How to Lose Weight when You're Over 50 Bedfordshire
Losing weight at any age isn’t easy but when you’re aged 50 and over and you’ve tried every diet in the book, it can seem particularly challenging. The key is to focus on the long-term, and to identify exactly what the benefits will be for your overall health, as this article explains.
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How to Lose Weight when You're Over 50
One of the fundamental aspects of positive ageing is staying healthy. Once you’re aged 50 and over any steps you take to improve your overall fitness and wellbeing will potentially enable you to avoid many of the preventable ailments of later “old” age, live longer to enjoy all the great benefits this time of life brings, and even remain at work longer should you wish to.
Most over 50s will have had childhoods where eating your greens – or indeed anything else – was never optional. Food was food, we were made to feel lucky to have it and fads and pickiness were rarely tolerated.
However, since those days and the arrival of fast foods and convenience meals, we’ve tended to slip into bad habits, consuming too much and eating the wrong things. And the older we get, the less tolerant our bodies become, so our health and weight can start to suffer.
By and large we all know vaguely what sorts of things we ought to concentrate on and generally try to do (or not do) some of the obvious things like eating less or eating better, and getting more exercise.
But unless you take positive steps to stay on top of your health and fitness, it’s all too easy to let things slide so that your fitness and weight problems become a vicious circle. The less exercise you take, the more you slow down. The more you slow down, the easier it is to sit about eating and drinking which reduces your motivation to exercise even further…
Determination - not dieting
Of course, food and drink are, and should be, amongst life’s greatest pleasures, so the prospect of abandoning everything to live off ‘rabbit food’ is far from appealing.
So what’s best to do? These days there’s a huge and confusing amount of information available about what we should and shouldn’t eat and do in order to stay healthy and fit. Diets abound: low fat, low carb, high fibre, low calories, GI, Atkins… the list is endless.
Ultimately the best approach is to set yourself a single objective: determine to lose one or two pounds every week, in what ever way suits you, for as long as it takes to get to your target weight. And after that to determine not to let it creep back on again.
“Whatever it takes” may mean going on an initial diet to alter your eating habits and shift your focus to better habits. But not a drastic diet, you do want to achieve long-term weight loss, and keep that weight off.
Many people find it useful to join a club such as Weightwatchers or Slimming World (and there are plenty of others) at this stage mainly for the moral support it gives them. If that isn’t convenient, there are numerous web-based weight loss organisations these days which you may find equally as good.
Long-term loss
At this age you will probably (unless you’ve been very lucky) have tried many diets in the past with varying levels of success. But now you’re older, you need to get past the short-term “diet” mentality and start thinking about eating properly for your health.
There may be conflicting evidence about the potential benefits of some specific foods, vitamins or minerals, but there is enough solid underlying evidence about what you ought to be focusing on for this not to be a distraction.
Following these simple rules means you won’t be going far wrong:
Eat as many natural, unprocessed foods as possible – lots of whole grains plus at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
Choose a good variety of foods, particularly differently coloured fruit and vegetables for their varying mineral and vitamin content.
Cut back (at least by half) on fats, sugars and processed food.
Exercise portion control; don’t eat too much – of anything!
Eat regular balanced meals – avoid snacking on junk.
Allow yourself occasional small treats, such as chocolate, ice cream or cheese, so you don’t feel deprived.
Eat more slowly, at a table, and really relish your food.
Give up smoking and reduce your alcohol consumption.
Get a minimum of 30 minutes exercise every day – even if only a walk.
Every time you find yourself strugging with motivation remember that when you’re in your prime the outcome of staying healthy is living longer and having a better quality of life. Very soon, in the years to come, you’ll be very glad you lost weight and looked after your health.
Click here to find out more about being Primetastic from in my prime
Most over 50s will have had childhoods where eating your greens – or indeed anything else – was never optional. Food was food, we were made to feel lucky to have it and fads and pickiness were rarely tolerated.
However, since those days and the arrival of fast foods and convenience meals, we’ve tended to slip into bad habits, consuming too much and eating the wrong things. And the older we get, the less tolerant our bodies become, so our health and weight can start to suffer.
By and large we all know vaguely what sorts of things we ought to concentrate on and generally try to do (or not do) some of the obvious things like eating less or eating better, and getting more exercise.
But unless you take positive steps to stay on top of your health and fitness, it’s all too easy to let things slide so that your fitness and weight problems become a vicious circle. The less exercise you take, the more you slow down. The more you slow down, the easier it is to sit about eating and drinking which reduces your motivation to exercise even further…
Determination - not dieting
Of course, food and drink are, and should be, amongst life’s greatest pleasures, so the prospect of abandoning everything to live off ‘rabbit food’ is far from appealing.
So what’s best to do? These days there’s a huge and confusing amount of information available about what we should and shouldn’t eat and do in order to stay healthy and fit. Diets abound: low fat, low carb, high fibre, low calories, GI, Atkins… the list is endless.
Ultimately the best approach is to set yourself a single objective: determine to lose one or two pounds every week, in what ever way suits you, for as long as it takes to get to your target weight. And after that to determine not to let it creep back on again.
“Whatever it takes” may mean going on an initial diet to alter your eating habits and shift your focus to better habits. But not a drastic diet, you do want to achieve long-term weight loss, and keep that weight off.
Many people find it useful to join a club such as Weightwatchers or Slimming World (and there are plenty of others) at this stage mainly for the moral support it gives them. If that isn’t convenient, there are numerous web-based weight loss organisations these days which you may find equally as good.
Long-term loss
At this age you will probably (unless you’ve been very lucky) have tried many diets in the past with varying levels of success. But now you’re older, you need to get past the short-term “diet” mentality and start thinking about eating properly for your health.
There may be conflicting evidence about the potential benefits of some specific foods, vitamins or minerals, but there is enough solid underlying evidence about what you ought to be focusing on for this not to be a distraction.
Following these simple rules means you won’t be going far wrong:
Eat as many natural, unprocessed foods as possible – lots of whole grains plus at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
Choose a good variety of foods, particularly differently coloured fruit and vegetables for their varying mineral and vitamin content.
Cut back (at least by half) on fats, sugars and processed food.
Exercise portion control; don’t eat too much – of anything!
Eat regular balanced meals – avoid snacking on junk.
Allow yourself occasional small treats, such as chocolate, ice cream or cheese, so you don’t feel deprived.
Eat more slowly, at a table, and really relish your food.
Give up smoking and reduce your alcohol consumption.
Get a minimum of 30 minutes exercise every day – even if only a walk.
Every time you find yourself strugging with motivation remember that when you’re in your prime the outcome of staying healthy is living longer and having a better quality of life. Very soon, in the years to come, you’ll be very glad you lost weight and looked after your health.
Click here to find out more about being Primetastic from in my prime