Hello!

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I’m new to the community. I’m a 68-year-old woman and really struggling to lose weight. I’m interested in hearing what has worked for other “older” women.

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  • nsk1951
    nsk1951 Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Hi @Jotternme13 ... I'm 10 years older than you and am not currently trying to lose more weight. However, back when I started this app, I was your age and had given myself until my 70th birthday as challenge to myself to lose as much weight as I could; hopefully 100 pounds. That didn't happen. However, I blame it more on my technique than long-time yo-yo dieting habit; which is what got me morbidly obese in the first place. ... I did lose 55 pounds that stayed off.
    What I've learned along the way:
    1. It didn't come on real quick, it's been around a long time, so why expect it to disappear quickly? It won't. Resign yourself to being comfortable with small increments in weight loss and look at the trend, not the day-to-day or even week-to-week changes. They tend to go up and down a little all the time.
    2. Eat a well balanced and health sustaining diet. The items to trim are the frequent snacks and desserts, not the fortifying meals and celebration feasts with family and friends. Don't eat or drink what is popular to call 'empty calories' because they don't fill you up and often just start of binge.
    3. If you cannot handle having something in the house that you know is of that 'empty calorie' type and you do always end up with a binge when you have it, than banish it from your home. But, if you can handle it in social settings away from home and they don't have that binge effect, then don't kick yourself when you do have some.
    4. You don't 'have to' exercise to lose weight. As a matter of fact, you have to exercise an awful lot to burn extra 'calories' away and one binge will undo all that right away. However, you DO have to exercise to maintain body tone and to have an easier time with being 'regular'. Try to be as active as you can in small ways, and if you can handle more, than do more. But do it for the pleasure of the movement of your body and not because you 'have to'.
    5. Try not to change what you are doing often, or to be too aggressive. It's better to set realistically small steps that are easy to incorporate into your everyday lifestyle and habits.
    6. You will reach a point where your body seems to be fighting you, trying to get back to where you were before. That tends to happen more often the more times you fall off and start again. And often the falling off happens because you were too aggressive in what you changed all at once in your weight loss efforts. When that happens, it might be the right time to practice maintaining the weight you are at that time and see how that goes for a month or three ... see if you can stay within say, 5 pounds. Then you can go back to a weight loss effort once again ... which usually means cutting your calories to less than you have been consuming to maintain your current weight. This is were being active helps by burning some more so that you can eat a bit more and not gain. Because, as you age, your metabolism does slow down some, and as you sit around with little or no activity, you slow down even more.

    Good luck. I hope my tips (lessons learned) will help you along.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 2,944 Member
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    I'm 73. Same old thing we've always heard. Cut calories.
    I find light exercise now makes as much difference as harder exercise did 30 years ago, so exercise.
    Good sleep.
    Have vitamin levels checked, supplement as needed.
    I still haven't found the magic pill.
    Welcome to MFP!

  • SbetaK
    SbetaK Posts: 380 Member
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    Hop over to this thread and find those of us in your age group, similar struggles, but also victories and works in progress. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10718336/60-yrs-and-up#latest
  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
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    Hello; I'm 54. I've struggled with weight a long time.

    Low carb/high fat is working for me really well. It makes sense because I'm diabetic, high carb foods give me blood sugar spikes; I'm a food addict and carbs spark an insatiable appetite in me; and I have an auto-immune disease & arthritis, low-carb diets seem to reduce my inflammation really well.

    Best thing you can do is figure out the best caloric intake, and be willing to tweak your macros until you find your own personal sweet spot.