How difficult is it to lose weight at 40 and older?

[jhwhite]

Back in 2011 I lost 60lbs and was in great shape. 2012 was a hell of a year and I couldn't even maintain. Since then I've gained 30lbs and I want to lose it by the end of this year. But I turn 40 in June and EVERYONE keeps telling me it's impossible to lose weight at 40 and older.

So should I just be in maintanence mode and strive not to gain? Or can I get back into shape?

[Proudpatriot]

It's definitely harder to lose weight after 40 but it's not impossible.

[SteveH]

Of course it's possible. Whatever your age, if you eat less than you burn you'll lose weight.

In my fifties I lost around 50 pounds using fitbit to manage my diet. Since then, for the last 18 months I have been using fitbit to maintain my weight at my target. I'm not going to say it was easy but I did it.

This has been the first time I have lost weight and kept it off. I believe the reason is that I log all my food and drink and use fitbit to keep track of things. This way things don't seem to slip back down that familiar slippery slope.

[mike824]

who starts these rumors anyway.. I turn 65 in August I started my journey 6 months ago using a simple app called MyFitnessPal to log my food and exercise 3 days a week at a $10 a month gym. Iv'e gone from 208 to 167 lbs. ..I just started wearing my HR last month but it helps keep me moving through out the week. It's not rocket science accurate but it gives me my numbers to work with so I know what I'm doing daily .. Stay strong and focused you can do it !!

[WendyB]

I agree with the others. I can be done at any age.

[Jonelle1166]

I totally agree, it is so much harder especially for us women to lose wt. after the age of 40 because we have CELLULITE and men do not!  You can lose the wt. but only when you set your mind to it and just keep at it and the pounds will begin to go but it does take longer for us. Good luck to you but please remember only lose the wt. for yourself and no one else!

Sincerely,

Jonelle1166

[raphaekg]

Cellulite is dimpled fat. Most women have it and most men don't, because women have a higher % of body fat than men normally. One reason that older people (especially women) find it harder to lose weight is loss of muscle mass with aging, combined with decreased activity. That's why it's really helpful to incorporate some real weight training into your activities.  When you are cutting back calories to lose weight, you are also going to lose even more muscle, not just fat. So, a combination of strength training and cardio is really ideal. Of course, for most women there's a limit to the amount of muscle we can increase, so it's not going to be a DRAMATIC effect on average daily calories burn. We just have to remember to KEEP MOVING, the biggest way to keep from gaining (or lose, slowly please) weight, and FITBIT is a great reminder about how much we've been sedentary or moving each day.

[Amoch]

There isn't anything magical about the number 40.  As you age your body produces less HGH and Testosterone, so maintaining lean muscle mass gets harder, and loosing lean mass erodes your base metabolic rate.  

I turned 40 last year.  Had the scheduled mid life crisis, and decided to channel the angst in a positive direction.  I started excercising.  At first just biking, then I picked up runkeeper and started running.  Ran my first 5k. Got injured running(I think thats obligatory) Got better shoes... Ran my first 10k.  Along the way I picked up MyFitness pal and started logging food (now I'm at 245 days straight).  I don't think I lost any weight until I started food logging.  I found some nutrition classes at work and got myself educated. They recommended using a fitbit with MyFitnessPal to estimate calories.   All my reading suggested weight lifting, so I picked up some dumbells and started out at home, then I got tired of buying new weights, and got hooked into a Gym.  

When I started I was at an obese BMI, I couldn't bench 4X10 at 60 lbs, I couldn't run a mile without stopping, and I knew nothing about nutrition. 1 year later I'm down 45 lb's.  My benchpress has improved by 80 lbs, I can leg press 2.5X my weight, and ran a 7:30 mile.   It's never too late to get in shape.  The cheif virtue of fitness is consistency.   It's worth the effort to learn how to build good habits into your lifestyle.

Good luck!

[pidgeon92]

I was 159lbs when I was 43. My doctor pestered me to start exercising, he said my sedentary lifestyle would cause me problems by the time I was 50. I started exercising 4-6 days per week back in 2012, and at 46 I now weigh 130lbs, give or take depending on the day and how much food I've been stuffing in my mouth recently.

I'm in far better physical condition than I was 10-15 years ago. At my highest weight, I would have been about 180lbs when I was in my early 30s.

[rbrown5068]

I know it is not impossible because I am living proof. I am in my 40's and two years ago I lost 60 pounds by watching what I eat and exercising regularly. I gained some of it back and now working it off again. When I started losing weight a couple of years ago, I was at 266 pounds and actually went all the way down to 199 pounds. True story. I gained about 20-30 back, but a couple of weeks ago, I bought a fitbit charge to help me lose the weight and I have it linked to myfitnesspal to track my diet. I am doing real good with this and I feel better after getting all of that weight off. So I know it is possible to lose weight in your 40's. But you have to stay motivated and stick your schedule for exercising and of course eating the right foods.

Good luck in your journey!

[monkeypull]

My experience mirrors Mike824's experience, however, I'm about 20 years younger.

My biggest issue was the food.  MyFitnessPal is the best app I've found for tracking calorie and nutrient intake and the data from MyFitnessPal link with the Fitbit app.

So the answer is yes, you can.

[MWD74]

I turned 40 last July, started serious efforts at weight loss/fitness this January.  Since Jan I've lost 42 pounds.  To be honest I've found it relatively easy - compared with weight loss efforts in the past.  I've found that my best time for the gym is in the morning.  I don't try to do the 1 hours sessions I used to, now I do 30 mins every weekday and then supplement it with walking in the evenings.  I've finally GOT the use of calorie counting - never done it before.  40 isn't the end of any plans for weight loss/fitness.  

[raphaekg]

I am 60 (yes, I can't believe it)! In the past three years, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I started driving to work rather than taking public transportation, indulging in eating out a little more, 'treating' myself to dessert, etc. Before I knew it, I had put on 20 pounds, heavier than I had ever been. My physician was a little philosophical, saying that most women put on about a lb a year after menopause...

My response was to get moving, with both diet and exercise. I made exercise the first thing that I did each morning (after brushing my teeth and walking the dogs). I work out EVERY DAY for at least an hour, either on the treadmill or with a personal training (2x/week for strength training). My diet is not a 'diet' but a new way of eating. Anything else won't work.

I ended up losing about 35 pounds, back to the same weight that I was in college. I feel great (but I never wore a size 4 before in my life; they certainly have changed the sizing...) So, it's possible to lose weight at ANY age. Just take in fewer calories than you burn, on a consistent basis.

[GaryTX]

It's not impossible. It's not easy, but you can do it. It's harder for women than for men as described well above.

I'm 57 years old. I spent years as a cop and later as a firefighter, but for a number of years have been working in the private sector, sitting on my butt for the most part. I also do a lot of travel, which makes eating well a bigger challenge.

But I'd offer two pieces of (admittedly simplistic) advice: eat well and move. I've been eating healthier, and have nearly cut red meat out of my diet, something I never thought I could or would do. And you know what? After the first couple of weeks, it became very easy. I feel better than I have in decades, and I think this is a big part of it. 

Avoid processed foods as much as you can. Prepare most of your own meals rather than eating out. If you don't know how to cook, it's well worth learning. And it's a lot of fun and very rewarding. I learned to cook maybe ten years ago, and it makes a big difference. When I have to eat out, like when I'm traveling for work, I make healthy choices whenever possible. There's lots of good, healthy food out there, and you won't feel deprived whatsoever.

And move. That's where Fitbit is a huge help for me - it makes me super conscious of how active or sedantary I'm being, and motivates me to move more often. I'm not doing intense workouts, I'm primarily "just" walking, and it has been great. I've lost about 20 pounds since December. I wasn't grossly overweight, but weighed more than is healthy. Watching what I eat (and I do log my food intake very consistently in MyFitnessPal) and moving have made all the difference. I get in my 10,000 steps most day, actually about 12,000 pretty routinely. A lot of that is making myself move around as I work from my home office when I'm not traveling, but I also go on two or more miles of deliberate walking every day.

The weight comes off steadily and heathily. Set your own goals - don't worry about competing with others (though Fitbit challenges can be good motivators if you don't worry about winning excessively.) Don't worry if your friend from work or your neighbor gets 15,000 steps a day. Good for them, but do what works for you. And gently push yourself to increase your activity level a little bit each day. Take a rest day if/when you need to, but more than anything, keep moving and increase at a pace that works for you.

You won't (and shouldn't) drop 50 pounds in a month, but you'll see a steady downward trend (with occasional bumps in the wrong direction.) Don't worry about those anomalies, but focus on keeping your trend in a downward direction. 

If you can afford it, an Aria scale from Fitbit or a scale from Withings (which can directly inmport into Fitbit) makes the weight tracking easier. Weighing yourself once or twice a week is plenty. If you do it daily, you'll see more of those "blips" - don't obsess over them, keep doing the right things and the trend will continue downward.

You can do it. It's hard at first, but gets easier as you go along and as you see your progress. It's worth it.

[EdsonFitbit]

It seems that you have found a lot of motivation to start your journey @jhwhite! I wanted to join to the thread and say you can do it! Everybody here believes in you! Keep up the super stepping! 

[MRHunt]

It's not impossible to lose weight, and keep it off, after 40. People who are saying that are making excuses for their lack of success. Or maybe they just honestly don't know how to do it.

However, I agree it is harder after a certain age. So that means a few things:

1. You have to work out with more intensity than you did before. When you're younger, moderate exercise was maybe enough to trim your weight and or maintain. As you age and your metabolism slows, you need to increase the amount of vigorous activity you do. All moderate activity may not be enough.
2. You need to be much more careful about your diet -- how much you eat, what you eat, etc. Where you may have been able to eat an extra hundred or two hundred calories and not pay consequences, that is probably not likely as you age and your metabolism slows down, you don't have that kind of slack. So it's best that you track what you eat using something like MyNetDiary or MyFitnessPal. It's very easy to eat too much food without knowing it.
3. If you ever do lose the weight you need to lose, the key then will be never gaining it back. I've found that losing is so much harder now so I find it's just better never to gain. I am at my goal weight and I weigh myself daily. I have a trigger point that is about 3 pounds from there. I don't allow myself to gain more than 3 pounds because I am small and losing more than 3 pounds is harder for me than I want to deal with. So once I hit the trigger point, I have to go back into weight loss mode until I am back at my goal weight.
4. You need to engage in strength training to build muscle. Muscle is what burns calories and boosts your metabolism, so if you want to increase your metabolic level, you need to build muscle.

I lost about 20 pounds and got to my goal weight at 47 and I've been there ever since. I live a good life, eat good food, don't deny myself anything I truly want, but stay within my target calorie range (I'm small and 55 and female, so I try to eat between 1,500 and 1,750 calories per day on which I feel pretty full). I work out 6 days a week -- strength training 3X per week, cardio 3X per week (a mix of running and walking), which I do not view as a hardship. I enjoy working out, which is good, because it helps keep the weight off.

[CTW]

I'm 48 and just lost 20lbs on my way to 30lbs. It is possible, but you have to really want it. Get some structure and acountability. I'm seeing weights on the scale that I have not seen in 15 years. 

[SunsetRunner]

I work out 2 times a week.with a 3 day "rest" in between.  Work out days include cardio 30 min. and weights 30 min. rotating stations with no rest in between.  The no rest in between goes for my non work out days... i stay active as much as possible.  I've had 14 surgeries in my life and don't intend to stop staying active!

I just turned 65 and weigh the same as I did in college.

Diet is high protien and lolo carbs.

Works for me!

[Raviv]

I will admit, it's much harder than it was before I hit 50.  Even when I was 45, it was pretty easy.  Now?  Not so much.  But it can be done.

Menopause sucks.

[joygh]

I think I feel better exercising at 50+ than I did at 40, but I watch what I eat as well. I practice wheat free and mostly gluten free. Everything is home-made without box/frozen or otherwise prepared meals. I learned to eat healthier. Yea, it costs more, but I might get to live longer! 🙂