Age 40's, 50's 60's weight loss stories PLEASE

--How old are you? (you don't have to be specific if you don't want to...you can just say 50's, 60's 40's--whatever, okay
Turned 59 last month

--How much have you lost?
58 pounds in about 9 months, beginning in January, 2011.

--How long did it take you to lose the weight (and/or issues/attitudes that kept you overweight/obese)?
I was "soft" in my young adulthood because I didn't exercise enough, but didn't begin to develop a serious weight problem until the latter half of my 40s. My BMI didn't cross the line into the overweight range until after menopause, past 50, and never quite reached the obese range. I was already having some of the health problems associated with obesity, though.

--How long have you kept it off?
8 months

--What did you do/are doing to STAY slim and healthy?
I run every other day and cook nearly all of my meals at home and from scratch. One of the big contributors to my weight gain, along with age and menopause, was a big change in my eating habits driven by a change in my cooking habits. We were eating out once or twice a week and eating a lot more processed foods at home. Those bagged meals for two can become a convenience trap when you're down to only two in your household.

For me, just getting back in the habit of applying good portion control to mostly real food was 90% of the job done. And by "real" I mean "real" as opposed to "processed," but also "real" as opposed to "diet." I think of it as the "start as you mean to continue" diet.

I've changed my cooking practices some to reduce calories (not much fried foods and a lot less fat for seasoning), but for the most part I lost the weight and have kept it off by eating standard full sized servings of the full range of foods I knew I would want to eat for the rest of my life. I just didn't eat seconds or over sized servings of anything other than non-starchy vegetables, and I don't snack in an uncontrolled way between meals. Sometimes I have to make choices in order to stay within my calorie budget. For example, I may eat a baked potato or a dinner roll, but not both at the same meal. Or spaghetti or garlic bread, but not both at the same meal. But for the most part I can eat just about any home cooked entree with whatever seems to go with that entree without blowing my calorie budget for the day. It's not that I don't eat a lot of things that are commonly thought of as being good diet foods, I just don't treat them as special diet foods or eat them often enough to get burned out on them.

I'm 41 years old- 42 next month
lost 56 lbs since January 2012
Combination of eating right (no cheating) and exercising 6 days a week playing basketball or running.
I still have 7 lbs to lose (goal is 199- onederland)

to stay healthy, I have changed my food choices to healthier ones and found replacement foods for my favorites. (turkey burgers vs. regular burgers)

I did it at 60. All it took was my doctor saying to me, "You're Type II. Keep it up and your feet will fall off." I got serious about it the next day, went to a great nutrition class at a local hospital, dropped 80 lbs and have kept it off. Diet, exercising, logging, measuring food and MFP support. I take no meds and my blood work is entirely in the normal range. I use MFP to keep it that way.

51. Lost 30lbs since February 29th. Started P90x on March 29th after losing an initial 10 lbs. I started at 226.6 and I'm now at 196.0. Intermittent fasting Leangains style. I have a base calorie goal of 1700 and try my best to eat my exercise calories....on most days the total requirement is 2100-2300.

Awesome! I'm 51 as well and started P90X the day after the Super Bowl in February. I'm now doing a P90X/Insanity Hybrid. The exercise combined with a healthier diet has allowed me to lose 25 lbs so far. Still would like to lose another 18 lbs.

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You'll find lots of us here!
I'm 45 and lost 22kg (nearly 50 pounds) in about 9 months last year.
Since then I have put 3 kg back on - simply because I started to slide back into some of my old bad habits (too much chocolate!).
But, I'm determined not to let the scale go up any more, it's back to good habits again.
My best advice:
- find some exercise you enjoy and can keep up for the long term. For me it's running.
- find a way of eating that you can keep up forever. For me that means eating mostly home cooked foods made from real ingredients ( not too much processed stuff) and keeping high-cal, low-nutrition treats to a minimum.
- don't give up everything you enjoy and don't panic about family events or eating out. If you eat too much one day, log it and move on.

to read later

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I'm 57 and have only lost 4 lbs so far. Am looking to be a success story....so I'm saving this thread for inspiration to read later.