Please only reply if you're female and closer to 50 than 40

[IWillSurviveHeyHey]

Because how in the name of the holy cheeses does one loose weight at the age of 48, when nothing that used to work in the past, works anymore?

I am reasonably active and don't overeat although admittedly I do drink alcohol and have a weakness for sweets. This was never an issue before but clearly it is now. Simple I hear you say, stop drinking alcohol and eating sweets. But I have. And whist in the past I would have started noticing some change after a couple of weeks, nothing moves at the moment. In fact, I am just getting bigger and bigger.

I have extremely large thighs and I am only short so I feel really uncomfortable within myself. My only saving grace is that I don't have a fat belly.

I am a bit sick of being hungry pretty much all the time and still, it seems I need to accept that I've gone from a size 10 to a size 12 in the space of a year and I've been hungry for the most part. Well I don't want to accept that. I need to go back to a size 10 or by the end of 2018 I'll be a size 14.

Please help me.

hattie one of the things I wish I'd done is take a profile picture when I was at my heaviest so I could see progress.
What sort of weight training?
And can relate to "I drank like a fish. A very thirsty fish"
DH and I spent a day out recently and I said after "oooh-we didn't eat that much"
and he said "mumsiedarling-most of our calories today were NOT from food"

Mornings all.

I'm feeling really proud as I did the bike and didn't eat again. I'm about to walk the dog but not eaten yet as can't face anything. Planning a mushroom omelette when I get home. Have decided bread items are off even though the Christmas tree crumpets look cute and need eating. I am not a dustbin! often not fed as a child or just the left over scrap bits And I'm a pound and a bit down from a few days back. Yay!

Good luck everyone. We're the bulge batterers!!

Mumsie with a trainer (whom I lovingly refer to as Hitler) in a spit and sawdust bodybuilders gym. Going heavy, or as heavy as I could. I was strong, but I was fat. My goal is to squat my own body weight. When my body weight is 60kg. If I tried now it would end spectacularly badly

Year ha, the Bulge Batterers! Love it Well done on the weight loss. Onward!

I’ve lost 3lbs. Wonder how long the honeymoon period will last.....

Since I was 45 I have gone from a size 20 to a size 12. I am now 50. I did the first 2 stone on my own by calorie counting with myfitnesspal app. The rest was lost by joining slimming world. I am at target now but have to stick with the plan most of the time, otherwise it starts going on very quickly.

Suki we should be weightloss twins, same age, same amount to lose and pooches with the same name

Going to London for the weekend so planning on starting on Monday, LC but monitoring my calories on MFP otherwise I can easily eat 3000 a day gorging on cheese and cream which is ok until the carbs and wine creep in.

I'm 46 and am 3 stone lighter today than I was last January.

I have not been a size 10/12 for 20 plus years...you aren't doing as badly as you think

Brilliant, lady.

To be fair, I think losing and sustaining loss is actually quite difficult, especially as you age, and particularly if you're a woman.

I read a good book called the Science of Far recently (recommended on here). Written by a scientist, it draws on research that confirms that losing weight is more complicated than calorie deficit. Some interesting case studies.

One of the conclusions was that menopausal women have a harder time due to hormonal changes. Can't remember the exact science though. Apparently it's quite difficult to conduct weight loss studies for both ethical and practical reasons.

So it's back to calorie counting for me, for the time being at least!

😮Lady! Well done!

NotsoSkinny we could have been separated at birth! For me losing is is very doable, as I said. It’s keeping it off that’s so bloomin’ hard. Still, have gone back on MyFitnessPal and we shall see....

For me its booze and portion sizes.
Hence why I use 5:2 as it lets me have a big supper without getting too big

Just checking in with my first sit down all day. Walked the dog for 1 3/4 hours, home to do 3 1/2 hours of housework after a 2 egg 3 mushroom omelette. Just walked the dog for half an hour. She's not impressed as normally out longer and she goes off lead but I ache and needed to eat. Just having asparagus cup a soup and 6 tiny pumpkin seed crackers. Dinner is home made chicken casserole with loads of veg. May make dumplings and Yorkshire's for the kids and won't feel bad if I have a dumpling.

Keep going everyone!

A gynae nurse specialist told me that women our age need 700 fewer calories a day. Sigh.
If true that makes sense of our experiences.
When i was younger I used to see colleagues eating a yogurt and an apple for lunch and think it was a bit extreme but it makes more sense now.
Another colleague who is my age and duper skinny looks gaunt.
There is middle ground for us middles.

My goal last year was couch to 5k and park run. Failed due to shin splints (old shin fracture). Joined a gym/pool before Christmas but had horrible cold and sinusitis.

Enough excuses though. I am totally inspired by the talk of strength, health and looking and feeling good

I still have 800 calories to eat, or 455 if I don't eat the exercise ones back. Does anyone know if I should eat them and will I still lose weight? I'm not feeling hungry but feel emotional hunger, like I just want something in my mouth and a bit faint as have done far too much today.

Year Gawd it’s impossible to say, really, as weight loss isn’t predictably linear (IME). There’s an optimal window between losing fat and going into starvation mode over time and it’s different for everyone. I’d just pick a number based on a defecit from your BMR+exercise, stick rigidly to it for at least 2 weeks (or maybe a month to take into account hormonal changes) and see how you go. Then tweak down if you need.

I’m doing 800 cals a day with the Cambridge packs (which I’ll prob drop to 600 when I get into ketosis and am not SO FARKING HUNGRY) and then relaxing it a bit Fri/Sat by eating LC but not going over 1500 if I’m socialising (which I am most weekends) That should give me a fair old caloric deficit, but I’ll have to accept slower loss as I lose weight and my BMR naturally falls. I really can’t see how I could go any lower overall unless I didn’t have weekends free(ish) and without that I’d lose the will to live.

Pay you’re right: middle ground. And I’ll always choose the face over the arse 👍🏻

Did some cardio today, the kitten wasn’t impressed. But we both survived so yay, 2 days down, 47 million to go......

I'm 48 and gained 6 stone after my youngest was born when I was 40. I've lost it all, plus another stone, to be the slimmest I've been since the 80s. I lost it all by cutting way back on alcohol, cutting out snacks (at my heaviest I was eating a lot of high calorie snacks like oat cakes, nuts, nut butter - all healthy, but in large quantities very calorific), swapping big evening meals for bowls of home-made soup, focusing on lots of Veg and fruit, cutting out junk completely (I used to eat a lot of crap at the weekends, and drink huge amounts of wine). I also work out a lot - lots of HIIT, cardio intervals, resistance sessions (like Pump), just a variety of things but I work hard and put in the effort. I love my shape, I feel better than I did in my 20s and 30s about the way I look. You can do it OP!!!

Thank you HJB. I have compromised and eaten my daily total but not the exercise ones as I don't want to undereat then end up stuffing my face tomorrow and giving up. My fitness pal has me at 1350 calories a day with a 1.5 lb a week loss. Wouldn't let me try for 2lbs off.

I can only go for 1lb a week too, based on 1200 cals a day.

It won't let me go under 1000 cals gross either. I get a stern message telling me im not eating enough.

I weighed myself again this morning and I'm down but I won't say again for a few days. I don't want to be put off if I stay the same or don't lose plus it will be more fun if I leave it a while and then discover I've lost a few pounds. I am keeping very busy getting the house clean and tidy but I'm having to force myself to eat. I have found myself feeling a bit out of it so need to keep an eye on that.

Keep going everyone. Doing great.

But what’s the point of near starvation and rapid weight loss if this then affects metabolism and you’re less likely to keep it off? I’m not being awkward but am interested. I always thought 1-2 lbs loss a week was preferable to more?

I don't think anyone is advocating near starvation.

I need to lose weight for many reasons. I need to cut down on portion sizes but start to eat more of the right stuff. I won't starve though.

I guess I’m at starvation cals during the week but it balances out with the weekend. Like a reverse 5:2
I used to be able to drop 3-4lb a week back in the bad old days of Rosemary Conley, but I’ll take 2 a week gladly 30 years on.

I’m beetling away; doing my cardio, drinking my water, cursing the keto headache. 4lbs down though so hurrah for that (water and glycogen, I know.....)

KOKO ladies, if Shirley Ballas can look like that at 57, so can we

800 calms a day? Sounds very unhealthy. Even if you’re completely sedentary.

800 calories!

suki
The 800 calories a day for eight weeks is a medically proven way to reverse Type 2 diabetes.

the 5:2 diet is an easy way to result in a 3000 calorie a week deficit and thus lose 1lb a week.

NEVER ADD BACK EXERCISE CALORIES
It is much better to work out your sedentary TDEE
which takes into account your own age, weight and height
a good calculator is here
thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day
and then eat within that (averaged over the week)

Ta1kinpeace I don’t agree with you there. Well I do about averaging over a week but if I eat at my sedentary TDEE on average I don’t have enough energy to exercise and my hair started falling out. That might be something peculiar to me I guess but I still lose eating significantly more calories than my sedentary TDEE, as in up to about 4/500 calories a day more.

Postnot
I still lose eating significantly more calories than my sedentary TDEE, as in up to about 4/500 calories a day more.
Then you are miscounting what you eat.
TDEE is based on lots and lots of data sets (and is updated daily by the millions of readings on sites like myfitnesspal)

If you are losing weight on 500 calories more than your TDEE
either there is an undiagnosed medical issue
or you have not weighed / measured yourself accurately
or you are not counting your food right.

Remember that TDEE already includes all exercise
so you never ever add back exercise when using it.