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?

[win2017]

I sincerely apologize too all I have offended!

Sent from my iPad

[jhwhite]

So here's an update 2 years later. When I posted this a few months later I started going through major life changes again and never got around to losing. 

May of this year I finally started getting my life in order again and added getting back in shape to that.

So since May I've lost 25lbs! I'm 5 lbs away from where I was in 2011, but I'm doing such a good job, I think I'm going to shoot to lose another 10lbs after that!

What I did is kind of long but here's a rundown:

I went to see a nutritionist and had a Resting Metabolic Rate Analysis done. Based on that she came up with a meal plan for me and I followed it.

I also started doing an outside fitness workout with www.sealteampt.com. It was, well still is, very hard for me, but I've made great progress!

So the answer is yes, yes you can lose after 40. 🙂

[cindynelson]

Actually the best thing is to never gain excess weight. I have never had a weight problem and I have worked out and eaten well all my life.  I am no spring chicken (southern ladies in the US are told not to tell their age:). I do have a lot of friends my age who are over weight. I get the impression once you gain weight after a certain age, it is much harder to lose than when you were younger. 

[jhwhite]

I really don't find your response helpful to this discussion at all.

[cindynelson]

Sorry if I offended you in any way. I have been told by the friends I mentioned that if you put the weight on after 40, it is much harder to reverse than when you are 20. Personally I would not know.

[shipo]

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@cindynelson wrote:

Sorry if I offended you in any way. I have been told by the friends I mentioned that if you put the weight on after 40, it is much harder to reverse than when you are 20. Personally I would not know.

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Consider yourself lucky; the rest of us have a challenge which we'll either have to meet or gain weight trying.

[Dominique]

I just reported yesterday in another topic I’ve never been as light in my entire adult life (I’m 56). This is my weight during (almost all of) my Fitbit history (Apr 2013 to date, I only started monitoring my weight in July 2013):

I’m a lot fitter and more muscular now than in my late teens / early twenties, when I weighed about the same as now. This shows: 1) it is possible to lose weight well past 40, 2) it is also possible to gain muscle at an older age. It’s quite possible it would have been easier to lose weight back in my twenties, but I wouldn’t know since I didn’t have to back then. It’s almost certain it would have been a lot easier and faster to gain muscle in my twenties (had I known better), but what can you do: the past is the past, and there’s no return to it. So it’s better to focus on things you can change (your current and future health/fitness) and forget about things you can no longer change (what happened in the past).

[JLC614]

Well I am 41 and I currently plan on losing 50lbs. I am sure it will require a lot of work but I am sure with the correct eating habits and attitude it is possible. I have been doing a lot of reading and studying and it is more about diet than exercise because you actually don't burn a lot of extra calories unless you do intense exercises but the way my mine and attitude feel so much better just by getting up and walking helps so much. So I think exercise is important in so many more ways than just burning calories. I think age does effect weight lose obviously but I think it is also one way we also discourage ourselves sometimes, we can do anything we put our minds to, it may juts take a little extra work and time. Slow and steady will win the race and generally produces better lasting results

[shipo]

@JLC614, I'm not sure what you've been reading, but I can easily double my daily caloric burn from exercise, and if I want to really push things, I can take it up to nearly two and a half times my standard burn rate.

[Mukluk4]

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@shipo wrote:

@JLC614, I'm not sure what you've been reading, but I can easily double my daily caloric burn from exercise, and if I want to really push things, I can take it up to nearly two and a half times my standard burn rate.

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The problem is that there is a good majority of people on this site that are going for a walk and getting their 10K in, go home and eat a normal meal hoping to drop 50lbs (crazy **ahem** goal to begin with) don't see any progress and quit.  It takes some serious work to drop the weight and enjoy normal food in social situations.  

[JLC614]

I mean like high impact aerobics burns about 500 calories per hour but I can make a much bigger difference, at least for myself in modifying my diet. Plus I do agree I can help myself by exercising as well. I think both are important.

[shipo]

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@JLC614 wrote:

I mean like high impact aerobics burns about 500 calories per hour but I can make a much bigger difference, at least for myself in modifying my diet. Plus I do agree I can help myself by exercising as well. I think both are important.

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Hmmm, I just looked at my noon-time run from today, 95 minutes, over 1,400 calories burned; add in my other daily activities and the number is usually ~2,500 calories above my normal daily burn rate.

[JLC614]

I don't think losing 50lbs over a reasonable amount of time is a crazy goal. I don't think this is going to happen over night. It is going to be a long road for me and I do not think that getting 10k steps in a day with a "regular meals" is going to get me there. 

I am starting slowly and working "seriously" to my goal. Support and encouragement would be more appreciated *ahem* . I have cut added sugars out, cut out processed foods and added more whole foods and fruits and vegetables to my and my families diets. I have also started walking a minimum of 3-5 miles a day but have actually been hitting 7 miles since I started. I will increase my exercise slowly so that I do not overwhelm myself too quickly and so I stick to being more active. But I will also make sure to increase so I do not just plateau and not push myself. 

[JLC614]

That's awesome! I am limited in what I can currently do for physical activity which is part of the reason I am starting with walking and building up my distance, speed and endurance with that so that perhaps soon I will be able to do more. Both myself and my Doctor have been very happy that I have been able to keep moving throughout the day so far and make the improvements I have so far. 

Maybe someday I will be running like you

[SunsetRunner]

If you lose 1 lbs per week in average, which definitely is a reasonable goal, it will take you just under a year. It will require a caloric deficit of just under 600 kcal per day in average. I would advise you to have a body composition analysis done to accurately measure your lean body weight and BMR. This will make it possible for you to plan your meals and make sure you get enough protein to support your lean body weight while burning fat. I would also very much advise you to take the time to count the calories and measure the protein/fat/carbs in everything you eat and drink (estimates are usually wishful thinking...). It is time and effort well spent, and you deserve to succeed! 😄

[Dominique]

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@shipo wrote:

I can easily double my daily caloric burn from exercise.

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@shipo: The key here is that YOU can easily do it, but you shouldn’t assume it would be easy (or even possible at all) for everyone else. I seem to remember you have a physical job that gets you a lot of exercise during your workdays. Many people out there have desk jobs with limited opportunities to lift their a*s off their chair during the day. You are into running and are fit enough to run one hour or longer straight, which burns a lot of calories. Not every one can do this, especially if they are overweight and out of shape, which is often the case for people looking to lose weight. You’re probably old enough to no longer have kids to take care of. Younger people may have to juggle between a demanding (but non physical) job and their family obligations. Bottomline: what applies to you doesn’t necessarily apply to all people. For most people, it is very hard indeed to out-exercise a poor diet, which is why focusing on what and how much you’re eating is often a more efficient way to reach your weight loss goal.

[shipo]

@Dominique, hmmm, don't know if I'd call an engineer sitting in front of a trio of computer screens all day long a physical job.  Yes, I live on a horse farm and tend to the horses three days per week, but that only accounts for roughly thirty to thirty-five thousand steps in a full week.

My point was, cutting calories is not the only way to lose weight or generate a calorie debt, IMHO, it isn't the best or the healthiest way either.

As for running for a full hour or more, yes, I can do just that, however, I believe most folks could work up to that over a six month period (or less).  I say this because I coach a lot of runners both on my company running team as well as for a local running club; I have runners of all ages, sizes, abilities, and from extremely varied lifestyles, and it is rare to find someone who cannot work up to an hour of running in that period of time.

[SteveH]

Fitbit published yesterday a blog article that fits this discussion quite well:

https://blog.fitbit.com/lose-weight-older-30s-40s-50s/

[shipo]

I just skimmed that article and while it may be accurate as a global aggregation of how folks age, I think it is both fatalistic and incorrect on the two following points:

• Muscle loss: I completely disagree we "lose as much as 3 to 5 percent of our muscle mass", while I believe there is little doubt sedentary folks lose muscle mass, I question the statement for active folks.  Heck, I was pretty sedentary starting in my late thirties through my mid fifties, and now in my sixties I have more muscle mass then I've ever had.
• Metabolism slows: Yeah, to a degree, however, even older folks can dial up their metabolisms; mine tracks pretty closely my activity level, so much so I often need to eat over 5,000 calories in a day just to keep from feeling faint.

[JLC614]

I would like to work up to jogging maybe. I have never really been a runner at anytime in my life to be honest but it might be nice to get there. I have a habit of pushing myself to hard and getting injured or overwhelmed so I am trying to build myself with walking now and increasing my speed and endurance and will slow try to increase while still pushing myself to challenging paces