Looking for advice on target calories for weightloss

I am also 51 and my main exercise is walking, but not as much as you. I average about 1750 calories per day, with an average weight loss of just over a pound per week. I am pretty close to my goal. So yes, your calculations for your target calories seem to track with my experience.

I’d say that the majority of my effort goes into maintaining an accurate food log. 95% of my food is weighed to the gram. (The other 5% is estimated because of dinners out, etc.)

Ok, you'll figure it out then. Sometimes you just need to figure it out on your own to come to your own conclusions. Best of luck.

How long have you been tracking, and what has your weight change been in that time period? If you've been logging calories in and walking at this pace for 4-8+ weeks, do you weigh less now than a month ago? I'm not sure from your post if you are not losing weight, not happy about the rate of loss, or if you've just gotten started.

If you’re convinced that you’re weighing and accurately logging then maybe it’s an issue with the entries that you’re choosing? Perhaps opening your diary and inviting comments may help? If not, then probably it’s the calorie burn estimate that’s off.

I'm about in the same situation as you, I am 52. I have recently read that often once we hit menopause our cortisol and leptin levels rise as a result of the loss of estrogen and often this leads to slowing of the metabolism.

claireychn074 wrote: »

NitaToupin wrote: »

I'm about in the same situation as you, I am 52. I have recently read that often once we hit menopause our cortisol and leptin levels rise as a result of the loss of estrogen and often this leads to slowing of the metabolism.

The bad news is our metabolism doesn’t slow down (recent studies show metabolism doesn’t slow down until after 60 - and then by a tiny amount), but the changing hormones in peri and full menopause can influence where we store our fat (more likely to go on our waist, sadly). I think it’s mentally harder to lose weight in peri / full
Menopause as we get less good sleep, emotions can be all over the place, maybe we’re too tired to exercise or even be as active during our normal days. But there are plenty of inspirational ladies on here who lost a LOT of weight during that time - and kept it off. It can be done, it’s not always easy, but it is possible.

Can I be a witness? Yes!

There's some limited research suggesting that strength training can help with the fat deposition issue (i.e. where it lands, not whether it exists), but it's IMO non-definitive.

Actual metabolic decline from age is late and pretty minor even after 60. What does happen is that we lose muscle mass as we age, if we don't work at keeping it, and our life routines tend to become less active. (My job, transportation, home chores, social life and hobbies at 20 were much more physical than they are now, at 67!).

Lower muscle mass does lower metabolism a little, but the direct effect is just a handful of calories. However, less muscle mass makes it less easy and fun to move, so we can move less as a consequence, and burn fewer calories that way. That's a subtle shift over decades, potentially, but can add up to literally hundreds of calories per day. (Even being fidgety vs. not fidgety has been estimated to create up to low hundreds of calories difference between otherwise similar people . . . not that I'm encouraging people to twitch!)

Another thing that's been common among women my age (67) is a dieting history that includes too little protein, whether dieting (lots of salads/veggies) or maintaining/gaining (heavier carbs and fats, still moderate to low protein). That's not universal, of course. On top of that, many women my age would hit the cardio hard when dieting (because they thought weight training would make them "bulky"), and not do much exercise at all when not trying to lose. Again, not universal, but common in my social circle. And it's a recipe for muscle-mass loss: Lose it through extreme calorie cuts + little protein + no strength training when dieting, lose it through inactivity and low protein the rest of the time.

All of these are things we can influence, including post-menopausally: Avoid super-low calories, prefer moderate weight loss. Eat nutritiously, including adequate protein. Challenge muscles via strength exercise of some type. Work at increasing daily life movement (not twitching! but moving more - all of that "park at the end of the parking lot, take the stairs" kind of thing, plus exercise, of course).

IMO, there's no point in focusing on a unchangeable factor that's an obstacle to our goals, such as menopause . . . except to figure out how to get over, around, under, through or otherwise past the obstacle. There are some unchangeable things, menopause is one . . . but its effects on weight loss do have counter-strategies that can work.

Me? Yeah. I went into menopause as a side effect of chemotherapy in my mid-40s. I stayed overweight to class 1 obese for around 30 years, including that phase, and the same even after becoming athletically active post-treatment. I joined MFP in 2015 at 59, long in menopause, lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight in just under a year, and have been at a healthy weight since, now age 67.