Hello. Let's do this once and for all!!

Hi, and welcome.

I joined MFP at about your age (I was 59), part way through losing weight, when I realized that I really needed to log calories more accurately at least for a while. In just less than a year, I lost from class 1 obese (183 pounds at 5'5") to a healthy weight (mid-120s). Loss was a little faster at first (too fast, by accident, for a short time!), but intentionally slower as I got lighter.

I've been at a healthy weight for 7+ years since, now age 68. There have been some mild ups and downs on the scale in that time, but all in a healthy weight range, and all in the same jeans size. My formerly high blood pressure and cholesterol/triglycerides have been solidly in the normal range since part way through loss, and my osteoarthritis is less painful, and painful less often.

Long story short: The effort is worth it.

Three quarters of a pound per week sounds pretty good to me, even with 4 stone to lose. (That's 56 pounds, for other USA-ian readers ). If the walking is new (lots more steps than before), you may be retaining some water weight for muscle repair. If that's the case, you may've lost fat that isn't showing on the scale yet. If so, the averages over more like 4-6 weeks should tell a truer story.

If you cut calories by 500, and your current average loss continues going forward, you'd expect to lose around 1.75 pounds per week, which is pretty fast. It's none of my business, but I worry when I see people wanting to lose fast, especially people around my age. I don't know about you, but I'm less resilient to all types of stress than I was in my 20s, and fast loss is for sure a stress. It limits how much nutrition we can take in, too.

Also, as you mentioned, there's the question of sustainability. Losing as much as 56 pounds is going to take many weeks to months, even if losing pretty fast. IMO, that puts a premium on keeping things sustainable so we can stick with it that long. I get wanting to lose fast, but sometimes a slow but steady, sustainable loss rate can get us to goal weight in less calendar time than an extreme regimen that involves fatigue, deprivation-triggered overeating bouts, breaks in the action, or maybe even giving up altogether. Even at 0.75 pounds a week, you'd lose your 4 stone in about 18 months. Faster than that may be fine, but that's not terrible.

To me, the big deal was figuring out and practicing new habits I could use to reach goal weight, then continue those habits pretty much on autopilot long term to stay at a healthy weight. Maintenance is just like loss, only with a few more calories to spend, to me. YMMV.

Apologies for the long philosophical essay: I'm like that .

Regardless of how you go forward, I wish you much success: IME, the results are worth it!

Hi, I am new to this. My weight is 206.8 and 5 4.5 . Want to lose 60-70lb