Over 40 Ladies

Zinka61 wrote: »

I was 54 when I originally came here to lose weight, and it came off just as quickly as when I dieted once in my late teens. I'm 62 now and recently took off another 11 lbs I didn't even expect to lose, so I'm not sure anything has changed. I suspect eating a good quality diet (whole vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts/seeds, fruit) and eating enough food (about 1900 calories a day) to remove all temptation to binge made the most difference for me, but it's likely exercising to increase my muscle mass hasn't hurt. It takes time no matter what age we are, but starvation diets seldom work for long. (No idea that you're eating too low calorie, but I just see a lot of that on here). Careful, accurate logging and consistency are super important.

I agree with you completely. I want to add my post does not have any time limitations or expectations. It takes as long as it takes but accuracy and consistency are key to what worked for me.

44 and honestly finding it just as easy to drop weight now as my 30s. I have the knowledge behind me of what worked last time (and the time before that 😏). I have pictures and milestones which are familiar and which I can look forwards to as I lose. I even have clothes in all the sizes!

Part of it is being brutally honest with myself. When I eat, I recognise that and even log MORE calories than I think I took in to allow for systemic undermeasurement. Plan my day’s meals in advance as much as possible. Weigh in when I change from work clothes to home clothes every day to head off the post-work munchies. Avoid snacking between meals, with the VERY rare exception of a piece fruit if I’m ravenous. 1300 kcals/day, IF 16/8 (basically only lunch and dinner).

YESSS It is so rough. I gained 30 lbs the last year and it seems I keep gaining and losing the same 5 lbs. I just turned 39 two months ago. ugh.

I switched to TDEE about six weeks ago, the same time I started a new lifting programme (I'm not new to lifting though). I guess it depends how long you've been stuck? I would ignore your age as much as possible, and assess your progress and any barriers as you would have done ten years ago.
I'm peri menopausal, nearly 44. It's taken me all of these six weeks to see any movement on the scale, but in that time I've lost a friend which definitely impacted my sleep, eating habits, and tracking ability. The new lifting programme will also impact that. And also, I highly suspect my logging was a tad sloppy at the start. None of those things are age related though!

I'm really enjoying the predictability of TDEE and it suits my lifestyle much more. Consistency pays, but you have to have all the right elements I think. And it has to be sustainable.

Also Noom have a two week free trial - they have quite a good teaching program which focuses on mindset and psychology, might be worth looking at if you are starting to lose motivation.

aimeelynncreates wrote: »

Jhensley2011 wrote: »

Hi all,

We know it only gets harder to lose weight the older we get. I myself have hit a spot where no matter how much I exercise or watch what I eat, the scale doesn't move. Then I just give up for a bit and try to convince myself that bygones are bygones and this phase in inevitable.
But I don't want to give up. For the over 40 ladies - what have you done to kick your metabolism back in gear? What do you do differently now than you did in your younger years?

Send help lol

Much of this all depends on how much you have to lose. As you get closer to your goal, it will slow down. If you have double or triple digits to lose, it's a different case entirely. I've been post-menopausal for several years (turning 50 soon) and have strangely found that losing weight is easier for me now as I look back at my food diary and see what I was eating the weeks where the pounds were shedding pretty easily. Even when I had an overexertion injury and had to stop my daily walks, I was able to lose weight by cutting the calories slightly. I'm at 31 lbs lost after 2.5 months and doing on average about 1500 calories per day.

* When I was younger I'd go to the gym 5X per week. Now I've got a hybrid elliptical/recumbent bike at home and walking as my primary forms of exercise and it still works, but because what I'm putting into my body has changed entirely.

* No processed foods.

* Mostly vegetarian & vegan (Vegan Richa has a great food blog and vegan cookbook that's one of the few that doesn't worship fake meat, I love it). A holistic doctor earlier this year shared a "calorie density of common foods" chart with me that was pretty life changing, you can google those.

* Lots of beans & legumes.

* We treat meat like a special occasion in our house now....which also saves a ton of $$.

* A lot of Mediterranean, Japanese and Southeast Asian food - I get onto Pinterest a LOT for recipe ideas, and sub organic tofu, garbanzos or cauliflower for the meat much of the time. I've reinvented my relationship with those three foods thanks to great recipes

* No sugar in the house - maple syrup and honey are our only sweeteners.

* Every couple of weeks I make chocolate chia pudding made with oat milk, chia, maple syrup and yogurt - it's a good source of fiber and, um, cleans out the tubes.

* Not gluten free but light on stuff with a ton of flour in it.

* We also - gasp! - disconnected our TV 2 months ago and started checking out books from the library and taking walks in the evening. Life changing.

But the biggest thing for me is getting rid of the emotional eating. Turning that corner was a life changer, and I look at food so very, very differently. If I feel like I'm hitting a wall, I change cuisines. Anytime we change things up I think it helps jog our body out of complacency

This is amazing! Watching TV is the worst when it comes to over eating. I'll have a decent day but once we start to watch a movie I'll want popcorn or chocolate. Knowing I'll have to log it keeps it in check.

Jhensley2011 wrote: »

Hi all,

We know it only gets harder to lose weight the older we get.

I don't think I do know that, actually. (I'm 67, was 59-60 when I lost from just over the line into class 1 obese to a healthy weight, have been at a healthy weight for the 7+ years since.)

According to recent research, metabolism is pretty consistent from our 20s through our 60s:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34385400/

What mostly changes is our body composition and lifestyle.

It's common to lose muscle mass as we age if we don't do things to challenge our current strength, and also eat adequate protein. A pound of muscle burns only a tiny number of calories more at rest than a pound of fat . . . but being less strong tends to make movement harder and less fun, so we burn fewer calories through daily life movement.

Also, for many of us, our life habits gradually become less active as we age. I don't know about you, but my job in my 20s was more physical than my job in my 40s. I drove my car more door to door, instead of mixing in more walking, biking, bus. I wasn't doing as many yard/garden and home projects to make a nice home environment. I can afford to hire out annoying or boring tasks I once would've done myself. My social life has more dinners and theaters now, vs. dancing and frisbee (or whatever). I don't have kids, but many women are chasing toddlers when younger, becoming empty nesters in our 40s or so.

The changes happen slowly and subtly, but they add up over the years. It matters.

Reduced activity burns fewer calories. For most of us, our daily life calories - job, home chores, non-exercise hobbies, etc. - represent a bigger calorie burn than does official exercise . . . even for those of us who are pretty active exercise-wise.

Various MPF-ers share their ideas for increasing daily life movement here:

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

There is some potential for people who have a history of repeat extreme yo-yo dieting to have accelerated that muscle loss and some related effects, in small but cumulative increments.

A common dieting pattern with women in my demographic - that I'm not saying applies to you - is ultra-low calories, mostly salads/veggies (not enough fats/protein), and intense cardio. That can't last, and what follows is often little/no exercise, eating heavy in fats (fried foods, rich desserts, pizza) and low-nutrient carbs (breads, pasta, baked goods, candy), but still inadequate protein. The result is losing unnecessarily much muscle mass - even if only a little - in each dieting episode, then regaining almost entirely fat afterward. It's a down-spiral in physical capability and in calorie expenditure. Not helpful.

I myself have hit a spot where no matter how much I exercise or watch what I eat, the scale doesn't move. Then I just give up for a bit and try to convince myself that bygones are bygones and this phase in inevitable.

Improving strength and fitness, and consciously increasing daily life movement, can reverse the things I mentioned above.

The strength/fitness idea is kind of obvious, but also a whole other essay if we got into details, so I won't.

But I don't want to give up. For the over 40 ladies - what have you done to kick your metabolism back in gear? What do you do differently now than you did in your younger years?

Send help lol

It's probably clear that I didn't kick my metabolism into gear at age 59, because I don't think it was out of gear.

Though it's not typical, I'd gotten quite active when I was around your age (after treatment of locally advanced breast cancer - surgery, 6 months of chemo, 6 weeks of radiation, 7.5 years of anti-estrogen drugs). I'd become the semi-mythical pretty-fit fat person, training pretty hard six days most weeks, even competing athletically. Not going to lie, getting more active was a big improvement in quality of life. But I stayed fat, eventually class 1 obese. (I maybe vaguely thought my metabolism was low, but the reality was that it was easy to eat the 300 or so extra calories from that exercise, since I wasn't counting calories or anything.)

At 59, I finally had to admit that I was too fat to be healthy: High cholesterol, high blood pressure, joint pain, etc. When the switch flipped and I committed to doing what was needed to lose weight, I found it surprisingly doable. The hard part was committing, and meaning it.

I didn't particularly increase exercise: Like I said, already active. I put a little more emphasis on strength training while losing, in order to keep existing muscle, even though I'm usually a bit of a weight training slacker. I didn't dramatically change what I ate, since I was already eating a lot of nutrient-dense foods, just way too much. I changed portion sizes, proportions on my plate, frequency of some calorie-dense foods. Eventually, I was able to reach an appropriate calorie level and get decent nutrition eating foods I enjoy. (Life is too short to eat yucky stuff, even if someone calls it "a superfood".)

"Appropriate calories" is not what some calculator (or MFP, or fitness tracker) spits out. Those are just statistical averages. Those can be a starting point, but I counted calories, monitored my weight loss rate, and adjusted my calorie goal to dial in a sensibly moderate weight loss rate, and stuck with it.

For me, that worked fine. YMMV.

I'm cheering for you, because reaching a healthy weight is a huge quality of life improvement, IME. My cholesterol and blood pressure are solidly normal, have been since part way through weight loss. My joint pain (arthritis, torn meniscus) are infrequent, and much milder. My daily sense of well-being is just ineffably better (maybe less systemic inflammation? don't know). At 67, I feel younger than I did at 45, honestly.

Getting to a healthy weight, plus reasonable fitness: The combination is gangbusters.

Best wishes!

I am going to agree with most here, I don't think it is harder to actually lose the weight. I am 48 and this is not my first rodeo...

Our bodies can be more injured, we need to account for that and find exercises that work for us. Also, since we are in our 40s, my best suggestion is to add some weights to your routine. We lose bone density and that is a great way to hang on to as much as you can and add to what you have.

I found that tracking accurately was probably the most important. You want a wake up call? Get a scale and weigh your food for a few days to see how far off you are, it is humbling.

I am again starting nearly over because I got complacent, stopped doing weights regularly, stopped walking during work breaks, and started eating crap again. I made excuses to do ALL of this together, so of course I gained again.

I want my cute clothes back, definitely, but I also want my lower blood pressure back, and I want less migraines. Why I trade all of the health benefits for crap food is beyond me, but I am here, and MFP is the biggest motivator and I have been successful (a few times, haha...) because of the support here.

Friend - I'm sure you've heard this several times and are already doing this but weight loss is a result of being in a calorie deficit. There is a trick I've learned on how to make this easier than it appears to be or at least easier than what you're experiencing.

Fact is, I like to eat. I learned that the secret to staying in your deficit consists of a few things:

• Refer to your diet as a meal plan. The word diet tends to carry a negative connotation when used in a weight loss plan. This step is optional of course but it really helped me out.
• Find out where your maintenance weight is. Basically - How many calories your body desires in order to maintain its current weight. This will help you setting a baseline for your deficit.
• Start slow. Be patient. It's recommended to lose 0.5 to 1% of your body fat a week. Some easy reference, a deficit of 500 calories a day or 3500 calories a week would result in a 1% loss of body fat per week. You can cut this deficit in half if you'd like to take it even slower.
• Now the trick to sticking to the deficit. Eat low-calorie but dense foods. Get creative! Lower the amount of starchy carbs you intake such as rice & bread and replace those with more fibrous carbs like spinach, lettuce or other greens. Did you know 700g of lettuce is roughly 100 calories and 8g of fiber? 450g of spinach is also roughly 100 calories and 10g of fiber. I don't know about you, but there's no way I can finish 450g of spinach in 1 meal. It's just too much volume.
• The next trick is to eat fruits. 300g of strawberries are roughly 100 calories and 8g of fiber. Similarly 330g of watermelon is 100g of calories and 2g of fiber. That's a lot of strawberries and melons haha. You can use fruit to replace snacks that are high-calories dense food.
• Next up is replace whole eggs with egg whites in your recipes. For example, I can make a 4 slice Blue Berry french toast meal under 500 calories. I use 90g of blueberries (50 calories) for this. Instead of using a peanut butter spread, pick up a jar of PBfit or PB2 peanut butter powder. 2 TBSP is roughly 60 calories. You can use 2-3 TBSP of warm/hot water to make your own peanut butter spread that is significantly less in calories than ready made peanut butter.
• Next - Eat foods you enjoy. Like I said earlier, experiment with low-calorie replacement ingredients. I love beef and I love burgers! I like to take half a pound (8oz) of 91% lean ground beef and make different foods with it. 8oz of 91% lean ground beef is roughly 380 calories. You can bind it with 1/2 cup of egg whites (67 calories) and season it with 1 TBSP of burger seasoning (Less than 1 calorie). From there I make all sorts of meals using low-calorie replacements like keto-friendly (low carb) bread which roughly ranges between 50-70 calories per slice (I use the Kroger Carbmaster Wheat bread). Or high fiber, low carb wraps ranging between 50-80 calories (I use the Ole brand). Or you can have a simple lazy day and eat the cooked patty with spinach or mixed veggies.
• Again - find low-calorie dense ingredients & food and make meals you actually enjoy. You'll be surprised how you can take something you really like and knock off close to if not more than half the calories. I love my 500 calorie blue berry french toast with a side of 300g of sliced strawberries. All of which are drizzled with a PBfit peanut butter drizzle I make by using 3 TBSP of hot water and 2 TBSP of PBfit powder.
• I feel that once you take this approach and make it a life style instead of a "diet" you'll be much more happy and much more likely to stick to the plan.
• Lastly - I recommend at least 150 minutes of cardio a week. You can break this down however you feel you can make it work. I do 30 minutes 5 days out of the week. I do 3 days straight Mon-Wed and then I take a break on Thursday and then finish up the week on Friday and Saturday. Also - I'm not talking about simply walking on the treadmill either. If you use the treadmill, I recommend walking on an incline. If you're just starting cardio, try incline setting 3 at 2 MPH. Then steadily increase the incline once a week. Once you get to incline 6, drop back down to incline 3 and increase your speed to 3 MPH.
• If you can't do walking/treadmill because of bad knees, try the elliptical! It actually burns more calories if you utilize both your hands and legs during your cardio session and it has less impact on your joints!
• Doing steady state cardio will eventually help curb your appetite. I know it sounds crazy but I actually feel less hungry after I do cardio. Oh! I do cardio AFTER I do weight training. If you do weight training, perform those first before cardio.
• Two last workout tips. First - Do NOT over-train. Take at least 1 day off every 2-3 days of training. Your body needs time to recover. Second - Get plenty of rest. Use sleep aids if you have to. Your body recovers, grows and absorbs energy while you're in a rested state. Sleep is the most important step for strength training, body workouts and weight loss.
• Bonus Tip - Replace sugar with sweeteners (I use stevia) and replace your sweet beverages with diet or zero-sugar soda or flavored carbonated water. There's no harm in drinking diet soda! In fact, diet soda can help curb hunger. It takes up space and tricks your brain that you've got volume in your bely thus reducing the amount of ghrelin (hunger hormone) that your body produces.

I hope this helps

Feel free to reach out if you'd like more tips & tricks!

-Ciaran Skysong