Over 60 Women losing weight

My sister and I are 3 years apart, we loose 2, gain 4 oz. loose 1 gain 2 back and forth all the time for months. I play with the same 4-6 pounds every week. But have keep going, not easy would like to give up, but I know I would feel gross if I ate bad all the time! Keep going...that is the key for me and I don't go over a certain weight!

I'm 61. I've been a Yo-Yo dieter my entire adult life. Now I'm doing it right! Five pounds down but it feels like much more. I've lost one and a half inches off my waist. So excited to be on this journey!

_Katzen_ wrote: »

There are lots of us who are 60's and 70's. We still care about our health and our weight. Like many people these days I have found the recipe that works for me and it relies on a high-protein diet.

I used to hear people tout high protein diets, but I didn't think it would apply to me because I actually always thought that I already ate a high-protein and couldn't possibly need more. I started using MFP specifically to track calories and found, surprisingly, that I was averaging only 30-45 grams of protein per day, maximum. So much for thinking I was already eating high-protein!

So, following what others have said about the benefits of protein (but not really believing it) I started increasing my protein. It was amazing. I found that if I eat a minimum of 100 grams of protein per day I am 1) not hungry at all, 2) can more easily avoid high-sugar foods, 3) will lose weight fairly easily. If I get a craving for sugar (loved powdered sugar doughnuts!) I will eat something with a lot of protein. Afterwards, I have no desire for the sugar.

My problem is eating ENOUGH protein. Ideally, I would like to eat 120 grams protein per day, but I don't see that ever happening. It's too much food for me! So my goal for the present is 100 grams of protein per day. And, really, protein, and to a much lesser extent, calories, are all I really track attentively. When I only tracked and limited my intake of calories I was losing maybe a 1 pound per 2 months. It seemed like the scale would NEVER show better numbers.

Now that I have boosted my protein intake dramatically I'm losing 1 and sometimes 2 pounds per week. My clothes got too big and I've gone from a tight size 14 to a loose size 10. I'm finally out of the obese BMI category and into the merely overweight BMI category. So, obviously, I have a ways to go, but I'm liking what I see in the mirror, which I haven't done for several years.

Mid 60's here, not my first weight loss rodeo but hopefully my last. I was on a never ending plateau, bouncing around with in the same 8lbs range. I am now on a doctor supervised (my choice not by necessity) high protein diet & the scale is moving again (very slowly but it is moving). My doctors goal for me is 120g of protein daily which I rarely acheive, usually it's about 100g a day. Im rarely if ever hungry but with all the protein I get full quickly and don't eat as many veggies as I would like. Hopefully at some point i can find a happy meduium.

63 and yes I still care! Gained 20 lbs carrying for my father (and not myself). Down 14 with 6 (maybe 10?) to go. Protein is important, I have to work at it too, but so is the right macro balance for total health. Better to go slow and feel good! I lost the 14 lbs with a balanced but lower calorie diet, staying 300 calories below my "lightly active" lifestyle. Been at it about 4 months now- my next goal as summer comes on is to increase to moderately active and add 150 calories to my diet until my goal is achieved. Then comes maintenance, which should let me add back the remaining 200 calories. Will be tweaking for awhile I am sure to get it right. I expect to need to continue tracking, to keep me mindful. Its all about quality calories in, and creating a deficit without sacrificing health. I work at making sure I enjoy every morsel I eat too!

vlott1 wrote: »

This is encouraging. My first time to check in here and post was a couple of days ago and BOOM.. it's blown up. I knew there was someone else out there. As I said I've yo yo dieted all my life. I know the things to do, I can do them, but my 1 consistency is I am inconsistent. Let one small thing happen... a change in routine, an event, a trip, someone has an illness... anything and almost everything will eventually trip me up. Not one thing by itself but all of those coming back to back makes me lose focus. I am an emotional eater, a stress eater, a lonesome eater, a celebration eater, and well you get the picture. I know protein is a must - it makes me constipated. I know water is a must - it fills me up but never satisfies completely. I am my own worst enemy so I'm trying again. I'm 70 this year and it's not about looking good in bathing suit or even clothes but it's about my knees not hurting, being able to sleep, being able to get around with my grandkids, and being able to enjoy life. Thanks for just reading if you do and responding if you do. You'll be my journal.

Yes, please stick around and keep working at it. Only giving up and quitting leads nowhere. Keep trying things - get ideas from others here as needed** - and you'll find your best personal formula.

** Because others can only provide ideas to try, not guaranteed solutions. Anyone who says they've got the universal right path . . . well, beware. I think they're either in the honeymoon phase of something that's working for them (haven't hit bumps yet), or are selling (or have been sold) something. We're unique people. We need methods that fit our individual preferences, strengths, challenges, lifestyles. It takes some experimenting, and experimenting involves "learning experiences". (Don't call them "failures". )

I know it isn't easy! For years being athletically active (but obese), I thought I had a slow metabolism so weight loss was doomed, especially because I'm severely hypothyroid (though properly medicated for it). Once I found a route that worked for me as a unique individual, I got to a healthy weight. I have no delusion that doing exactly what I did would be exactly right for all others.

To the first bolded, yes, those things are true . . . but it's not necessarily true that more is always better. It's super important for people in our demographic to get adequate, maybe even ample protein. It's not necessarily "eat mostly protein" (though that works for some!).

Ditto for water. Adequate hydration is important, and sometimes some people find that what they've perceived as hunger is really dehydration. But it's actually quite possible to get too much water. If your urine is a light straw color, you're hydrated. Bright (neon-ish) but light yellow can happen and be OK if getting more than essential of certain water soluble vitamins. Dark yellow to brown, not hydrated. Completely clear, too hydrated.

To the second bolded: I can't overstate how much my knee pain improved with weight loss. It took a while to . . . sink in? (I think I needed to be walking around with less weight for a while for some recovery to happen, so it wasn't lose X pounds then BOOM, better knees. But they improved: Much less frequent pain, much less severe pain. With my level of OA and at least one torn meniscus (maybe both), it's not going to be zero, but it's much better, to the point that I'm still OK deferring surgery (10+ years after the orthopedist told me I'd need it sooner or later). I mean, no guarantees, but it was a big improvement for me.

I hear what you're saying about the "emotional eater, stress eater, lonesome eater, celebration eater" stuff. For those things, if you can, it's good to attack the problem(s) at the root, which absolutely isn't easy. Food/eating is a symptom. Managing emotions and stress is hard work to improve, but it can be done. There shouldn't be stigma in seeking professional help if needed, either. We should call those professional for those kind of problems, just as we'd call a plumber if the pipes are leaking. It's why they exist, to help with thought pattern problems.

The celebration eating can be a different thing, or not. If every mini-achievement in life needs food celebration . . . well, maybe work on that. I used to frequently buy myself a big hunk of very good carrot cake at my local health-food-ish store to celebrate doing my weekly grocery shopping. I don't do that anymore. But you better believe I'm eating celebratory foods at Christmas, or on my birthday. It's fine. Rare indulgences are a drop in the ocean. Everyday (or near every day) habits are the ocean. Improving those day to day routine habits/patterns is a power tool for weight management, if you ask me.

Stick with it. You can succeed. Best wishes for success on that road!

ETA P.S.: I may be reading inaccurately between the lines of your post, but I'm feeling like there might be some hints in there of what I think of as the "flat tire trap", i.e., hitting a bump in the process, getting discouraged, and going off the rails for the rest of the day, week, month or whatever because one has "already ruined everything" or "there's no point" or whatever.

Why do I call that the "flat tire trap"? Because it's like going out to the car to drive to work, finding a flat tire, then poking a hole in the other 3 and going back to bed. We don't do that with our job/tire situations, we just curse the problem, call the boss, and get to work as soon as we can manage. That's a better model: If life circumstances or some oopsie happens, acknowledge it, get back on a healthy track as soon as it's feasible to do so (even if not instantly), i.e., get back to work as soon as can be managed. That can be effective. :flowerforyou:

My grandmother used to said age is just a number. We are like fine wine; we get better with time. I went to the council of aging at age 65. It was funny because I had to show them my driver license. I have always workout and enjoy it when ever I would let my self go. I would work hard to lose that weight I gain. I will be 69 years old in September and I still workout. In fact I started back working in the school system. I enjoy that too.

I am 61. I started MFP in 2010, I lost 135 lbs it took me 3 yrs and I kept it off until last yr my husband was dx with tonsil cancer that had gone into his soft palate and lymph nodes. Between all the appts my walking wasn’t consistent and I fell back into some of my old habits, comfort eating. I gained 14 lbs and decided NO I worked to hard to get the weight off. So I went back to eating how I did in the beginning of my Weightloss journey and started getting in min of 8000 steps a day and started strength training 5 days a week, using light weights at home. I have lost 13 of those lbs 1 more to go. Consistency is key, we got this…..

themommie wrote: »

I am 61. I started MFP in 2010, I lost 135 lbs it took me 3 yrs and I kept it off until last yr my husband was dx with tonsil cancer that had gone into his soft palate and lymph nodes. Between all the appts my walking wasn’t consistent and I fell back into some of my old habits, comfort eating. I gained 14 lbs and decided NO I worked to hard to get the weight off. So I went back to eating how I did in the beginning of my Weightloss journey and started getting in min of 8000 steps a day and started strength training 5 days a week, using light weights at home. I have lost 13 of those lbs 1 more to go. Consistency is key, we got this…..

Congratulations: IMO, paying attention, not letting gains creep up until out of hand, is a key success factor for maintenance.

I hate to clothes shop, so when my jeans get a little snug, it's a trigger to creep gain back down, for me.