Why do you want to lose weight?

It's been almost ten years, but my main reason was health-related. Very specifically, my blood tests weren't looking good for cholesterol and triglycerides - had been poor for a long time. My doctor was increasingly pressing me to take a statin, and I didn't want to. Statins have a reputation for increasing brain fog, and I figured I'd already given up enough cognitive bandwidth to chemotherapy. (Yes, the cancer was a type more common among women who are overweight/obese.) My blood pressure also tended to be borderline to high, sometimes very high.

For some years, I convinced myself that routinely being very active - something I'd started only after cancer treatment BTW - was more important for my health than my body weight. For sure, I was healthier with the regular exercise than I had been without - more functional and happier, too. I also tried changing my eating patterns and taking supplements that were supposed to improve blood lipids. Not much impact from those things.

So, finally I committed to weight loss at ag 59, menopausal, severely hypothyroid (medicated) . . . all things that are supposed to be weight loss doom, right? Nope. They weren't.

Part way through weight loss, I had to have my gallbladder removed. It wasn't a side effect of the weight loss, wasn't the common stones or sludge, but rather a rarer thing called adenomyomatosis. When they took it out, the pathology report described it as thickened, cholesterolized, with actual holes in it. That report helped seal the deal.

As I lost weight, my joint pain - from arthritis and torn meniscus - began to be less severe and less frequent. Half way through loss, my blood lipids dropped into the normal range and have been solidly normal ever since. My blood pressure began to drop. As I reached goal weight, the quality of life benefits multiplied. I felt subjectively better in a fundamental way - maybe reduced systemic inflammation? No matter the specific reasons, this was all great stuff.

Along the way, I began to notice that among my friends and relatives maybe +/- 10 years in age, the active, slim ones had much better quality of life than the overweight, inactive ones. The slim, active people needed fewer medications, surgeries, and other medical interventions. They got sick less often and less severely. When they did get sick or need surgery, they recovered much more quickly and smoothly. They could eat/drink the things they wanted, without constraints from dangerous health conditions or medication interactions. They could do more fun things that involved walking or stairs, like art fairs, music festivals or stadium events. They did their own heavier routine home chores, not having to rely on their children or hiring out the work. As a consequence of the DIY and fewer medical needs, they had more discretionary income to spend on fun things, too. When they did reach a stage of having a fatal condition, they tended to have a short, sharp decline before dying, instead of many years of gradually declining health and related lifestyle limitations leading up to their death.

None of those are absolutes, of course, but they're pretty clear tendencies. I also noticed that doctors office had a higher proportion of overweight, out-of-shape people my age compared to other places the general public might visit, such as stores.

It became pretty clear to me that if I reached a healthy weight and stayed there, plus kept being active as I had been for a dozen years while obese, I could improve my odds of health, happiness, and a generally good life. Sold!

I reached a healthy weight almost 10 years ago, at age 60. I've been at a healthy weight and in the same jeans size since. Back then, the weight loss drugs weren't commonly used, so I didn't use them. (I'm not faulting people who do use them!) The weight loss process, for me, turned out to be simpler than I iimagined. It wasn't psycholgically easy every second, of course, but the logistics were straightforward. If I seriously committed, I could do it. I haven't been sorry even once, not for one second.

I have to admit, I didn't feel that people treated me worse when I was obese and better now. Maybe that's because I was already an older woman, and many say older women are already somewhat invisible. I haven't felt that either, personally, but honestly and through no credit to me, my self-confidence has been pretty good at all my body sizes and in all recent decades. (I had the common issues in adolescence and some beyond.) I tend to be assertive and take up psychological space - not always a good thing, either. 😆

For me, becoming more active with exercise was a huge quality of life improvement, even though I stayed overweight/obese for another dozen years while being more active than the average person in my demographic. Reaching a healthy weight was also a major quality of life improvement. The combination has been absolutely gangbusters.

I'm wishing you success - IME, the rewards are more than worth the effort required.