55-65 year old women's success?

MNNice68 wrote: »

HI ladies- I am so glad that I found this thread. 3 years ago I was thrust into surgical menopause, I am 5'7 and WAS 164 lbs. It seems like almost overnight I started gaining weight and bellyfat, I consulted my doctor and was told hysterectomy does not cause weight gain. Fast forward 3 years, I look like I have a spare time around my midsection and weigh 189 lbs. I feel so disheartened and desperate to find the "old me" I wish I never would of had this surgery, unfortunately I had a 10cm growth on my R) ovary and it wasn't an option (it turned out benign). Nothing has changed in my life beside my hysterectomy. My question to all of you, what calorie parameters should I use? How many calories, protein, carbs? How do I figure all of this out? Thank you in advance for any information and guidance. P.S. If anyone is interested in being friends I would love that too!

Start with the MFP defaults that result from setting your profile per MFP's instructions. Shoot for a pound a week loss. Follow that goal closely for at least a month. If the first couple of weeks' weight changes look extremely different from the last couple, ignore the first couple, and go on for a couple more.

Then calculate your average weekly weight change over the 4 weeks. If it's materially different from the pound a week, adjust your calorie goal using the assumption that 500 calories a day is about a pound a week. (Use arithmetic for fractional pounds if necessary.)

Don't alter your plan before 4 weeks of solid, consistent data . . . unless you seek to be losing much faster than a pound a week and start feeling weak or fatigued (danger sign!), in which case eat more.

Don't worry too much about macros at first, focus more on calories and satiating food choices/timing. If you're noticing you're very short of the protein goal routinely, that's worth trying to improve alongside working on calories.

Get calories and satiation in line first. You can work on fine-tuning nutrition later. You won't become malnourished in that time, as long as you're not malnourished now, and don't do some extreme ridiculous restrictive fad diet. Eating reasonably sensibly will be fine.

Best wishes!

I'm so glad that there was some discussion on maintaining weight, after all it is the end goal & hardly anyone talks about it. Many people I've come across don't know what to do when they reach their goals so this was good. I guess maintenance isn't that exciting...just eating a little more of the same as before but I know many people who , after losing weight went back to their old habits & gained it back and if I didn't hear about losing with maintaining in mind, I could have very easily gain it back so it made the world of difference for me