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Diet and weight loss aren't the only things people need to lose when developing a new lifestyle. If you're one of those people that has a self-deprecating view and makes cavalier jokes about your weight and body, you are manifesting that. Does "I can gain 10 lbs just by looking at a slice of cheesecake!" sound familiar? Well stop it. Speak over your body. Speak weight loss. Speak health. "I'm in the best shape of my life", "I've lost tons of weights", "I'm slim and beautiful". Your body is forced to become that.
This is good advice. When I started my weight loss journey 10 years ago, instead of saying “I need to lose x number of pounds” or “I want to get down to x pounds” I told myself “I want to be fit and healthy”. Then it was as if something clicked and I lost about 60 pounds back then. It’s a mindset and lifestyle change. Being fit and healthy is ongoing. It shouldn’t stop when you reach a certain weight.
This is good advice. When I started my weight loss journey 10 years ago, instead of saying “I need to lose x number of pounds” or “I want to get down to x pounds” I told myself “I want to be fit and healthy”. Then it was as if something clicked and I lost about 60 pounds back then. It’s a mindset and lifestyle change. Being fit and healthy is ongoing. It shouldn’t stop when you reach a certain weight.
There is definitely something to say about mind over matter.
I also only lost when I decided to change the way I eat from a health point of view rather than a body-image one. My blood sugar was too high, and the doc said he wanted to put me on medication unless I wanted to try to change my numbers with diet and exercise, which he recommends be tried first. He suggested a Mediterranean type of diet.
I went with it, and I'm down 27 pounds and my blood sugar levels are close to normal. It's much easier to pass up things that are bad for me when I look at them and think "That probably tastes good for a minute, but I don't want to be diabetic" rather than "If I eat that I will gain weight." Some part of my brain says "so what?" when I think the latter way.
Some basic physiology & arithmetic, and you can see why exercise doesn't do much to help you lose weight:
Muscle prefers to use glucose as an energy source. We store glucose as glycogen in our livers (100gm) and muscles (400 gm), for a total of 2000 cal of energy already stored, and the ability to continuously replace it as it's used.
Muscle can use ketone bodies as an energy source, which we supply by breaking down fat. One pound of fat contains 4086 cal.
It's not quite as simple as "burn all your glycogen, then burn fat," but close enough for illustrative purposes.
An hour's worth of hard exercise only burns 600 cal or so. You'll use your stored glycogen first, so you probably won't burn any fat at all, and even if you did, it would take almost 7 hrs of hard exercise to burn up one pound of fat.
One Big Mac is about 600 cal.
Exercise is good for you on many levels, but as a way to lose fat, it stinks. Cutting cals in the diet is the only way to do it. That forces you to replace your glycogen buy mobilizing your own fat.
You are a woman in your 50s, you're already having something against you. I'm not trying to discourage, I'm just keeping it real. Post menopausal women often face a very uphill battle to lose and maintain weight. You're going to have to give it time and realize that your calorie needs are probably much lower than they were ten years ago, even with the added exercise. Because you are probably a beginner and have knee issues, you probably can't exercise hard enough to compensate for any extra calories. Track your calories, making sure to eat quality calories much of the time. I do believe in indulgences, in moderation of course.
Exercise does not burn fat directly. Exercising burns stored energy. If you have too much energy storage you'll never get to body fat. So stop eating foods that contribute to the storage of energy such as sugar and carbs. Eating too much protein also increases storage of energy. You need to have a low storage of energy before the body can tap into fats.
You are a woman in your 50s, you're already having something against you. I'm not trying to discourage, I'm just keeping it real. Post menopausal women often face a very uphill battle to lose and maintain weight. You're going to have to give it time and realize that your calorie needs are probably much lower than they were ten years ago, even with the added exercise. Because you are probably a beginner and have knee issues, you probably can't exercise hard enough to compensate for any extra calories. Track your calories, making sure to eat quality calories much of the time. I do believe in indulgences, in moderation of course.
Wise words! I never "struggled" with being overweight. I started getting curvy at age 13, but a size 12 almost all my adult life, still am. I actually exercise a lot now walking riding bicycle and archery and eat more veggies, less candy, but haven't lost more than 10 pounds in the past 5 years.
Quality of food has a lot to do with it! And quantity. OP says they eat a "small dinner." But what's in that small dinner? Is it a 1/4 pound shredded pork barbeque on a lettuce wrap with a dessert cup of macaroni and cheese? Or is it a side salad with berries and nuts and a simple oil and vinegar dressing and 3 ounces of boneless skinless chicken breast cut into chunks and sauteed with a little lemon butter, with a slice of crusty italian bread to soak up the extra dressing from the salad?
Or is a "small dinner" a single with cheese from Wendy's and a small fry and small chocolate shake?
Its all about the calories. You cannot out run your fork.
Start recording everything you eat - either on an online program like Myfitnesspal or Sparkpeople, or by hand. You are consuming more calories than you are burning so you will need to make adjustments.
Try a spin class or ride a stationary bike. It is non impact so its great for older knees. Lift heavier - more muscle means more calorie burning. Do HIIT either on the treadmill or bike. Get your heart rate up. Every time you go to the gym up the intensity of your workout.
With your diet in order and a good workout plan you will lose weight. At 50 it comes off slower - 1/2 to 1 pound a week. So patience and commitment is necessary. You can do it though.
^This is great and realistic advice. My wife and I use high intensity cardio for exercise but most importantly we're very strict with our diet. It's absolutely true that you cannot out-exercise your fork. We burn a pretty serious amount of calories, but if we didn't watch our diet carefully we wouldn't nearly as slim as we are. It really is all about the calories. Exercise - especially the way most people do it - simply doesn't burn nearly the amount of calories people think.
Get a solid eating plan going OP, it's the only way to success.
That's the truth and people think that working out leads to weight loss, what a joke!
Coincidence mode on. Watched a show about a group of hikers who walked the Appalachian Trail, end to end. One of them was a young woman, with a wee bit of extra baggage.
The before and after shots showed no obvious weight loss, despite spending half a year slogging up and down mountain trails... hauling a large backpack, too.
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