Losing weight in your mid 50's

[Dawny65]

Has anyone successfully lost weight in your mid 50's? I haven't tried yet but I'm 5'4" & must be about 18 stone. Blood sugar level, cholesterol & BP are all fine. It's lack of exexcise, sitting down job & grazing & big portions at every meal that is the problem. However, people say it's too hard in your 50's as your metabolism slows & you get middle aged spread.
I have a wardrobe full of clothes of varying sizes that do not fit. My DH says get rid of them as I'll never wear them again. I live in hope that I'll wear them again. Some of the items are really lovely & I could get away with wearing them now so I want to keep them. Loads of t-shirts that if they fit I wouldn't need to holiday shop for a few years! Do I get rid of it all or is it really possible to change your body in your 50's?

I’m late 50s and lost 5 1/2 stone in year leading up to lockdown. I loosely follow Slimming World. I was swimming 5 times a week plus 2 aqua fit. I decided that if I was eating out I would have whatever I wanted eat. It worked for me. During lockdown I haven’t been as keen and did not exercise but managed to keep in same stone band. Now I’m back swimming I have started watch what I eat again and hope to lose a bit more. For me it was just the right time, I’d tried various diets, regimes over the years but not kept them up and the weight just kept going up. It just got to the point where I wanted to do something. I’m still very overweight but feel so much better than before. Go for it, it’s worth a go.

I'm 58. Lost 18 pounds last year by counting calories. Also did C25K.

I did it last year OP, and I'm late 50s! So it's certainly achievable.

I was very strict and won't say it was easy - but so, so worth it. I feel so much better I can't believe how sluggish I was.

I was almost 14 stone at 5'8" and a size 18. I'm now under 10 stone and size 10.

How I did it:
Counted calories - aimed for 1200 a day.
Cut out sugar completely.
Replaced white carbs with complex carbs.
Drank loads of water.
Never ate between meals.

First couple of weeks were hard - but after that, I got used to eating less and felt full all day. Ate lots of veg with meals to fill up.

So, it's not easy, but it is worth it. But in my opinion you can't play at it and just make a few healthy changes here and there, you need to be focused and strict with yourself. I weighed food for the first few weeks (rice, cereal etc) to get an idea of what my calorie intake was, now I instinctively know how much a healthy portion is.

I've kept the weight off for over 6 months, and maintain on around 1500 calories a day.

I've always been active, gardening, lots of walking - but don't do any particular exercise on top.

Good luck.

I’ve done same as @BailOutChapsGingersGornSquiffy, having been sceptical for years about low carb I started 5 weeks ago, didn’t have much to lose but have lost 6lbs but also just feel so much better. Chronic migraine type headaches stopped, more energy and just feel less bloated and sluggish. First week hard while my body adjusted but it’s completely reset my appetite and I no longer crave food or feel very hungry through the day. Not strictly keto so still having the odd glass of wine etc. Definitely worth trying, I’m 51

What strictlybakeoff said. I lost over a stone on the 5:2 nearly 10 years ago. Am now 64 and maintain with one daily fast day. Usually go up to two fast days post Christmas and holidays.. After the first two weeks it becomes relatively easy and no banned foods

I'm a similar age as you, OP, and having good success so far - lost 13kg, still have a long way to go but I know I can do it. It never occurred to me that age could be a barrier. Is there any science behind that idea?

One thing which has been a positive motivator for me at my age is thinking about being elderly. I'm finally realising that being old is not that far away. The literal meaning of "morbidly obese" feels more significant. I don't want to die many years before my time. I also think about my quality of life in old age. When I look around at my acquaintances and at strangers in the street, it seems possible to be obese and fairly active and apparently healthy when you are young or middle-aged. But I cannot recall even one fit and healthy independent-looking 80-something obese person, not even strangers in the shops. They simply don't seem to exist. It appears to me that obesity + old age = guaranteed disability.

So it seems to me that I cannot even dream of having a pleasant active old age if I stay my current size. It's almost an impossibility.

Clothes are a hard decision. I find if I keep loads of clothes which are too small and they are sitting around where I see them regularly, it's discouraging. I put them in the loft - only the ones I really love though. (I think it would be a nice treat to be able to buy some new clothes when I have lost weight. And it has been a long time since some of these clothes fit, and my tastes have changed.) I have been enjoying getting some of these clothes out to wear recently - many little celebrations!

The even harder decision as I lose weight is whether to keep the too-big clothes? On the one hand it feels like keeping them would mean I am not committed to keeping the weight off long term, and also we have too much clutter in our house. On the other hand, it is SO hard to find decent plus-size clothes I like which are the right shape for me, and it would be awful to have to start over with finding new ones just because I'd chucked the old ones away.

By the way, a few years ago I asked my GP for support with weight loss and got referred to two really good programmes. One was a free membership at a local leisure centre with support from a personal trainer. A diverse range of people used the gym and pool, including people like me. The other programme (also free with GP referral) was a support group with a good well-informed counsellor who provided us with lots and lots of strategies to try. He had access to a great deal of research on the relative success of different methods and was ready to support us with whichever tools we wanted to use. It's called MoreLife, but I expect there are similar programmes. This just seemd to give me the skills I would need for the future, and the confidence to know I could do it. The GP also offered me free membership of Weight Watchers or Slimming World but neither appealed to me.

Good luck, OP!

Try the couch 2 5k app. Lots of people of all ages using it and plenty of support on Facebook groups

Yep, I lost over 2 stone a couple of years ago, through calorie counting.

Currently addressing 7 unwanted pounds of lockdown lard, gained because, working from home, I can no longer exercise as part of my commute (cycling and walking) and was doing more baking. This time, I have cut out carbs (sugar, flour, pasta, rice, bread etc) and it's working very well. I have learned to eat three good meals a day, no snacking.

It is worth working at.

You need to treat it differently to losing weight when you're younger. It's not your metabolism as such, but your hormones (bloody fucking hormones!). It's not TOO hard, that's an excuse we tell ourselves to avoid trying. It's not even harder, it's just different.

I've been 'getting healthier' since I hit 50 (2 years) and my body shape changed completely. Stopped 6 weeks ago because WFH went nuts and I fell off the wagon. I've only put on 4 pounds, but lost all my muscle mass and my waist grew 3 inches. THREE fucking inches! Bloody meno-belly!

So back on the wagon I go!. I try to do 3 sessions of weight training and one strength training class (pump or bodypump or bodytone) a week. So only max 4 hours out of my week. If I'm going anywhere within a 20 minutes walk, I walk. No more pretty uncomfortable shoes! If I can't walk in them, I don't wear them.

I read for over 50s it should be weight training rather than cardio sessions. Cardio burns calories while you do it, building muscle helps to continue burning afterwards. (And who wants to be doing star jumps with dodgy knees - or hips in my case.) If you actually like sweating then Tabata sessions are very short and can be low impact - 5 minutes warm up and 5 minutes going for it. Every exercise you'd ever need is on YouTube. Find one where you don't want to kill the instructor and start slow.

You don't need to do a long walk, you can spilt it up as long as it's about 15 minutes where you're out of breathe by the end (but can still talk) a couple of times a day. Even better if you find a hill.

I'm a grazer, snacker and huge portion person too. Lately I've been keeping a food diary. I don't log calories etc (cos honestly who has the time to work that out!), just write down everything- no matter how small. If I want to eat between meals, I have to write it in the diary BEFORE I can have it. Makes me think do I really want this or am I mindless eating?

The only way I can control portion size is use smaller plates/bowls. Big plates with 'small' portions and lots of empty space allow me to trick myself into thinking I'm being deprived and can have seconds or a snack later. A full small plate tricks me into thinking I've eaten enough. I write down whether it is a regular size (small to me lol) or large portion of veg/meat/carbs. I don't go into any more detail because my issue isn't the type of food, it's the amount of it.

Go slow. Don't look for quick fixes, and quick results. Don't think diet, think healthier. 1 to 1.5 pounds lose a week. We all get excited when we strict diet and lose 5 pounds in the first week and then when we can't sustain that rate we give up and bam those 5+ pile right back on. And we're pissed off and start believing it's pointless. Accept some weeks we'll lose nothing, but keep going. Being resilient and believing it can happen are the major factors in getting healthier, feeling better and looking how we want to.

Sorry off that comes across as healthy living guru bollock. But it took me a long time to figure out what works for me after years of a cycle of a months diets/exercises/promises to my self followed by dramatic wagon falling off and then a year of saying what's the point before starting again.

No idea why there's a little green face after instructor (or even what it means lol) was supposed to be .

My sister was in a similar position and bought an electric veg steamer. I is brilliant -always have veg steaming away and if you fancy a snack just takeout and eat as much as you want with a bit of soy sauce on.Pak Choi (always cheap in Lidl) is brilliant for this as it is fibrous but very soft when steamed and takes up a lot of space in your tummy for mimimdl calories. An electric steamer cuts off on a time so you don't need to monitor it. Very healthy, too.

And fill the freezer with frozen veg and frozen mixed berries (cheap on Asda and Lidl) if you want something sweet, East a small portion of them with a dollop of Greek yoghurt or kefir.
Kefir is another good thing /gives you good bacteria which is also as coated with a healthier gut and less waist fat.

The even harder decision as I lose weight is whether to keep the too-big clothes?

I put mine in the charity bags!
I only have clothes that fit me - I always kept big clothes previously when I lost weight, and yep, ended up in them again. This time I mean business!