Reaction to being told you cant lose weight over 50!

Last thing (promise) Join the fast diet website forum for support. Loads of people on there with their own stories, advice and suggestions.

I've tried the 5.2 diet a couple of times but after a couple of days on it I could have eaten my own arm! I found it impossible. Rarely have I heard anyone else say this so. thank you jings ! Over the years I have been a yo yo dieter and there are no excuses, I love food but being under 5 ft I need to stick to around 800 cals to lose weight. It's miserable. Once I hit 60 it just got harder and harder (not quite so hard in my 50's) I try to do a couple of exercise classes a but I need to lose about a stone and a bit. Must try harder.

Husband and I lost 4 stone over a year with the Rick Gallop way of eating- it's basically keeping blood sugar level. It was very easy and we've kept the weight off We still follow the diet but not so rigidly - I was about 58 husband 62- I was size 20 and now a 14 . I have " wear and tear" arthritis hips and knee - am sure it didn't help carrying all that extra weight! Rick has a website and his books are really helpful with red orange and green light foods and excellent recipes ! (Smile)

Another happy 5:2-er here. I started it in my late fifties, lost a stone early on, and have kept it off. The diet is a way of life for me now, and though I don't look forward to the fasting days, neither do I dread them. I'm greedy really, and though I eat healthily, I eat a lot. Every other diet I've done called for feeling deprived every single day - this one doesn't. And my blood pressure decreased so dramatically, my doctor took it again to check. It's really a case of finding out what works for you, at any time of life.

My friend is 4' 10" and has shed 2.5 stones on 5:2 fasting. She has about 320 calls on fasting days and 1300 on non fasting days. She was determined and so it worked. She is very happy

I DO exercise though - I go to the gym twice a week (and I hate it but feel proud of myself afterwards). Since going to the gym I've put on even more weight. I am in the obese category and at 5 ft nothing I know this isn't on. I thought that burning calories and being on the 5/2 would mean I had to lose weight but something is clearly amiss. Far from feeling inspired by reading everyone's success stories, I now feel demoralised and even more of a failure. I will have another look at the 5/2 website and try harder to stick to lower calories on non-fast days, but the meds leave me craving food and I have a history of comfort-eating (worse during late afternoon and evening). Exercise isn't going to shift my weight unless and until I can somehow convince myself to eat far, far less. We cook from scratch, eat plenty of veg and fruit, hardly any processed stuff....BUT yesterday I bought a bag of Newberry Fruits and ate them all which is typical of what I do now and then, though NOT regularly!
We do eat out a fair bit with family on birthdays, gatherings and special occasions and I only drink alcohol when we entertain or eat out. Cakes are a weakness when we visit places of interest and have tea and all my motivation and willpower saps away to nothing. I guess I'm a lost cause....:-( I despise myself for it, keep trying and keep failing. It's like trying to empty the sea with a thimble.

NanSue I wish I had 'only' a stone and a bit to lose! I need to lose.....whispers over three stone!
I have always loathed exercise so signing up to the gym was a biggie for me last July and I've pretty much stuck to it twice a week apart from holidays, Christmas and illness (as now). The idea of doing ten thousand steps a day horrifies me though: I'd be walking ALL DAY and wouldn't get anything else done - it mystifies me how others do it.

Maybe I should stitch my lips together....

Rowantree, I don't know your age but the steps are 7000 - 8000 if you are over 70 like me. Apologies if you are younger

I'm 62, BBbevan, so no excuse there....:-(

I'm really surprised by the low daily calorie totals some people are quoting. I've always thought around 1800 to 2000 would be about right for maintaining your weight and I can only remember going as low as 1400 when I was on a really miserable calorie counting diet. I don't count now apart from on fast days, but I would estimate I eat around 1800 a day on the others, and I'm a happy size 10/12.

I do have to walk a fair bit, as a non-driver, and use a pedometer to remind me to walk more. I tend to do around 50,000 steps a week, which equates to 25 miles a week, and only takes about 8 hours over the seven days. It's not so much really if you incorporate it into your normal routines.

But yes, I'm only 61, so I should be walking more....

It might sound trite, Rowantree but on 5:2 you have to accept feeling hungry and distract yourself from it by doing something that stops you focussing on it. It's an uncomfortable feeling but it's achieving what you really need. Different people have different strategies for coping on fasting days. I don't eat for as long as possible (maybe till 2 or 3pm) but I have plenty of cups of tea and coffee with a little milk. I have a late, light lunch and then supper in the evening. It works for me but maybe not for someone who functions better with breakfast in the morning. My very small friend is so used to it now, she just has one meal on a fasting day. Neither of us thought we could do this before we started but we have stuck at it. You have to want it badly enough and you will succeed. It's only two days out of seven.

My stomach feels sore if I don't eat. I don't think it's good for you to be empty for too long.

That does make sense, lizzypopbottle and not trite at all. Sometimes the obvious needs to be said, because it's easy to lose sight of it!
But what about non-fast days? If you have to stick to calorie counting, how do you, and others, cope when eating out, entertaining, socialising and so on?

I will try harder to renew my efforts, but I can see I'm going to have to focus on the other five days too, somehow....

I have a hiatus hernia and the symptoms are worse when I'm fatter. I have a reasonably healthy cholesterol level but it could and should be better. I'm doing this for my whole body, not just for weight, but it's the weight which depresses me so much right now and reminds me that I've failed time and time again (and if it doesn't, then MIL steps up to the mark)

I lost two stone -after I retired 2 years ago at 62 - in about six months. I was able to walk more, eat healthier, have smaller portions, little alcohol but lots of water, or miss meals.
I now regularly watch my weight, when I go on holiday, to friends for a meal, recently a family wedding etc, I find I put on a couple of pounds but within a week it is gone.
I have definitely changed my eating habits.

I am about 5lb over my ideal weight but as I am now a size 12 I am happy.
I believe it's rubbish that you cannot loose weight over 50, it's just that you are used to a way of life which is harder to change. I was a size 12 up until my 40's so I just kept reminding myself of that fact!

I have slightly raised BP and have low meds. (My mother had very High BP, --undiagnosed which led to heart damage). My cholesterol is fine.

BUT
a routine blood test revealed, osteoporosis, early onset arthritis, (which I was having symptoms of) and pre type 2! And a recent urine test showed blood and protein!
My GP believes as my weight and lifestyle are good, the pre type 2 is probably genetic (my Dad developed it in his 40's and he was not overweight.)

Life eh??

What works for me is not eating at all until 5 or 6 in the evening - just drinking fruit tea, fizzy water or tea/coffee with a little milk till then. I don't even feel hungry now, I'm so used to it. If I start eating earlier, it's as if my system wants food from then on and I feel hungry all day. But everyone's different, and some say it works better for them with three tiny meals. Some just can't do with it at all, my DD1 for example - she felt faint on the first fast day and didn't try again. But then she's on some low carb routine that I would hate.

As I've said, I don't count calories on non-fast days. I haven't found that there's any need to. I might be wrong, but I thought that was the whole point.

Rowantree my very small friend has a busy social life and has still shed 2.5 stone. She compensates next day if she's eaten out, avoids puddings and makes thoughtful main course choices. Sometimes she orders a starter instead of a main. She's tiny. She knows calorie values of most things after two years at it. She likes a glass of wine but knows it's empty calories that don't give you lasting satisfaction. If she has it, she counts it in.

We have both found that we rarely overeat on non fasting days. It just seems to work that way. Neither of us has ever felt faint doing this. My most active karate sessions clash with my fasting days but it's 90 minutes of total distraction from feeling hungry. Get your family and friends on board. They care about you so will surely be careful not to derail your efforts. It's worth counting calories on non fasting days till you get the hang of it. Eat slowly and make it last. Be determined and you will succeed. Forget previous failed attempts. They are in the past. Move forward. What a lot of motivational stuff! I'll stop....

67 years old today and have lost two and a half stone since Sept. with Slimming Workd. Has been reasonably easy as I eat more than I ever did and seem to have lost mt sweet tooth cravings. Probably a few pounds on this week though as have had my birthday cake and eaten it,
Moment of triumph was when the belt that had to have an extra hole in it to make it larger now needs an extra hole to make it smaller,

This is quite interesting. Two colleagues of mine, one in her twenties, one in her fifties, joined
a slimming club together. They had an identical pound for pound loss.

Happy Birthday for yesterday , Nandalot and really well done for your super weight loss ! I hope you enjoyed your cake - butter icing with jam in the middle , yummy ?

Yes, one's metabolism does slow down as we get older and it doesn't make weight loss any easier but it is perfectly possible. Some times the methods of weight control one used pre-menopause are also no longer effective and it is necessary to try different regimes to find one that suits one, individually.

For me, the low carb diet made me feel very unwell and I lost no weight, whereas once I discovered and tried the 5:2 diet, I lost 2 stone in 4 months and have kept the weight off. DH has struggled with the 5:2 diet but finds the low carb diet easy and effective.

I do not know where the old wives tale that you cannot lose weight over 50 comes from, but it has been around for several generations and like many such tales is wrong, but provides some people with an excuse to sink into obesity and inactivity once the menopause strikes.

This is such an inspiring thread - many thanks to you all.
Rowantree, I wish you all the best and really hope you get there; being lighter has made such a huge difference to my life - I can keep up when walking with family at the beach, can play football with grandsons, can reach every bit of me in the shower, am pain free in hips and legs for the first time in ten years, and am no longer afraid of days out because it will involve stairs at stations and walking more than 200 yards.
Good luck.

It does become harder as we've often less muscle and muscles increase our metabolic rate. But impossible? Horse droppings indeed!

NannyLondon That is what I aspire to be! Anya nothing wrong with horse droppings, but point taken and getting on with it ;-)