How to loose weight after 35

[messy123]

I've put on a bit of weight in lockdown. It's not terrible, I'm a size 12 now but I feel the waistbands of my jeans are getting tight and don't want to put on much more 😬

What can you recommend to loose weight? I know low carb works but I don't find it sustainable after more than a couple of days. I'm vegetarian and find myself eating too much cheese and biscuits to keep going as I have a very active 3 year old.

Diet today:

Banana with Greek yogurt and honey. Coffee

Coffee and 2 pieces malt loaf

Cheese and tomato toastie

1 small cupcake (me and DD made them)

Falafel salad wrap with coleslaw

I don't think diet is too bad , maybe too many sweets.

I run 3 times a week too

Unless you weigh and log everything on My Fitness Pal or similar then it’s impossible to know how many calories you are actually consuming.
Some sandwiches could have more calories in than a portion controlled roast dinner!
Work out your tdee -the amount of calories to stay as you are, reduce the total by 20% to get your target for weight loss
tdeecalculator.net/

Cheese is calorific, if you aren’t weighing it it’s easy to eat a couple of hundred calories extra.

A quick guesstimate..
Coffee 20 cals
Banana 100- 120 cals
Greek yogurt 100 in 2 x dessert spoons
Honey teaspoon 21 cals
Bread 206 in 2x kingsmill 50/50
Lurpak spreadable 10g 74
Cheddar 30g 120
Malt loaf 208
Coffee 20 cals

Sainsbury’s deli slaw 2 x tablespoons 136 cals
Wrap 175
Falafel x 3 150 cals
Cupcake av 150

Total 1,500

However, If you had more yogurt, were generous with your cheese, cut your malt loaf slices thicker than they recommend, added butter to them, had more than a teaspoon of honey, had icing/chocolate on the cupcake, had more coleslaw and/or larger falafels or more of them then, despite it not seeming like a lot of food, the calories will be significantly higher. It all adds up.
Have you ever seen secret eater? My Fitness Pal acts like a home version of that, it lets you know where you are consuming more calories than you realise

Very slowly in my experience. It all used to be so easy

Hate to break it to you but the only way that I know is to go hungry for a few weeks. Then your body gets used to eating less to get full, and living not completely full but not starving either.

I’ve lived the past 10 years fatter than I want to be (size 12 in pregnancy and then size 10, but only just) and I felt desperate because I couldn't exercise.
It was only when I close friend who has run 15 marathons in the past 3 years told me she's podgy and wants to lose weight, but her it dawned on me; strength and toning is about exercise but actual weight loss isn't. So that gave me hope.
I massively slashed my daily intake at first and gradually guilt it back up months later. But I'm talking the 800 or less calories a day for 12 weeks. It was hard core! And for the first 3 weeks utterly miserable.
But I'm now back to the weight I always was before having kids and even lower than I’ve ever been. It's the only way that I know.

I agree MyFitnessPal will shock you, especially if you add drinks like coffee (with milk or sugar). It all adds up. You mention sweets in passing, but I bet that'll be easily 500-1000 calories!

I lost weight when I was 20, and now I am 40.

In all honesty, I cannot say it's any different or harder now than it was 20 years ago. In fact, in many ways it's easier because there are so many options for tools to help.

MyFitnessPal is great. It really is. If you do nothing else but honestly track and record what you are eating, being absolutely dedicated to weighing everything (at least for a few days) then you start to see the truth of it.

Then start to understand how many cals you need to maintain your current body. This is known as your TDEE = the total calories you need to fuel organs, live and do all the movement and exercise you do.

Follow the advice above to calculate TDEE and then take 10-20% off that and start there. Do not be tempted to go lower unless you have tried the above for at least a month without any progress.

Thanks for you replies. I'm doing myfitnesspal, it's amazing and nowhere to hide!

I decided to try low carb but not ridiculously (as a no carb existence sucks) but decided on 100g carbs per day on weekends and 50g in the week. I weighed myself today and seem to have lost 3.5lbs in 4 days! Which is probably too much but good for instant results. I'm 10s t 2.5lb now, ideally would like to be about 9st 10lb but I'd settle for 9st 13lb.

It doesn't have that much to do with age as long as your know your BMR, but two things stand out: 1. you don't eat much protein 2. you only do cardio. So, apart from calorie deficit, aim to eat protein with every meal and add 2-3 strength training sessions in a week.

It’s the same no matter what age. Eat less exercise more. I’ve found low carbs works best for me.

Hey I’m 36. Have started losing weight gradually but consistently doing the 5:2 fasting diet. I really like it. Not doing much exercise and still having wine and treats in moderation .