7 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

If you are looking for encouragement, inspiration, and lots of love, you’ve come to the right place!

If you’re a woman over 50 and feeling stuck in a cycle of dieting, frustration, and constant weight fluctuations, this post is exactly what you need.

With a foundation in counseling and years of experience as a life coach, my focus is on helping women understand their bodies and feel alive again. What I share here is inspired by both personal experience and research from trusted sources such as The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code The Big Fat Surprise, and Fast, Feast, Repeat.

The typical weight loss advice just doesn’t work for us anymore, and you deserve a better, sustainable way to feel great in your body again. In a conversation recently with a doctor who works with women to lose weight, she shared that even when women are doing the right things it can take some time for the body to adjust and begin releasing weight.

In this post, I’ll share the seven powerful tips that have worked for me over the past 10 years and have helped countless women over 50 do the same. In addition to clients I work with, I get emails from women who are using these tips on their own to lose weight.

Forget the endless dieting and deprivation. It’s time to embrace a lifestyle that supports your health, confidence, and enjoyment of life.

These simple yet effective tips can help you not only lose weight but keep it off for good, all while feeling empowered and energized.

Why It’s Important to Do This Right

Life is way more fun when you can just eat, eat foods you like, and eat enough you don’t feel miserable. I’m a certified life coach and I help midlife women learn to eat and live the way they want to.

My clients experience freedom and confidence when it comes to food. They experience so many benefits beyond just from what the scale shows.

• They become more confident about everything
• They enjoy going out to eat without worry
• They go on vacation without worrying about gaining weight
• They stop binging or compulsively eating
• They don’t agonize over every bite they eat
• They get more energy and their bodies feel better
• Their face slims down and the like what they see in the mirror
• Their relationships become better
• They create better life work balance.

After losing enough weight at 53 to feel amazing in my body, I started writing about that journey. I hadn’t worn shorts, dresses, or a bathing suit for about 20 years.

Back in my forties, I felt like my body was the best it ever could be and I was doing everything I could to maintain that. I learned to stay a steady weight and I definitely didn’t want to gain weight. But I had given up hope that I could lose weight.

However, life had a different plan for me. At 52, I lost weight and had the cutest body I had ever had in my life.

I had lost weight a few times in the past and every single time, I gained the weight back, usually beginning as soon as I was at my goal weight.

That was so discouraging. But this time, I spent time understanding how I had lost weight and how I could maintain this loss. So here I am 10 years later, still talking about it.

Why These Tips Can Help You Lose Weight and Keep it Off

Do you know what is more important than losing weight?

It’s being able to sustain and maintain your weight loss and eating habits. I ONLY support ways to eat that are sustainable, good for your body (and mental health), and that you can live with. 

Losing weight is useless if we are only going to gain it all back, along with a few extra pounds. That’s what I love about these tips. While my weight fluctuates a little, I have never gained the weight back.

Nine years–all through my fifties and now early sixties! For the most part these are easy lifestyle changes that you can fit into your life.

I wrote this post six years ago and these tips really have stood the test of time for the most part. As I’ve worked with more women, I have written many more posts, but this one still resonates with a lot of women.

My clients love that they can incorporate these easy lifestyle changes into their lives and eat food they actually enjoy!

This is a great place to get started. So we’re going to dive right in to the 7 tips. .

If you want to explore more after that, I’ll share some of my favorite follow up posts below.

Tips to Lose Weight After 50

Sometimes people will say life isn’t worth living if you have to give up this or that.

That’s silly talk. Life is worth living when you love the body you have, it feels great, and you can do all the things you love to do.

Remember, you can’t do the same things you’ve always been doing and expect results you like better.

You have to change things up! In a nutshell, my method is about changing the kinds of foods you eat regularly and changing the timing of when you eat. This powerful combination allows your body to work the way it is meant to work and helps you lose fat.

So, here we go!

Set the Intention to Lose Weight

Right on the heels of believing it is possible to lose weight, you have to set the intent to have a healthy weight loss. 

You can’t do the same thing you’ve been doing and expect to lose weight. To maintain or lose weight, you know you are going to make some behavior changes. 

I hate crash diets and dieting, so I am a huge fan of “not dieting” but instead, making behavior changes that help me manage my weight.

I’m not skinny and I wasn’t built for skinny. But I do like being active and feeling comfortable in how my body looks.

Not many people can eat anything they want, anytime they want and keep their weight in a healthy-for-them range.

A year ago, my weight began creeping up because, I wasn’t doing anything conscious to keep it where I like it. I was traveling a lot and not worrying about it too much.

In addition, I was nibbling on candy and snacks. I was eating the bread at restaurants. I was drinking coffee in the morning that was the nutritional equivalent of a milkshake.

I was eating late at night. I was only exercising sporadically and not doing the things I know work.

You name it. I was breaking every rule I had!

However, from the moment I set the intent to lose this extra weight, I began making better decisions and within a few days, I felt better, and my body felt better.

My decisions to help lose weight after 50 were:

• To not eat bread, candy, or other insulin-raising foods and snacks.
• To do regular physical activity throughout the week including strength training 
• To fast after dinner and not eat until my first meal of the next day.
• To add more variety to my meals in terms of vegetables, healthy fats,  and protein.

Even though I have had a nice weight and body for years, it’s still possible to get off-track. When I really took a look, it was obvious why I was gaining weight.

Not sure what you are doing to gain weight? Write down everything you eat, all day, every day. Write down not just your meals but every little bite you take here and there. And don’t forget anything you drink. Even diet drinks.

And I wasn’t gaining just because of my age! It was my not having any conscious intention to manage my weight.

Practice mindful eating and definitely set the intention. And intend to never give up! We’re looking for ways that you can eat for the rest of your life, safely, comfortably, and sustainably.

Move your Body

My second tip is to move. And by move, I mean just move. You don’t have to run a marathon, join Cross Fit, or do anything hardcore. But it’s important to include regular physical activity daily. 

Here’s the thing. Moving your body, connects you to your body in a positive way. Yep, I am recommending exercise as a way to get to know your body.

Walk a couple of miles a day. Do a little yoga or Pilates. Dance to your own tune. But move every day. Get your breathing going.

To be honest, I go for things that make me feel good. After 50, research shows that exercise doesn’t help us lose weight anymore. 

However, it is still an important part of our lives! Moving gives us energy and vitality.

We can develop strength, balance, muscles, and flexibility. These are what we need for our third act in life!

Moving on a regular basis feels great. And I truly look better and maintain my weight when I’m exercising on a regular basis.

Even with my moderate exercise, I can hike up mountains for hours and ride a bicycle for 30+ miles. Even better, I can walk pretty much anywhere, and I can play and do fun things with my grandchildren.

Moving doesn’t just help with your weight, it helps with your life!

Here is an excellent resource for FREE exercise videos for women to help you lose weight. I put this together based on how I work out. How to Workout for Weight Loss.

Limit Sugar and Processed Foods

This is probably the best news of this whole post. This is one of the most effective things you can do to help your body release excess weight.

I have no idea how you can be a healthy weight if you are still eating lots of sugar and ultra processed foods. Limiting sugar and processed foods also helps keep blood sugar levels lower. 

There are women that get away with eating this stuff when they are young but that doesn’t work for all of us.

I am so grateful that I gave up most sugary stuff 20 years ago. My skin and body thanks me every day! Sugar and processed foods cause inflammation and that is not good for your skin either.

For most of our lives, we treat these foods as treats, but they are hard on our bodies.

They affect our fat-storing and fat-burning hormones. This is really important to understand.

Sugar and foods that act like sugar tell our bodies to do the opposite of what we want them to do.

Instead of burning fat—we store fat.

It seems counter-intuitive to our fat-phobic culture, but fat is not making you fat. What is making you fat is the effect that sugar and processed foods have on your hormones.

This list of foods is way too long to list. Of course, you know that cake, cookies, candy, and other sweet treat foods are sugar-based foods. But there are a lot of other common foods that act just like sugar in your body.

This includes instant oatmeal, pasta, all breads, fat-free yogurt or milk, energy bars, fruity smoothies, breakfast cereal, and pretty much all other commercial snack foods.

These kinds of foods can make you gain weight and they keep you hungering for more.

And it doesn’t take all that much to throw your body off. These foods don’t provide any real nutrition beyond what a scientist has added, so you don’t need them at all.

Even a little in your diet each day, can keep you from losing weight. Even if you aren’t overeating, eating foods that raise your blood sugar, will keep the pounds on.

Not only that but they cause overall inflammation that damages your skin and other systems in your body.

That temporary hit of sugar or processed foods is just not worth the long-term damage it causes.

My body can tolerate some treats but not every day. So, do have treats once a week or so but don’t build your meals around them.

To help with this, I wrote a post about dealing with sugar cravings.

Quit Snacking to Lose Weight

Most of us have been told for years to snack or to eat every couple of hours.

There may be certain medical conditions that require this but for most of us—we don’t need to eat every two hours.

Research suggests that the snacking habit can double the amount of calories we take in each day! This one change makes a huge difference and makes everything else much easier.

In fact, if you eat enough of the right kinds of foods at your meals, you won’t need to snack at all. You won’t even get hungry between meals.

You know what makes you hungry between meals? Snacking on foods that raise your insulin and create additional cravings. Eating around the clock keeps your blood sugar elevated all the time meaning with your body’s access to ready energy it never needs to touch your fat stores.

You know what used to leave me hungry? Eating cereal or oatmeal for breakfast.

Now that I eat eggs, vegetables, some grains and beans, and healthy fats, I don’t get hungry for hours! We’ve been conditioned that we need to eat “breakfast” foods in the morning.

You can eat whatever you want in the morning. Have some ground turkey seasoned like sausage if you want that breakfast taste. Or just eat leftovers from dinner the night before.

You can even just skip breakfast and have a longer fast.

The key is to eat real food in sufficient quantities with sufficient fat that you won’t get hungry.

Eat more Fat

Eating fat is not what makes you fat.

Yet, people are still loathe to give up the idea that butter, olive oil, and even animal fat is not what is making them fat.

It’s not! And the fact is that by eating more of the right kinds of fat with the right kinds of food, you may even lose weight.

I do want to note that things like cake or your typical fast foods are NOT the kind of fat I’m talking about. Bad fat combined with sugar or foods that act like sugar will not just make you fat, they damage your body.

The fat in your body is not your enemy. It actually is an amazing organ that is essential to your survival.

Good fats are good for your body and actually help your body do what it’s supposed to do. In case you aren’t sure of what good fats are, here are some examples:

• Olive oil (I know you all know that one!)
• Butter or ghee
• Fats from animals that are grass-fed or pastured
• Coconut oil and full-fat coconut milk
• Nuts
• Avocados

Here’s how to eat enough food at a meal to not need to snack. Fix yourself your favorite protein and all the vegetables, especially non-starchy ones that you want.

Have a little bit of starch, say a small sweet potato or some winter squash. Then add a tablespoon or two of butter, olive or coconut oil as well as some avocado. Add enough those healthy fats that it all tastes delicious.

Of course, you want to pay attention to your body. As I’ve gotten older, I can’t eat too much fat, but a tablespoon or two with a meal is fine.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen women eating a big salad with their little bit of dressing on the side, dipping their lettuce gingerly into the dressing. Those women are hungry about a minute after they finish eating.

But add some chicken or eggs to your salad, along with a couple of tablespoons or so of good oil, and it will not only taste good it will keep you satiated until you are ready to eat again.

Cheese and dairy also have fat. Some people cannot tolerate dairy and if you are eating a wide variety of vegetables and protein, you aren’t missing out nutritionally if you can’t eat it. If you like it, it’s fine to have some with your meals.

Cook at Home

I recently heard that cooking at home is better for your health than any other change you can make.

From my own experience, I know that the more of the food I eat, that I prepare myself, the easier it is to maintain a healthy weight.

When I prepare my own meals, I know exactly what I am eating.

I know my ingredients. I control what goes into my meals. I know that I am eating the best protein I can find and afford as well as eating good-for-me fats.

When you eat out, you will usually eat more food and more of the kinds of food that cause you to gain weight.

Plus, I don’t know about you, but when I go out, my good intentions just disappear.

It’s much easier to be satisfied with wholesome food, when I’m at home. However, eating out can be fun and doesn’t have to be avoided.

Tip: I eat out twice a week, and I order what I want. However, I quit eating when I’m full. This is a great way to maintain your weight.

Use Intermittent Fasting or Time Restricted Eating

I saved the best for last. Using fasting and the timing of meals to support weight loss is super helpful. Despite the fancy name, this simply means having a period of time between your last meal of one day until the first meal of the next day.

Fasting is generally known to be safe and people have used fasting forever. At one time, fasting was a way of life since food wasn’t always available.

Fasting can be especially helpful if you have stubborn fat or insulin resistance. For this post, I’m concentrating on intermittent fasting which is using the period of time between your last meal of one day until your first meal of the next day to allow your body to use up all the glucose in your blood and begin tapping into your fat.

I wrote about How to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting that includes more information and some cautions.

For me, I don’t eat after dinner and I wait until I feel hungry before I eat the next day. I like to have at least 13 hours between these meals.Most of my clients do eat breakfast. However, they don’t eat after dinner, so they get a good fast.

If you love breakfast, you can eat your dinner earlier to create the time period that works for you. You get to decide if you want to eat two or three meals each day.

Depending on your job and lifestyle this can be super easy, or it can be challenging. I first discovered the power of this several years ago and wrote about it in Can You Lose Weight After 50?

I discovered on my own, through my own experience that when I was living alone, I tended to eat an early dinner and not eat until mid-morning. The weight seemed to just melt away.

Yet, it’s more than just my opinion. I’m seeing lots of articles and research about intermittent fasting these days.

Most things I’ve read recommend 12 to 19 hours between your dinner of one day and your breakfast the next day.

It’s easier than it sounds. Let’s say you eat at six tonight, then tomorrow you wait to have breakfast at eight. That is very doable! You can have an easy 14-hour fast and not give up a meal.

Some articles I’ve read say that doing just this one thing can help you lose a few pounds without even changing your diet at all.

My two favorite books on fasting:

The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung: This is the book that really got me interested in fasting and I did my own thing for 10 years, which worked until it didn’t as well.

Fast, Feast, Repeat by Gin Stephens: Gin’s work on fasting is more than just her opinion. She’s dug deep into the research and offers a plan (and lots of tweaks) on how to use intermittent fasting as the foundation for improving your health. Weight loss is just a bonus.

Do These Weight Loss Tips Work?

In addition to this blog, I work with real clients. These tips work. Every single woman I work with is able to stop unwanted eating, create better eating habits, and lose weight too.

Losing weight is challenging. But when you have an effective mindset in place–it is so much more doable! 

If you are reading this, right now, I’m thinking of YOU. I know how desperate many of you are. Nothing you’ve tried in the past is working and you feel like you have tried everything at this point.

I hear you!

The reason women decide to work with me is that I am a real woman. I am! And I have a lot of experience working with mindset and emotions and I understand a lot about how our bodies work.

Losing weight is more than just about taking in fewer calories or monitoring your intake of carbs. It is so important to take care of the whole YOU!

I 100% believe that the only way we can take care of ourselves is by learning what is best with our own bodies. Dieting is not a solution on it’s own. Miracle drugs have horrible side effects and I believe will endanger your overall health. Do your research!

To read my more up-to-date tips, go read this post too. It has an expanded version of the tips and they are organized to walk you through the process.

10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

I wrote this post 6 years ago. In that time, I’ve maintained my weight loss and I’ve gone on to be a life coach for women. After hundreds of hours of working with real women, women who:

• are in menopause
• have tried every diet in the book
• who never had weight problems until their fifties
• who have battled up and down weight for years
• who have been stuck for years
• who can’t lose no matter what they try
• who have thyroid problems

What I know now is that these tips do work. My clients who lose weight, usually incorporate several of these habits over the course of our work together.

Every woman I work with is unique and needs their own blueprint for weight loss, but in general these tips are the foundation and can be very helpful.

For example, it can take four to six months for the body to respond and there is a lot of mental work that goes into healing your relationship with food and your body. This is important to know!

But many women also start losing weight immediately when they start using these tips.

In most weight loss plans, most women give up within a few days or weeks if they don’t see the scales move. It takes time and consistency to change your body.

But the women who are successful focus on the following things first:

• Eating enough at meals, which often includes eating more
• Not snacking at night or between meals
• Limiting sugar, foods with sugar, and processed foods
• Eating based on hunger and fullness

I’ve begun to believe you have to convince your body to lose weight by building trust with it. You have to first NOURISH your body.

Without the love and trust in your appetite, food, hunger, and your body–these tips are just another diet and nobody needs that!

Your mindset, compassion for yourself, and patience will always be essential.

Here’s the thing. Most research states that only 5% of people that lose weight will keep it off. The diet industry is the biggest scam out there. If any other business had the same results we would never go for it.

Yet, almost every woman I know or have known, longs for a body that she doesn’t have. Diets promise you can have it if only you had enough willpower and discipline. Crash diets promise you can do it in a few weeks.

It’s all bullshit. Sorry but it is. Diets in general have a known failure rate of 95% because the weight is gained back once the diet is over. 

Instead, let’s focus on healthy eating habits, positive behavior changes, regular physical activity, and tending to our emotions. 

This will lead to 10 X the benefits of dieting alone!

Can You Lose Weight Without a Diet?

I write about weight loss as honestly as I know. I absolutely know you can lose weight without going on a traditional diet.

And you can eat a wide variety of foods. You can eat food you like every single day. In fact, I encourage you to only eat food you like.

I work every day with women who are in pain about their bodies and weight. I am able to help women change destructive eating habits and begin building healthy habits by first helping them build healthy thinking habits.

Being a bigger size is not unhealthy if you eat in a healthy way. Starving yourself, binging, and other destructive eating habits are much worse for your health.

Who Are These Tips to Lose Weight For?

I first wrote this post about four years ago. I still do these things as part of my daily life. However, I know that WHAT we do is only part of the equation. The thoughts and feelings that we have about ourselves are also powerful.

As a life coach I know that you can know all the things and not be able to do it. I also know that many women secretly overeat or binge and that just trying to change what you eat will not help.

You may feel like food controls you. You might feel like you can never stop over-eating or binging. Learning to have a better relationship with food is the first step.

If you are currently over-eating and/or binging, then I would start with the mindset posts I mention and link to at the bottom of the post.

Another diet will not be in your best interest.

If you feel like you don’t overeat and you still can’t lose weight, then some of these ideas may be helpful as they have been with me. They aren’t intended to be medical advice or the only way to lose weight.

This grandmother is 60 now and loving it. I feel better about my weight and body than I ever did when I was younger.

Don’t Follow Old Advice About Losing Weight

Most of the advice out there tells you to create a “calorie deficit” to lose weight. Strictly speaking, this is not always true.

The types of food you eat and your timing DO matter for many of us. After age 50, we can’t depend on our old diet tactics of starving ourselves or working out extra hard.

And restricting food is the worst way to try and lose weight. Restricting only perpetuates the cycle of overeating/binging and then restricting.

Restricted calories and eating are what lead to binging and overeating. I recently wrote a post about how to lose weight without dieting that goes into more detail about that.

That old tired advice, that is often just regurgitated over and over is USELESS. You do not need to diet or count calories. You don’t need one other person telling you to create a calorie deficit!

I get it. These types of articles promise a quick fix–but they are not sustainable and they don’t address the whole you.

The you, that by birth is actually allowed to EAT food that you enjoy and in amounts that satisfy you.

I am a certified life and weight loss coach and I’ve been writing for midlife women for years. If there is one area where women consistently beat themselves up about–it’s their body and the food they eat.

I’m not going to add to that! You are already doing enough of that. I want you to delve deeper and really discover how beautiful you can look and feel. From the inside out!

I am 60 and I’m more comfortable in my body than I was in my thirties. Back in my thirties, I wouldn’t even put on a bathing suit! Now I can enjoy pool time with my kids and grandkids.

You don’t have to be skinny, diet, or deprive yourself to look and feel better.

Focusing on eating foods that are actually good for you makes all the difference. Some of the benefits of eating to nourish your body are that you skin looks better and your body feels better.

But here’s something else. You can eat foods that YOU like and enjoy and still lose weight. My clients plan for treats that they love and they have said bye-bye to any guilt.

I just wrote a post about 7 Diet Myths you don’t need to believe anymore.

This is really important. Making peace with food is the first and most important step.

Going on a diet without resolving your relationship with your body, the food you eat, and how you eat is just going to lead to more frustration! 

If you only diet without changing your brain around food, weight, and your body–you will not be able to maintain the weight loss.

I’ve been using these tips since I was 53 to maintain my weight and to look the best I ever have.

Here is a recent comment from a reader who used these tips with success! 

“I am 65 and have followed your guidelines of cutting sugar, walking daily and eating healthy for several months. I have dropped 25 lbs and feel better than I had in years. It’s a mindset and worth every minute of my life to feel this good.”

Another reader wrote:

I can tell you now that I follow its rules, and I haven't gained any weight. Thanks! In one year, since I discovered you and read your articles, I managed to lose an excess of 11 kg. And I keep trying. 

Way to go!

What You Need to Know About Weight Loss After 50

I wrote this post and all the posts on losing weight after 50, to help you discover a better way to not just lose weight but to regain your health and vitality in this part of your life!

We all grew up with the low calorie, low-fat, suffer to do it, diet mentality. That way never was effective and research now shows it is detrimental to health too.

We weren’t meant to starve ourselves, deprive ourselves, punish ourselves, or go hungry.

Eating is one of our most basic needs and is meant to nourish us, give us energy, and make us feel good.

When was the last time, you truly felt good about food?

My goal is to show you that you can eat real food, enjoy that food, and be a weight that you feel good at.

I also want you to enjoy the life you have right now. There isn’t another amazing life later–it MUST start right now!Picture of Sara sitting outside. 7 easy tips to lose weight after 50

What Losing Weight After 50 Isn’t About

Losing weight isn’t going to solve your problems or make your life wonderful. But the process of losing weight can teach you a lot!

Being comfortable in your body is way more than your size. Diets don’t work–because even if you lose weight, you still have to deal with everything else in your life.

I’ve been at a size I like for five years–and I still have to love the reasons that I eat like I do! Since it is not a diet, there is no “end.” 

Losing weight after 50 isn’t about hating your body. You may not even really need to lose weight. However, what we all need is more love for our amazing bodies, no matter what our size is.

Even though pretty much everything you read says you need to lose weight to be healthy, that is not true. Being healthy is based on many things and in many cases, your weight simply IS NOT one of them.

Getting thin with deprivation is not healthy.

Also, our bodies are much more than just a size or weight. Our true health and vitality comes from eating the best foods for our needs, in the right quantities, and at the right time.

These tips will give you some ideas about what you can do.

Your body may work a little different than mine and that’s fine. Keep in mind that this isn’t a diet and it never is going to end. The plan is to find something that you can do forever.

These will help you understand how your body can find a weight that feels good and will help minimize the psychological cravings too. I recommend that you try these and not worry about losing weight at first.

This is your time to learn to love your body and learn to truly feed it, maybe for the first time in your life.

Why These Tips to Lose Weight After 50 Work

These weight loss tips are based on science and research. Losing weight after 50 can be a challenge and it is not because you are lazy, unmotivated, or even that you eat too much.

Many women are confused about what to do but they know they need to being doing something.

The other day, I saw on social media, a guy, who was about 30, telling everyone what they need to do to lose weight. In my mind, I called BS.

Anytime someone tells you, that WHAT you eat doesn’t matter, they really don’t understand how our bodies work and what is best for us long-term.

And what works for a 30-something male, is probably not what you need!

As a certified weight loss and life coach for women over 50, I help women use their MIND to get the results they want.

Your Body Has Its Own Needs

Anytime someone says some version of the message, “Eat less and exercise more,” they also don’t understand how POWERFUL our brains are and how powerful our fat is.

Body fat has a mind of its own and it is way more powerful and stubborn than people give it credit for. Body fat is not bad either. Our body fat is an essential part of our body!

Anyway, what works for a 30-year old dude, is not necessarily the advice you want to follow!

And as you’ve probably figured out, what worked for 30-year old you, probably doesn’t work now either.

When clients come to work with me, they already are trying to eat healthy and look good. The problem is that the traditional methods and advice do not work for them anymore. 

In addition, we’ve been taught that it is almost impossible to lose weight after 50 because of changes to our hormones and aging in general.

But I want to give you HOPE that it is possible and that YOU can become the best version of yourself.

As a companion post to this, How to Succeed at Weight Loss After 50 can give you more help and information.

One thing about eating this way, is that you will begin to look better. All my clients lose that worried, stressed look along the way.

Even before you lose weight, people will see it in your face and start asking what you are doing. Your skin and face will love eating like this!

It is NOT impossible to lose weight after 50 and it really is up to you to understand why what you’ve been doing doesn’t work and what you can do instead.

Is it Harder to Lose Weight After 50?

In some ways, yes BUT not because it is harder. You already know that what worked 20 years ago does not work now. 

Every time you eat, your food affects your body in more ways than simply going through your digestive system and providing nutrition.

The food you eat, affects many different hormones. The master hormone is insulin, and it is responsible for fat storage and for regulating the hormones that tell you that you are hungry and when you are full.

Over time, your body simply cannot effectively handle the high amount of sugar-like foods (bread, pasta, grains, sugar) you eat and the around the clock eating most people do.

Your hormone insulin is the master hormone. When we overeat processed foods and foods high in sugar, our insulin does its best to clear the excess sugar out of our blood.

However, when we overeat these types of food, our insulin can’t keep up. That’s when you see weight gain, insulin resistance, and food-related diseases such as diabetes type II.

In fact, research shows that it is sugar and foods that act like sugar (refined carbohydrates) are the foods that cause weight gain and related diseases!

At that point, it may feel like everything you eat is turning into fat–even though you may not even be overeating. But dietary fat itself is not the problem.

Even a piece of bread or cookie a day can affect your weight.

These effects can be difficult to reverse. That’s why it can seem more difficult to lose weight after 50.

What happens is that the hormones that deal with your hunger, how you store and use fat, and how your body handles blood sugar all go haywire.

Your hormones quit working the way they were designed to work.

You eat more than you need. You don’t feel full even after you’ve eaten plenty. You feel hungry too soon and too often. Your body stores fat like crazy.

Does any of that sound familiar?

In addition, diet culture promotes weight loss at any cost. That cost is usually being hungry, not enough food, and not enough nutrients. When women are “successful” with these diets, they often may become thinner but actually look worse.

You’ve also been sold a lot of fat-producing ideas. The grocery store is filled with food that is designed to override your body’s natural signals and that is making you gain weight like crazy.

Why We Get Fat

We get fat, when we eat when we aren’t hungry, when we eat too much, and when we eat too often over a long period of time. 

It’s not because we are bad people! Our bodies and brains are a little haywire around food.

One of the things I’ve observed is that women will wait to find the right diet, or something that will work quick. So instead of even stopping the weight gain, women will gain gradually year after year. 

While cycling between depriving ourselves and overeating, we also mess up our metabolism which makes losing weight even more difficult.

Fat storage on our body is way more complex than we’ve been led to believe. I believe that taking care of our bodies is a life-long endeavor. Sure you can have weight loss goals, but just as important is the prevention of gaining more weight.

Is it too late to lose weight after 50?

These tips aren’t that difficult, but they may challenge your thinking. I used to think I couldn’t lose weight after 40! I was so wrong. Losing weight in my fifties changed my life.

Since then, I have grown so much more confident and my life has expanded in amazing ways. I used to think my best years were behind me. Again, I was SO wrong!Picture of Sara in the park. 7 powerful tips to lose weight after 50

I’ve written over 40 posts on how to lose weight after 50! I’m excited to share a new page, where I’ve pulled my favorite posts and put them into an order that you can use to get started. Check out my GUIDE TO LOSING WEIGHT AFTER 50.

If you have given up, thinking you have seen your best days in the past, that will not help you a bit.

At 60, I really feel my best and I definitely look my best. I don’t look back at me at any age and think I looked better.

Okay, that might not be true for all of you. But still—I love that I can be over 50 and think it’s my best time ever.

The key to that sentence is that I think it’s my best time ever—I feel I look my best right now at this age.

I don’t have any assessment to tell me that. However, because how I feel about myself is reflected in my energy, in my eyes, in my attitude—other people seem to think so too!

And the other good news is that you don’t have to try and match any artificial expectations. You don’t have to be skinny.

You just need to be a weight and size that you feel good at. I don’t feel comfortable in a bikini, or really ANY bathing suit. But I can find lots of other clothing that makes me feel great.

If you feel overweight, even losing a size or two can boost your confidence.

If you want, pop over to my new 10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

Easy Tips to Lose Weight After 50

Being a healthy weight really should not be hard. But in today’s world of fast food, convenience foods, and such, it really can be a challenge to make positive behavior changes. 

I encourage you to explore these ideas, experiment with them, and experience how you feel while doing them.

Pick one or two to do consistently for a few weeks. Then add another. Learn to really take care of your body for the rest of your life!

These tips are easy but weight can be hard to budge sometimes. Yet, it is possible and you’ll have to experiment to find the right combination for your own body.

Have Fun After 50!

Being over 50 doesn’t mean you can’t look great and have a fun life. I have two at-home businesses and I am an active grandmother.

Not only that but I have biked 143 miles through Vermont, hiked beautiful mountains, visited state parks, and roamed through NY wine region.

Recently (Oct 2020) I went to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming all by myself. It was a dream I’ve had for a while.

I hiked 14 miles over 3 days and got to see the most amazing views.

Now that I know what I’m capable of, I can’t wait to do more adventures!

Get More Help to Lose Weight After 50

Sign up for my email list. If you see the pop-up to get a video, that also puts you on an email list. I write helpful up-to-date content for women every week. My readers tell me how inspiring and motivational it is and that it continually gives them hope.

Get one-on-one coaching with me. I’ve been where you are and I know how hard learning to not over eat can be. I’m a certified life and weight loss coach and I am interested in the whole person–not just the number of pounds you weigh.

I have so many favorite posts you can explore for more ideas!

10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight

How to Convince Your Body to Lose Weight

How to Stop Gaining Weight