Should I lose weight or not?

[OrmRenewed]

Recently due to not being able to run for ages and simply eating too much I've put on weight. I can't tell you how much as I don't own scales but I've gone from a 12 to a 14. At my height it's OK but I am conscious that I have quite a bit of padding on my hips and belly. I'd prefer to be slimmer but not that fussed. I lost lots of weight a few years back mainly due to stress TBH and I loved being so slim, but at the time facially I looked dreadful - I looked like skeletor - huge black rings under my eyes, skin was appalling, dry and spotty. Since I've got fatter they have faded a great deal (not gone - isn't going to happen) and my skin looks healthier. I'm getting on a bit now (45) so is this always going to be a problem for me?

Am wondering if I should forget about trying to lose weight, just get back to running for it's own sake.

If you were a size 14, 5'11" woman of 45, would you want to get skinny or stay as you were?

I think you should start running again because it will make you feel good and therefore happier. And then try to eat healthily if possible. Your facial issues before were obviously not due to going running, they were presumably because you were so stressed etc.

But at your size and height, there is absolutely no need to lose any weight. It's just what will make you feel better about yourself?

Thanks howdoo. I know it wasn't the running that did it - it was the fact that I lost a lot of weight quite quickly after being the same sort of size most of my life. But I suspect that you are right - running not dieting.
I did go running tonight - not far as I am still quite unfit - but it's a start.

I don't think you should be aiming to be skinny but you should start running if you enjoy it and see if that takes off some of the weight around your middle.

It's maintaining the weight you are which is important, at 5ft 11 size 14 sounds good to me. Regular exercise will keep you from gaining.

Orm, I'm 49, 5'10 and would KILL to be a size 14 again! . I was a 12-14 most of my adult life, but the perimenopause has had a catastrophic on my metabolism over the past 4 years and I'm now a generous size 16 and battling to stay there . I'm inclined to agree however, that a bit of extra padding does wonders for middle-aged skin - seems to plump up the wrinkles!

Losing weight post-40 can be a bit of a shock - knobbly and stringy bits start to appear around the jaw and neck, large bags and black circles can appear under your eyes, and hands turn into nasty wrinkly crone-claws.

I feel MUCH better when I go to the gym or swim. Dieting seems ineffective, and I find it hard to cope with the mood-swings associated with low blood-sugar levels.

I need to lose 2 stone before starting Uni in Sept. Otherwise no-one will want to be my friend. Will they?

Course they will . IME more people are a bit bigger than they want to be than otherwise. Anyway neither of us are exactly huge! What are you studying?

I found the menopause (or it's approach) made it harder to keep weight off. There was a time when I could anything and stay the same. In addition I've had to start back on anti-Ds and that seems to make it easier to get fatter.

I think you should just concentrate on getting back to jogging, and you'll probably find you'll shape up and lose some inches without needing to lose weight. When I started jogging a few years ago, I only lost about a stone, but I toned up so well that it made a real difference in clothes sizes. I started fitting into size 12 jeans for the first time in years (was a 16 before starting the jogging)

And i was never a great runner, that was only 40 mins slow jogging 3-4 times a week.

Thanks evereyone.

stable - yes, I second the shape-change with running. Everything gets firmer and more shaped. I can't say how much weight i lost as I don't weigh myself but I definirely lose bulk. I am a slow runner but I did manage about 20 miles a week at my peak. Will take me a while to get back to that

Your OP reminded me of a conversation me and DP had at the weekend. I found a photo from last year where I was around a stone lighter than I am now. I was quite skinny in it.

(I'm 5ft 10in and at the time weighed just under 10st).

I said to DH "wow, look at that, I was so thin then, wish I was like that now".

He replied with "jeez was that just last year?? you look awful, it's the worst photo of you I've ever seen, you look ill"

So it goes to show being skinny doesn't always make you look healthier.

I am now 5ft 10in and weight 11st 1lb and I am striving to get down to 10st 7lbs. People say "you're tall, you can carry the extra lbs" but I know myself and how I feel and I am not comfortable at this weight.

Orm, my 48 year old best friend had a hip replacement operation (result of childhood hip disease) last November and has recently started running and going to the gym again. She has the same BMI as me, but is 2 dress sizes smaller and much more toned.

Go for it!

BTW, I'm will be studying Heritage Management (for us folks what like working in museums and that).

There's a saying that women over a certain age need to choose between their face and their figure - with someone (Dorothy Parker??) saying "choose your face and stay sitting down".

Not sure if it's true - but I agree that being stick-thin over the age of 40 is not necessarily a good look - the danger is that you become skeletal and unhealthy-looking rather than glowing.

Agree with others who say exercise rather than over-dieting is the way to go - but don't over-exercise so you can eat rubbish!

Great believer in the fags, vodka and Mars Bars diet myself. Kept me skinny for years.

20 roll-ups, 2 Mars Bars + 1/3 bottle voddie + low-cal tonic = 1000 calories per day.

Shame it ain't an operational modus vivendi post age 25.

My body is a temple, natch....

msripley I was about to quote that saying! It's very true, particularly when you get to 50+ you can look very gaunt if you overdo it.

But OP, you sound just like me. I'm 43 and 5'7" but found myself creeping into size 14 territory. Too much food, not enough (any) exercise, basically. The problem is, at this age, it all goes round the midriff. I wasn't overweight as such, but really honestly I needed to tone up.

I spent a long time in denial about this ("I don't need to slim at this age, I love my food too much, I'm not that overweight, who needs exercise?"). Finally I took at good look at myself and realised I really wasn't comfortable with the extra padding, and needed to do something about it. I have gone onto a low-carb diet and taken up running, nothing too drastic, but that half-stone I have lost has made all the difference! The spare tyre is gone and I feel so much better, but I am nowhere near "gaunt" territory. I just realised that I really wouldn't feel happy in a swimsuit this summer until I had sorted myself out.

So you don't need to lose weight, you are not unhealthily obese, but if you are "in denial", and if in your heart of hearts you are not happy with your size then you have the power to do something about it. It doesn't sound like you are too far away from where you want to be, so go for it.

And don't talk about "getting skinny"! There's a huge gap between being a toned, healthy, normal weight and being skinny.

Absulutely MrsD. Skinny does NOT = Healthy.

Unless you have orthopeadic issues (weak joints, arthritis, bad hips, back etc,) there is no point in aiming for "skinny" unless you have lucky genes and excellent skin.

BMI of around 21-23 is ideal, 24-25 is OK. NOT 18-20.

Wow! If I was you I would be mega proud of myself and I'd probably be showing off my figure fairly outrageously.

I've always been a bigger girl (5'5 and size 16) and i have a very distinctive image (1950's style) and get a lot of compliments and male attention. I do believe in being as healthy as possible but i think what so many of us are missing is learning to love ourselves (which is surely one of the healthiest things we can do?).

xxxxx

Good for you HollyandKitty! I agree.

However, I would say that some people do carry extra weight better than others. Dawn French being the usual example people use. A lot of it is down to attitude (i.e. if you've got it, flaunt it, and it does sound like you do, Holly!). But when you are naturally on the slim side and start getting flabby and untoned (and it never goes anywhere useful, like onto my bust!) then you don't feel quite the same.

I love my body now, but mainly because I'm giving it a little care and attention, not just letting it all slob out!