Have You Lost Hope You Can Lose Weight After 50?

Have you lost hope you can lose weight after 50? I know I had by the time I turned 50. But I was wrong and now I want to give you hope that you can lose weight after 50!

I had been overweight for years and I just didn’t believe it was possible to lose weight after turning 50.

But that changed for me, when I lost 25 pounds when I was 52. In the eight years since, I’ve maintained my weight and size.

March 2023 Update: This morning I weighed myself and I weighed exactly the weight I was when I lost my original weight eight years ago. I’m 60 and just about to turn 61.

In the three years since I wrote this, I’ve been a life coach and have worked with other women and also understand that the “how-to” is fairly easy. It’s the putting it into action that can be difficult.

To help with that, most of my more recent posts are on the mindset behind losing weight.

You Really Can Lose Weight After 50

At 60, I am not scared of my scale, gaining weight, or looking in the mirror!

As a weight loss and life coach for women over 50, I’m at expert at helping you use your MIND to get the results you want in your body and in your life!

Recently, I was talking to a weight loss client and she said something to me that mimicked something that I had told myself when I was in my early 50’s.

“I wish that I had appreciated my body more in my 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Because I was smaller then and I didn’t know that it was the best I was going to be.”

That was exactly how I felt at age 50! I thought my thin years were way behind me. I even had proof!

I had been overweight for 10 years and oh, how I wished that I was the size I was when I was 20 or even 30.

The funny thing is, that I never felt thin at those ages either.

It truly took for me to get to 52, to be proud of my body and comfortable in my own skin most of the time.

Here’s what I want to give you today. I want to give you some hope. If you have given up hope that you can lose weight after 50, I want to tell you that it is possible.

When I first wrote about losing weight, I knew that I had but I didn’t know if other women could. After three years of being a life and weight loss coach, I know that other women can too.

I work with women from their 40’s through their 60’s. I understand much more about weight loss for women and what does work.

For most of you reading, you can lose weight after 50. I know, there are some of you that have medical conditions or something that make it difficult.

However, I’ll be all of you could improve your nutrition. Right?

And all of you probably want to FEEL better and have more energy. That is always doable!

Here’s the thing. If you are overweight, there’s a reason.

It’s not that you are lazy, lack willpower, or that something is wrong with you.

You might not even be an over-eater.

Please read the next paragraph carefully.

If you are overweight, there is an imbalance between what you are eating, when you are eating, and how your body is able to use that food for fuel.

Something about the way you eat, is creating the conditions for your body to store the extra energy from food as fat on your body.

This is key.

I’m 60 and I’ve maintained my weight loss for eight years now. During that time though, I’ve had periods where I have gained weight.

I didn’t gain weight because I was overeating per se, I gained because I was eating too much of the foods that cause me, Sara, to gain weight.

So, periodically, I have to really pay attention to my food and how it’s affecting my body. For the most part though, I’m on autopilot with my eating. I know what works for my body and I stick to that.

The beauty of not dieting and creating your own eating plan is that you do what works best for your body, your schedule, and your life.

So, my friends, don’t give up hope yet!

What Should You Eat After 50?

After 50, the main focus of your diet (diet in the sense of the food you eat) should be nutrition and natural support of your eating/digestion hormones.

This means that every bite counts!

As I said, you can gain weight even if you aren’t overeating. Eating too many foods that raise your insulin or eating them too often can cause weight gain.

So, it can feel really discouraging, that even though you aren’t eating a lot of food, you are still gaining weight. I hear you!

Even the thought of cutting out food seems crazy since you might not even be eating all that much.

The key is that you have to really concentrate on your nutrition.

If bread, pasta, rice, oatmeal and those kinds of things play a big part in what you eat, you may have to adjust that.

Those types of food taste good and are satisfying but they provide virtually zero nutrition and they can skyrocket your insulin.

You can safely reduce them in your diet.

Trust me—there is life after pasta!

So, where do you get your nutrition?

From high-quality proteins, vegetables, fruit, and high-quality fats. For extras some grains, beans, nuts, dairy, and treats.

At first, this might seem like a very limited diet. It’s really not. When you really look at all your options and all the ways you can combine them, you have millions of meals at your fingertips.

These foods provide the most nutrients for your body and in general do not provide any of the damaging effects that processed food create.

Old-Fashioned Diet Advice is Dangerous

If you are over 50 like me, you have gone through adulthood hearing these types of things:

• All calories are created equal.
• You need to count calories.
• Eat less, exercise more.
• Cut out fat. Eat less fat.
• Low calorie foods are best.
• Fat-free is healthier.

None of these things are true.

Each of these sentences have been debunked. Much of the diet advice and guidelines in the past is wrong.

Research is clear that what causes us to gain weight is too much sugar in our blood, which causes our insulin to go up, and excess sugar is stored as FAT as a result.

This is the part you need to know. Fat does not make you fat.

You store fat, when you have too much sugar in your blood, too much of the time. When your body can’t use all of it for energy after a meal, the excess is stored as fat.

Over time, your body loses the ability to do the job it was designed to do. You feel hungry when you aren’t. You don’t feel full when you’ve eaten enough. You store fat, like it’s your freakin job.

Why There is Hope You Can Lose Weight After 50

There truly is hope you can lose weight after 50 because we have good information coming out that tells us what our body is doing with the food we eat.

Before, you thought eating foods with fat, was making you fat.

Sure, foods like pizza, popcorn with butter, biscuits and gravy will indeed cause weight gain for most of us.

But each of these foods are loaded with foods that act like sugar in your body and will raise your insulin and cause fat-storage.

And as far as the fat they have in them, in these cases, it’s usually unhealthy body-damaging fat.

Okay, you can’t lose weight after 50 by just doing what you’ve always done. What worked at 20 or 30, probably is not going to work now.

You’ve got many years of bad eating habits behind you.

But you also have the potential for many more years of great eating ahead of you!

Listen, those foods you think you can’t live without?

They really don’t even make you feel good. Sure, for a few seconds they taste good. Maybe? Maybe not. I’ll bet you feel horrible after you eat some of the crap you eat.

Eating in a way that is good for your body—also feels good. You feel good after you eat.

You feel nourished. You feel just full enough. You truly feel satisfied by your food. And you won’t feel hungry, until it’s time to feel hungry again.

I’m not kidding you.

How to Get Started Losing Weight After 50

I’ve written a lot of posts on losing weight after 50. My passion is debunking diet culture and teaching women that they can eat foods they love and be at a weight that is comfortable for them.

That may sound too good to be true.

But it is true. Our diet industry doesn’t want you to know that. The diet industry wants you to be miserable forever. That’s how they make a huge profit and something that does not work!

I teach women how to eat food like they were meant to eat. Not perfect. Not following someone else’s plan. No, I want you to eat food you enjoy and to only be hungry when your body is telling you it’s time to eat.

To get help losing weight or changing your eating habits, I also offer one-on-one coaching. You have a right to feel great in your body and I can help you learn how. Sign up for a free 50-minute consultation to see if working with me, is right for you.