My Introduction

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LadyLuck70

New member
Hi there - I am a 54 year old, post-menopausal woman, who needs to loose 78pounds - according to my personal trainer. For most of my adult life, I was in-shape and of normal weight, although fluctuating anywhere from 123-180. It was a constant battle keeping off the weight, but with exerise and food moderation, most of those years I was in the 140s. Here I find myself having gained all of this weight within the past four years. I know I cannot blame all of it on menopause, but I currently eat no more than 1,200 calories per day and work out 6-7 days a week, doing 60 minutes of cardio and weight lifting, pushups, squats, etc. I have only begun my journey and am looking for others in my predicament. I am sure there are many. I look forward to giving and receiving support in our journey to be healthy.
 
Welcome to the forum.

As a 50 year old lady myself - I am writing to reassure that weight control is indeed perfectly possible for ladies of a more mature age....

In fact - if the inspiration is of any value to you - feel free to check out my photos. There is a link in the last page of my diary.

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-loss-diary/15690-omegas-journey-194.html

Sometimes we can feel swamped by the notion that the successful dieters are the youngsters and it can make us feel that it is somehow less achievable for us...

Whilst you mention 1200 calories - I was wondering how closely you monitor them - and how closely you monitor your nutrition as a whole. I do think that it is so important that we get the right quantities of things like protein, calcium, fibre, healthy fats etc. The fact is that many of us get "some" protein and convince ourselves that we must be getting "enough". I do not actually think that I could survive on 1200 calories and certainly have not done so over the course of my project. With the exercise program that you outlined you should never have to eat at such a low level - and the answer may well lie in modifying your food plan and not reducing it. Possibly indeed increasing it in a healthy way.

If you havent already done so - I suggest that you get a free account from FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal and set up your profile information. Then log your food and exercise. Check that you are hitting the nutritional targets as advised in the nutrition section. It could well be that your diet needs to be better balanced. The figures from fitday will give you something to analyse.
 
Yikes

Hi Margaret - first let me say WOW! As for my journey, I track my eating (write it down) and my personal trainer reviews it with me weekly. I eat plenty of protein and mix it up with high fiber foods and veggies, with very little fat. My biggest stumbling block is that in the past, in trying to loose weight, I would literally starve myself - so then when I began to eat again, I immediately gained weight. My trainer has assured me that this can be reversed by adding more healthy foods and building up my muscle, especially in my legs. I look forward to being my smaller self again. Thanks for the welcome.
 
Thanks...

Building up your muscles is a very good move.

That all sounds like good advice to me - you need to be getting a good quantity of nutrients and 1200 calories is pretty low to have a chance of managing that. Moving things healthier with a view to increasing the numbers up makes sense.

A lot of people have been surprised to see a weight loss when they actually increase the calories that they have been eating - but there have been cases like that around here.

What nutritional targets has he set you - or is he simply judging from what you write down.
How many grams of protein are you currently hitting?
The RDA is far too low for anyone who does much exercise - as you do.
Are you hitting 1000mg calcium a day?
Not only does calcium help our bones (and lets face it - we dont want osteoporosis to add to our problems) - but calcium can actually help us to lose weight.
 
A lot of people have been surprised to see a weight loss when they actually increase the calories that they have been eating - but there have been cases like that around here.
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This is the way I've always been. If I don't eat enough calories, my metabolism shuts down for all intensive purposes and my weight plateaus. Especially if I'm working out.
 
He hasn't actually given me a target as to how many grams of protein, calcium, etc. Right now it's all a crap shoot. As things progress, I am sure he will adjust accordingly.
 
Welcome and good luck on your weight loss journey! I am close to your age, 50 in fact, and I recently lost over 40 pounds. So, like Omega said....women our age can do this, and quite successfully! You have come to the right place for support!

Di
 
LadyLuck70 said:
He hasn't actually given me a target as to how many grams of protein, calcium, etc. Right now it's all a crap shoot. As things progress, I am sure he will adjust accordingly.
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I am sure that logging things on fitday would make the job of analysis easier for him. Sometimes it pays to apply science to a crap shoot.

In the meantime it may identify whether you would benefit from such as a calcium supplement...
 
Hi there.

Echoing what Omega said, I'll also say that I think 1200 calories may be too low for you. It's important to eat *enough* food as well as to not eat too much. I also find it very hard to get in an adequate amount of nutrients at 1200 calories.

I think that what Omega suggested about logging your food on Fitday.com might be a really good idea. It will help you to see what your calories and nutrients are every day and make it much easier to see where you can tweak to improve things! :)

I weigh 170 (as of this morning) and I lose best eating about 1600 calories per day.
 
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