and don't need to be fried in oil. I just make sure they're not too dry (quick run under the faucet (!) if they're frozen or dry), then heat gently in a cast-iron pan until soft (stove's not on long), then fill (for tacos) or top/bake (for tostadas) if the weather is cooler.

(more snip for length)
I really like the CICO idea and am leaning that direction. I’ve tried the keto and most others out there but have learned if I restrict myself from eating certain foods that’s the foods I start craving then end up over eating the foods I’m allowed to have. Such a vicious cycle! I’ve been around long enough to know what’s healthy
and what’s not, why is it such a struggle to do what’s right and just eat healthy!?!

For most of us, if we have a material amount of weight to lose, just getting to a healthier weight is a health improvement in itself. In that light, it makes sense to me to keep things simple, and try to come up with practical but lower-calorie ways of eating what we like and enjoy eating, to lose weight - sure, with a little good attention to nutrition, but no need to obsess. Along the way, there'll be plenty of chances to experiment with new foods or ways of prepping them, gradually, to find more things we enjoy eating, that gradually improve nutrition over time.

The less the struggle, by definition the easier the results. I'm lazy, I like "easy"!

Just my wordy opinions, as always! 😉

@AnnPT77 Thank you Anne! This is the most consistent I have ever been. It feels good. And I feel good.

Thanks @swimmom_1 and @BCLadybug888. I appreciate your comments. It means a lot to me.