44 years old and trying to lose 50 pounds... (sweating, gaining, burn)

[skilro65]

Physiologists and doctors write that it takes at least 6 months to reorganize metabolism in the organism. Therefore, it is necessary to be patient, and then muscle and all cells of the body will be reorganized to new working conditions, and fat will begin to melt and glucose will slowly turn into fat. I had no weight problems until I was 40, regardless of the quality of the food I ate. But after 40 years, after eating a piece of cake, I get fat as if I had eaten three. Combine fat and sweets, it is the main evil!

[torinn]

OP, pick one thing to change abour your diet. Maybe it's cutting back (not out) on fats (cheese, etc.). Do that for a few weeks, let your mind and body make it habit. Then choose one other thing to improve on. So on and so forth. Be sure to move! Walk, run, do anything that isn't sitting or being stationary.

I advise against doing everything at once. Not only is it difficult, but it is unlikely to set you up for long term success.

Make one small change or a better habit, and build upon that. And love yourself enough to be patient.

Good luck!

[leastprime]

May I suggest,
Clear soup with as much vegetables as you want. Any meat, seasoning, bouillon. Moderate amount of animal fat and eggs. I find that animal fat doesn't really affect my weight. Keto-Atkins diet.

Avoid the starches and carbs as much as possible.. I will eat a lot sweet ripe-ripe fruits ; I have to be careful with some fruits because some will trigger a quick insulin reaction (wild blackberries along my walking paths I discovered this year but not noticeable last year) pre-DB2.
GL

[MarisaAnna]

Originally Posted by moguldreamer

Of all diets studied, the Mediterranean Diet is the most healthy diet, and is a good way to gradually reduce your weight to your target. The key principles of the Mediterranean Diet include heavy on vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, some fruit, lower on salt, lower on protein - and in particular, rarely eat meat or poultry. Learn to love hummus.

Agree, if you go to Italy you will see people who, on average, are thinner than those in the US or here, but for whom pasta and other carbs are staples of their diets. The life expectancy is high so the diet overall is believed to be healthy. In our experience, meat is eaten but the quantity is much smaller and fish is prominent. Sweet food is ideally reserved for special occasions and people do not snack like we do.

I have lost weight on a diet which is just a lower carb, balanced diet. Three slices of whole meal bread a day. I also lost weight on a lower carb diet but I found it impossible to stick to permanently, as I am often out at lunch time and lunch food inevitable contains carbs.

[skeddy]

I developed type 2 diabetes about 5 years ago, doctor treated it with Trulicity which I couldn't do. Went to Victoza from there. Started losing weight, dropped the Victoza. Completely lost my appetite for food even after dropping the medication and have never regained it. Was at 200, was 157 last week, I eat probably 1,000 calories a day. Now I'm trying to gain some back. I drink a Boost every day. I wonder sometimes if the vaccines played a role but I'm not attributing it to them.

No more than 1500 calories a day for you.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

I never in my life met anyone who thought the bolded. It's pretty obvious that's not what is meant by a "salad" when it comes to more healthful eating, no?

Actually I’ve met people who think exactly like this. While obvious to us some people don’t see it.
The same ones that always tell themselves it’s okay to eat like a pig today because they are starting a diet tomorrow.

[GearHeadDave]

Originally Posted by WaikikiWaves

It's incredibly simple, calories in and calories out. But execution can be hard for some as their body will be fighting them every step of the way. The trick is to know how to gradually diet (don't attempt the perfect diet right away) and how to slowly swap high calorie/low nutritional foods for lower calorie/higher nutritional options.

It's more the step by step by step process to get the perfect diet that people are missing. Most people know what the perfect diet looks like, just not the steps to get there. If they go from eating like hippos to eating like birds, it almost always results in yo-yo dieting.

Yes. This is the answer.

No matter how you cut it you must determine your caloric set-point, and the only way to do that is to religiously count every calorie, against a daily weigh-in, for a long period of time.

After about a year of doing this, you will be able to determine your set-point for a stable weight, and you will know well how many calories you must deficit from that set-point to lose weight. (it's roughly a 3000 calorie deficit to lose a pound of weight for most). You will also know well which foods are calorically dense and which are not. Unfortunately many people do not have the patience or tenacity to do this.

For me I discovered that my set-point (about 2100 calories) was a lot lower than most of the online calculators would advise. I adjusted accordingly, and was able to lose weight at a rate of about 1 lb per week as long as I really truly stuck to the daily calorie target of 1700 (400 calorie deficit per day X 7 days = 2800 calorie deficit per week).

This is a life-long change in your approach to eating, it's not a "diet".

[Timaea]

Originally Posted by Listener2307

Assuming your question is not rhetorical I think you can. Many people seem to. Louis and Clarke Expedition did for about 2 years. They consumed 20 pounds of meat per man per day!



I gave up eating salads. When it comes down to it, I don't really like all that stuff, and it adds needless bulk to the meal. There is nothing in green leafy stuff that I do not get from beef-pork-fish-chicken-eggs- cheese. If there were it would have shown up in my lipid or metabolic blood panels. And nothing does. It's perfect.


LINK

I think you’re making good points against a sea of naysayers. Despite all the touting of whole grains and greens, many traditional diets in the world’s longevity zones are not primarily vegetarian. The people of the Northern Caucasus, who used to have some of the longest-living people on the planet, are heavy into meat (primarily chicken, but also other domesticated animals), heavy creams, butter, and of course eggs from all the chickens they kept over millennia. They defy the common wisdom of emphasizing greens over meat.

My grandparents, of Eastern European peasant stock, lived into their nineties and subsisted on all the current no-no’s: every permutation of meat (including smoked and cured sausage), potatoes, dumplings (stuffed with cheese, or mushrooms, or the ubiquitous cabbage), heavy cream, butter, eggs. The primary green consumed was cabbage, which came in many creative preparations (including pickled and boiled, but never raw). Consumption of fruit and veggies was time-limited to growing seasons, and wasn’t in anny substantial amounts. Berries were mostly picked in the forest, which was labor intensive and produced giant baskets which could not possibly be consumed fresh in a day or two, so most of the bounty was made into jams, and consumed over the long winter. There were apple and plum trees in people’s gardens, but the fruit was treated as an occasional treat. As in the case of berries, most of it was made into jams, or sold to city folk.

My grandmother did not see or taste an orange or a banana until she was in her fifties, when such things started being imported — as a great novelty.

My grandparents were by no means outliers in their longevity. Plenty of their neighbors likewise enjoyed long lives and relatively slim waistlines. Even crazy sweet-fatty desserts were enjoyed — but only on special occasions. The things that never entered their bodies were all the processed snacks, processed food, fast food, sodas, juices, and candy bars that are glutting our supermarkets and convenience stores. They moved a lot, all day long. The men tended to live a little less than the women, perhaps due to the copious amounts of alcohol they consumed.

I’ll say this about salads and fruits: they are not nearly as necessary — and not nearly in the amounts recommended — as is commonly promulgated, but they are an important source of antioxidants, which is not a measurable value on a blood panel. Yet antioxidants are crucial to good immunity. I don’t believe that one needs to eat a pound of antioxidants a day to get this benefit, however. Maybe a small handful. Quality and freshness are key, since many of the most beneficial qualities in fruits and veggies degrade quickly after picking. If we’re eating a month-old head of lettuce or bowl of commercial strawberries that sat on the shelf for a week, all we’re getting is the sugars and none of the goodies.

[gball721]

Originally Posted by parentologist

Don't believe this "you're not eating enough" BS. The LAST thing you need to do is eat more calories in order to lose weight.

Bananas are twice as calorically dense as an apple. In my experience as a primary care MD, overweight people tend to instinctively choose calorically dense foods even when eating fruits and veggies; such as a banana over an apple for fruit, corn over spinach for a vegetable.

Drink black coffee on your way to work. Don't eat breakfast if you're not hungry. If you really are, despite the coffee, then eat hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit, or cut up veggies for breakfast. Pack your lunch with you. An apple or an orange or strawberries or grapes or a peach/nectarine (NOT a banana). Some leftover grilled meat from the night before or a couple of hard boiled eggs. Some low cal non-starchy vegetable, like green beans, brussel sprouts, carrots, cut up peppers, etc. No bread, rice, potatoes, etc. Wait to eat until you get hungry. Only take a salad if you can eat it without dressing and without croutons - the dressings are usually very high in calories. If you must have carbs, very small portions of low glycemic index carbs, such as garbanzos, beans.

At home, for dinner, grilled meat and non-starchy veggies (roasted squashes are nice - they caramelize in the oven), a piece of fruit for dessert. No carbs, but again, if you must, a small portion of low glycemic index legumes.

You will only be eating from about 11 am until 7 pm this way.

Drink only water, with only one serving of coffee in the am. No diet drinks. No juice. No soda. No alcohol. No artificially sweetened drinks at all. No drinks with calories.

When you go out for a meal with friends, once in a while, maybe once or at most twice a week, if you must have alcohol, just one beer, or one glass of wine, rest of time water, and restaurant food - try to order grilled meat/fish/poultry with non-starchy veggies.

In addition to walking the dogs, try to get out without them for a very brisk walk, 30-60 minutes daily, walking as fast as you possibly can. Walking the dogs is great, but it's much slower walking. Shoot for a total of 15,000 steps/day or more - your phone in your pocket is probably a step counter. If you can add in other active social sports, great.

Obviously no candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, soda, juice, etc. Only once in a very long while, like a small serving at a b-day party or Xmas party, and if it makes you fall off the wagon, then not at all.

Guaranteed that you will lose the weight this way, and keep it off, as long as you can stick to this healthier lifestyle of healthy diet and brisk walking. It's not a diet. It's a new way of eating, and living. If you go back to the carbs and the alcohol, you will regain the weight.

If you cannot manage this on your own, weight watchers online can help you. I've also seen people have great success with Noom, but I hear it's expensive. In my experience, the people who eat the simple carbs that you're allowed to have on weight watchers have more trouble losing the weight and keeping it off.

This. I eat from only 2pm to 6pm on weekdays. I'm in my 50's and weigh 155 pounds at 5'10". Used to weigh 185 before I started doing 2pm to 6pm. Once one starts on eating just between 11am to 7pm, or a narrower window over several months, it becomes very easy. Coffee black in the morning. And I save money ---I eat less.

[Nlambert]

I am of the firm belief that everyone's body and dietary needs are different. There is really no one size fits all solution.

Here are a couple of stories from us. (We are in the 41-43 age range)

I spent about 10 years (25-35) at 5'10" and over 250 lbs. I didn't eat breakfast, drank 1 cup of coffee in the mornings, no alcohol, never ate sweets (still don't), and worked outside in construction. But I ate fast food for lunch and our dinners were mostly fried food. I always drank sodas. I was sedentary once I got home from work after I did what yard work was needed.

Eventually I got on a Keto diet and over the course of 2 years (35-37) I lost the 50 lbs to be able to exercise again. It was impacting my energy level for exercising so I began introducing healthy carbs back into my diet. Now... I work out 5 days a week and I always eat breakfast. I lift weights 4 days, run a 5k 2-3 times per week, and do HIIT cardio the other days. I try to eat reasonably healthy but I do have a drink 1-2 times per week (no beer.. typically bourbon) and I might have a night of eating whatever I want once a week. In the fall/spring I add in a 10k run every other weekend. I drink primarily water and "might" have one 12 oz Coke zero a couple times a week (never more than 1 over the course of a day). I've found that my weight is hovering around the 194-197 range but my waist line has shrunk. This seems to be a good balance for me.

My wife (5'11) exercises 5 times per week (spin classes and running with me). She tried to eat healthy but was complaining that she couldn't lose weight. She was on a medication that had a weight gain side effect and blamed it on that... But... at night she would get hungry and go grab a bag of chips or some other unhealthy snack and munch on those. Every single night. She stopped doing that and got more strict on her diet and the weight has started coming off again.

Her best friend is 5'2 and about 125 in soaking wet winter clothes. She exercises daily, consistently runs about 20-30 miles per week. She drinks when she feels like it (a couple times per week), eats absolute garbage (chocolate snacks, chips, crackers, etc...) and rarely eats healthy meals. She usually just snacks on and off all day. She cannot gain a lb to save her life. If she stops running in the late winter months she still doesn't gain weight.

We're just built differently.