No it's not. You wouldn't believe how I was at 35 and how I'm I now. All it takes is determination, discipline and patience. Go for it đź’Ş
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losing weight after 35 is hard
- Thread starter Thornton Reed
- Start date
Very likely you're underestimating the calories you're eating both during the week and during the weekend as "treats".
Exercise is good but only a minor part of the the weight losing process.
Exercise is good but only a minor part of the the weight losing process.
Prety much what im doing, i do a 20 min walk to the job to go and to come and i went from 80kg to 75kg in 1 month. Still drink time to time and eat some unhealthy food.
Indeed.
You don't need to mess about with that.
Just cut carbs from your diet. Considerably.
Just turned 38, and since I've finally understood things, it's been so easy to lose weight... that I've been letting myself go on purpose by eating sweets at work....and at times at home.
This week I'll do the low carb thing consistantly and some push ups. I've got too comfortable these past few months since I got back from vacation. It's been fun with these chocolate chip cookies...and brownie fudge ice cream. I'll see you again for a few days during Thanksgiving week.
But yeah OP, like most are saying... diet first and foremost. It makes working out easier. I don't even work out ab stuff, until after I lose alittle weight. Once you get in a groove, everything else is easier.
This week I'll do the low carb thing consistantly and some push ups. I've got too comfortable these past few months since I got back from vacation. It's been fun with these chocolate chip cookies...and brownie fudge ice cream. I'll see you again for a few days during Thanksgiving week.
But yeah OP, like most are saying... diet first and foremost. It makes working out easier. I don't even work out ab stuff, until after I lose alittle weight. Once you get in a groove, everything else is easier.
WTF lol
And here is your problem. Good thing is you have lots of room for improvement.
I just lost 12 pounds and I'm older than you. Count calories and you'll watch the weight melt off.
I know its obvious to some people but I still can't quite believe how much weight I have lost while still having a relatively bad diet (pizza multiple times a week for example). I was drinking farrrrrr too much it seems.
I am almost 31, and with no exercise (cushy IT Job and Games at home), low carb diet and no soda at all I managed to lose 2kg in 6 days. Something is wrong with your routine OP, and I 100% sure its your diet. Either you are eating a ton of carbs, or a lot of calories.
I found drinking coffee when I feel hungry between meals was effective at keeping my weight down.
That and eating more then a person needs. Peopel think that because they go to the gym the problem goes way.
OP
OP
ok i'll see if cutting back to one treat day on a weekend will make a difference. I'm not giving up alcohol though.
That is probably your problem OP, alcohol is awful for calorie intake and beer is one of the worst offenders. A pint of beer is approximately 200 calories and a share bag of chocolate will be easily over 500 calories. So your weekend indulgence is adding probably over 2500 calories to your diet every week, which is like eating an extra 300-400 calories every day. That's massive, and most likely an underestimate.
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No.
Eat less. 1500kcal per day, maximum.
Stop drinking.
Nothing you can do will make a bigger, better difference to your life and weight.
As I've learned over the years exercise has very little to do with weight loss. If you were already at a surplus and add 500 calories a day off from exercise (which is a lot by the way) you're losing less than a pound a week. Also if you're not weight lifting your TDEE, which is basically how many calories you use a day, will naturally be lower. You need to find out your TDEE and for every 500 calories you subtract from that you'll see a pound a week.
Also you may have lost something and didn't realize, you may have put a bit of muscle on or are holding extra water. EIther way yes you can indulge once in a while, but you need to figure out what your TDEE is and work around that with your calories. The calories lost from "slower metabolism" at your age is not nearly enough to make it impossible to lose weight. You can completely counteract any possible metabolism lost through weight lifting. You probably are just less active than you were before and it has slowly caught up to you.
edit- welp nvm, it's your diet. Not shaming you or anything, but you won't be losing weight if you're just taking all the calories in on the weekend that you burned during exercise.
If you are drinking quite a bit that will make it so so difficult. 8 pints is like an extra whole DAY worth of food which you will need to work off.
Don't do this 1500 is a huge deficit for a man of your age unless your are a hobbit.
Deficit must be progressive and not that extreme.
OP
OP
I've never looked at it like this before. Think i may have to change my weekend treat snack to some unsalted home popped popcorn.
Then you will have to compensate said alchohol with lots (and I mean LOTS) of exercise.
Yeah I lift at the gym, but i am not seeing any appreciable strength gains. Some days I can lift more, some less.
Depends on my energy levels really. I work two jobs so it's hard to have regularly scheduled gym sessions and meals, I just have to fit things in where I can.
I usually have the same thing for breakfast every day - a protein shake with added banana and peanut butter.
I really want to do the whole meal prep thing but I just don't have time to make the meals, I get home so late and I'm tired and just want to chill. And when I do make things I often forget them in the morning as I'm in a rush etc.
I often have to grab food on the go but I try and make sure it's reasonably healthy like salads with grains/beans or a falafel wrap or something.
It all just feels like so much effort for very little return.
Sorry but lol
8 pints of beer is almost 2,000 calories, and I looked up the calories in a share bag of Maltesers as an example and a 189g bag is about 900 calories, so 1,800 calories total there.
So a drink and a couple of treats = nearly 4,000 calories, and I'm assuming that's not all you eat at the weekend.
Drinking is well known to be damaging to the body in many ways, but most people really don't know about one of the biggest problems which is the amount of calories in alcohol. I was shocked when I found out that 1 unit of alcohol is approximately 100 calories, no matter what kind of alcohol you drink. Made me really rethink my lifestyle of a big binge night out every week, and now I pretty much never drink alcohol casually.
Alcohol is just so awful.
OP
OP
here in the UK 4 pints or the equivalent is nothing. On a Saturday we tend to stay in as we've got small kids, so on the couch we'll watch a film with a couple of drinks and some chocolate. on a sunday we always tend to go out as a family and i'll squeeze in a couple of pints somewhere then maybe a glass of wine in the evening once the kids are down. the 8 pints was probably a worse case scenario.
I compiled all the advice so far listed in the thread. Some seems based around science, some seems highly anecdotal. I'm not claiming support for any of it, just thought it was fun to see it all listed out:
- Eat less
- Intermittent cardio
- Count your calories
- Cut out sugar
- Cut out soda
- Weight-lifting / resistance-training
- Fasting
- Cut all carbs
- Use artificial sweeteners
- Keto
- Switch up your work outs
- Use a calorie-tracking app
- Smaller portions
- More water
- Eat food slower
- Discipline / Rethink your entire way of life
- Start eating fish and white meat
- Run 10 miles per run
- Drink coffee
- 1,500 calories, max, per day
I'm 37 now and trying to lose 30 LBS. I'm made it to 15 so far but it is difficult and frustrating but you just have to keep at it, I guess.
I was using MyFitnessPal, logging my food, changing my diet with great success. I added in more exercise which allowed me to eat more, was still working great. I tried to throw in intermittent fasting and completely stalled out.
Ultimately my routine got turned completely upside down when my oldest started real school and gained it all back.
Ultimately my routine got turned completely upside down when my oldest started real school and gained it all back.
Yea I know I am also from the UK - and believe me I know how little 8 pints in a week really is.
All I know is I used to drink (sounds like quite similar to you) and it wasn't until I stopped the drink that the weight fell off me. It's just extra calories and a lot of them for nothing.
Edit - for me it was never just the drink though - id share a bottle of wine with my wife so half each but it always led to a bag of munchies too or some toast whatever. It's all that which caused the problem
A 2 finger kit kat is like a slice of bread, calorie-wise. By itself it won't be a problem. But your descriptions of 'pints of beer' and 'share bag of chocolate' and 'loving bread' means your good diet may not be as good as you think. (It might be ok once you have lost weight, but you have to give up a few things to actually lose weight).
Yup
Cut the amount you eat in half and find a way to stop being hungry and acting on it
You body will adjust. We can handle and function far better than our bodies lead us to believe. You have to train it
People severely underestimate the power of weightlifting when it comes to weight loss. It's fucking amazing what it does to your metabolism.
I'm almost exactly the same age, height and weight as the OP.
1500 kcal is my professionally recommended daily intake as I try to drop to 160lbs, it's a perfectly healthy deficit.
If I was trying for 150lbs I'd have been recommended 1250.
It really is all about diet. I'm 6'2" and I went from 190lbs to 260lbs thanks to a fantastic, years-long death spiral of depression, heavy drinking, and not giving a shit about calories or exercise.
Literally one month after dropping all of that shit I lost 5lbs. Now I'm getting back to the gym (when I can) and walk on all my lunch breaks. I'll maybe have 1 or 2 beers a week now, and my body has already adjusted so I'm not craving sugars.
Literally one month after dropping all of that shit I lost 5lbs. Now I'm getting back to the gym (when I can) and walk on all my lunch breaks. I'll maybe have 1 or 2 beers a week now, and my body has already adjusted so I'm not craving sugars.
OP
OP
I know everyone is saying quit booze (easy to say if you've not been a lifelong drinker who's socially reliant on it, but I won't go into that), but I know plenty of people who drink several pints a week (as OP says, here in the UK that is basically the norm for men in their 30s), don't go to the gym, eat far worse diets than me, and are still slim.
What's their secret, just blessed with a fast metabolism?
What's their secret, just blessed with a fast metabolism?
Uhh I'm sure not everybody is throwing back 1500 worth of calories of beer, otherwise everyone would be overweight. In order to lose weight you will absolutely need to cut that back. Your habits may have slightly changed in the last few years without realizing it- eating slightly more, doing slightly less, etc. but your age/metabolism aren't the issue here, your dietary habits are not good.
I cycled and started diet and I lost 15kg in 3 months. Then I got it back. And lost it again. And got it back. Maintaining weight is much harder than losing it.
I'm on keto, so any form of sugar, really. For fruits, I basically stick to strawberries as a treat.
I'll use sucralose or xylitol as a sugar substitute from time to time, but pretty rarely. Mainly, the sweetest thing I'll take in will be some sugar free whipped cream or a coke zero from time to time, but mainly stay away from even those. Usually drink water or gatorade zero. For foods, it's normally savory stuff, like nuts or meat. I have to watch veggies too, I can eat things like celery, bell pepper, cucumber.
The diet was actually put together by my doctor because I was boarderline diabetic, however. So totally eliminating sugar was the goal in the first place. The diet wasn't necessarily to lose weight, it was to fix my blood sugar levels. The weight loss was just a very fortunate side effect.
Keto topic here: https://www.resetera.com/threads/keto-diet-yay-or-nay.130295/
Yep! Well in that case for years I tried to lose weight and it wasn't until I stopped or at the very least decreased doing that did I actually lose weight. I did lose a shit load in the end, just have to decide if it's worth it or not.
We are back to drinking just ONE day a week and so far it's going okay.
It's always interesting how you can justify and even hide food from yourself. A drink and a couple of treats becomes 8 pints of beer and a bunch of share bags of candy. Depending on your diet that can equate to one or two days of calories.
The answer really is to stop hiding stuff from yourself. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
The answer really is to stop hiding stuff from yourself. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
I lost around 8 kg by purely cutting out soda and eating less. Drank coffee and water throughout the weekdays probably half a can of soda stretch over the weekend. If I eat fastfood I don't touch the fries and swap soda out for water, if I feel the slightest feeling of fullness is when I stop eating.
All this is without any exercise.
All this is without any exercise.