Success after 50? Please share!

I am 60 years old and started using MFP again in January 2022 to help me track my food and nutrient intake. At 5'4" and 230 lbs I was sick of feeling crappy and tired all the time. My knees and hips had begun to ache constantly. My fasting blood sugar and A1C had crept up into the prediabetes range and my cholesterol had reached the borderline stage. I really did not want to have to end up taking medication. I just wanted to feel better overall and improve my quality of life.

When I retired in 2019 I vowed that I would start working on my health and fitness but instead I felt like I was squandering my time sitting around doing nothing about it and my weight continued to creep up.

When I started trying to exercise in January I couldn't climb a flight of stairs without being out of breath. I attempted a low impact exercise video and lasted all of 5 minutes before I had to sit down and rest. Realizing that I had to start out more slowly I found a bunch of seated exercise videos on YouTube. Gradually as I dropped a bit of weight and my fitness level/stamina improved I was able to start increasing the intensity and length of my workouts. Now I walk, bike, or do low impact aerobics every single day. I vary the length and intensity based on how I feel but 30-60 minutes is my norm. I also lift light weights or use resistance bands 3-4x per week. On average I probably eat about half of my exercise calories, sometimes none, sometimes all.

My daily calorie goal is set to 1200 with 40% of my calories from carbs. I use MFP to monitor not only calories and carbs but to also watch my saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium as well as my sugar and fiber intake. I exercise daily and as of last week's weigh in I had lost 40 lbs.

I haven't felt this good in about 15 years. My knees and hips no longer ache. I am able to garden, mow, rake, clean, whatever without hurting or becoming too tired to move. When I went for my annual checkup in June my cholesterol and fasting blood sugar had dropped back into the normal range. I still have quite a ways to go, at least another 50 lbs or so, and I'm hoping to get my cholesterol and A1C down even lower.

Regardless of how much I end up losing overall or how long it takes me to reach my goal, I know that I will need to continue tracking indefinitely if I'm going to continue maintaining my health and my weight. It's a small price to pay for feeling so much better!

Hi guys, I'm 59 and started my journey to where I am now back on December 30, 2021. At that time I weighed 234 lbs., I'm down to 196 lbs. as of 7.14.2022. I am on meds that cause significant weight gain so it made it especially hard for me to lose weight. My first goal was to get down to 190 lbs. by mid-June. I didn't make it, but 38 lbs. in a little over 6 months has been a huge accomplishment for me. My new goal is 175-180 lbs., I haven't put a date I want to be at this weight, but I am determined to get there and stay there. My success thus far is from following a diet with a target of 1,500 calories a day and riding the recumbent bike for an hour every day. I have now added strength training to my exercise program alternating between one day on the bike, and the next day strength training. I have a tendency to overdo it and crashed about a week ago feeling like I had the flu. Since then I have been trying to listen to when my body needs a break. I'm excited about reaching my goals and also inspired by you guys posts. Hope we all reach our goals!

Hello, I already posted my story under Success Stories with the heading "50lbs lost (Before and After)" But here is a before n after with a slightly updated after pic to add to this thread. I started at age 54. For the first two years I tracked my nutrition manually. I did not have and app. At one point I overshot my weight loss goal and dropped to 158. That was too skinny. For reference, I am 5'11" tall. I now use tracking to carefully improve body composition.

This is a great thread. Inspiring. I started at 42 and nearly 230 lbs. Currently 52 and 194 lbs. I’ve been in the low 170s. Pretty much stay in the low 180s. But have gained weight since starting testosterone injections back in Feb. Lot of learning, self experimentation, adjusting, but primarily being consistent with a style of eating t and training that I enjoy.

I just love when lurkers come out of the woodworks to share these amazing success stories. There’s so many unseen, unheard, unheralded tales.

It’s very extra meaningful when they’re told by “older” (in a pig’s eye!) users.

You guys are rock stars!!!!

Wow! I needed to read this forum post today. I've been up and down for 40 years and the last 10 were just up, up, up. I was about to throw in the towel as it seemed so much harder after 50. 55 now and found a good trainer who understands training and nutrition for women after 50. She's been amazing. It's all coming together to give me some hope.

This is a great thread. I'm looking forward to adding to it as a success story someday. I was on SparkPeople for a long time. I lost approximately 35 pounds and then got stuck losing and gaining the same 5-10 pounds. Two months ago, I found out my A1C jumped up to 7.8 and I freaked out. Last month, I decided to get serious. I'm working on eating healthy foods in a way that will work for me for the rest of my life. No more diets. No more trying to choke down foods I don't like. I just started adding some walking to my daily routine. Soon I will add weight lifting. I'm hoping to get out of the morbidly obese BMI range by the end of the year. I want to start running 5Ks again next spring.