Old folks weight loss

I agree: With 15 pounds to go, half a pound a week is pretty perfect at any age.

That may be extra true - possibly - for people our age. (I'm F, 66 - in weight maintenance now for several years.)

For anyone, any age, when we lose weight fast, it increases risk of muscle loss. Researchers believe we can only metabolize a certain number of calories of body fat daily per pound of fat we have left on our bodies. The implication is that it's health-promoting to slow down weight loss as we get lighter.

The potential extra issues at our age are twofold:

(1) If unnecessarily much muscle loss occurs along the way, that's higher penalty for us. An average person in our demographic tends to have less muscle mass to start with than an equal-activity younger person (though it varies individually with athletic history, of course).

We can re-gain lost muscle loss, sure, even at our age. That's a pretty slow process for anyone, but it's even slower for we older women. Better in all cases to keep as much muscle mass as possible while losing, since muscle is useful in daily life, and coincidentally having more of it does slightly increase our basal metabolic rate (i.e., calories we burn even before doing anything).

(2). I don't know about you, but though I can do most things I could do when younger, one difference I notice with age is that I'm less resilient to overstress. At 20, I could over-exert, stay up all night, eat poorly, and still get some stuff done the next day - some penalty, but still functional. Now, not so much. I need to be a lot more canny and sensible about managing stress and recovery.

Why is this relevant? A calorie deficit - weight loss - is a stress. A bigger calorie deficit is a bigger stress. A bigger calorie deficit when we have less left to lose is also a bigger stress. There can be a piper to pay, at some point, y'know?

Might be fatigue, might be lowered immunity, or one of the many physical problems that can be triggered by too-fast loss at any age (from the minor, like brittle fingernails, to the major - only at true extremes - like heart damage!). This is an individual decision, but I preferred to be conservative, lose slowly when I got to those last 10-20 pounds.

On top of that, as we age we need more protein for best health, and that takes up some calories. That makes further calorie cuts a little more fraught.

I agree with the suggestion of opening your diary so we can take a look. That's not a dig: Calorie counting can be a surprisingly nuanced skill, and some of the old hands here have been doing it for years, have tripped into most of the pitfalls along the way, can maybe help you avoid them.

Beyond that, the interventions I'd consider would be adding some strength training, and making sure you're getting good all-round nutrition, especially adequate protein. Shooting for at least 25g protein per meal is the recommendation of a recent expert study group (Prot-Age Study Group**), which found that protein timing - spreading it through the day - is more important as we age. Protein can support muscle maintenance, but it also requires slightly more calories to metabolize, sort of a tiny bonus.

** https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(13)00326-5/fulltext

On the strength training front, it doesn't need to be some mega-giant weights or something like that, just something that's a mild progressive challenge to your current strength. That can be lifting weights (that are heavy to you, a little - doesn't matter how many pounds/kg), bodyweight exercises, or some other exercise mode that challenges current strength. There's more info in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

(Despite the title, it does have bodyweight exercise info, not just actual lifting.) Increasing strength has a small metabolic cost, i.e., some extra calories may be burned.

Finally, if you haven't done so already, you might consider how to make the non-exercise parts of your day a little more active. Some of the reason that we need fewer calories as we age is that besides the reduced muscle mass, we've gained habits of subtle inactivity. That can make a contribution. There's a thread about that here:

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

Not all of those ideas would work for you, I'm sure . . . but there are a lot of ideas from many people. Some of them might be achievable.

I hope you're able to find satisfaction with your path!