How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind

If you’ve found yourself gaining weight even while doing everything right, you’re not alone. I’m with you and the struggle is real. Here’s how to lose weight without losing your mind.

For women over 50, the old rules just don’t work anymore. Diets feel like punishment, and quick fixes often backfire.

But what if there’s another way? A way that honors your body, helps you feel great in your skin, and doesn’t involve deprivation or lifelong medication?

In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly how I lost weight without losing my mindand how you can too.

10 years ago, I found myself in a smaller body and suddenly feeling cute. At 53, I went from feeling frumpy to being able to wear shorts, dresses and even a bathing suit.

And I had done it without dieting!

I began writing about it and researching more to understand how it had happened. The short answer was I was intermittent fasting and eating light at night.

Those two things combined with my already healthy eating allowed me to lose a couple of sizes and maintain it for 10 years.

A New Type of Fat

Then about six months ago, I gained a little weight. Less than 10 pounds. I wasn’t really concerned at first because I knew I had been eating more bread and sweets over the holidays.

Usually just cutting those foods out would allow my body to lose the extra weight.

Not this time.

The other thing about this weight was that I had a belly that I could not suck in. I had never experienced that before.

In April 2025 I began my journey to understand my body better. I was committed to not going on a diet

I did a lot of reading and explored all the ways in which women get to a point where they can’t lose weight.

I’m not an overeater and I still gained weight and couldn’t lose it. Does that sound familiar?

But I was determined that I would. As summer approached, I bought a few things in bigger sizes that looked cute. I loved the two pairs of shorts I bought that I later bought two more pairs in the next smaller size, which I eventually did switch to.

Spoiler alert, it took about six months for my weight to budge, even doing all the right things. However, almost immediately I was able to stop the gain. This is an incredibly significant step.

This is important to know. So many times, when something we are doing doesn’t result in immediate results we want to give up. But not gaining is actually a great result and a signal that you are heading in the right direction.

But if you give up too early, then what happens can be a cycle of deprivation and gaining even more weight.

Here is what I want you to know. Even if you aren’t losing weight like you want, it is still so important to take care of your overall health.

In my reading on different autoimmune situations, the solutions are always the same.

• Reduce inflammatory foods
• Eat better quality food
• Move your body
• Reduce stress

It’s almost like you can’t go wrong by eating in a supportive and nourishing way.

That all being said, I’m not a doctor. But I also know so many women are frustrated when they are told they need to lose weight and their doctor says the equivalent of eat less and exercise more.

Ladies, that is almost worthless advice and rarely works after 50. We’re already eating less and we are so tired of being told we are eating too much.

So, this post contains the things that I always do to maintain and the things that finally got my weight moving. 

Who I Wrote This Post For

If you feel like you know why you’ve gained weight because of overeating, bad eating habits, or too much snacking, go check out my foundation post about what to do. It’s very detailed and will walk you through all the steps and create the groundwork to lose weight.

10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

This post is going to go beyond that and give you some ideas to try if you are already:

• Eating enough at meals and not snacking
• Minimizing processed foods and carbs
• Exercising and moving daily

If you feel like you are doing all the “right” things but it’s not working, this is for YOU!

The Most Important Mindset Adjustment

If you’ve read the post I recommended above, you’ll know that the most important step is to step the intention to lose weight and to keep at it.

So, I did that. And I want to add here in case you aren’t familiar with my work, I absolutely reject dieting, counting calories, calorie deficits, and arbitrary portions.

I want to feel great in my body; not deprived.

Now to be honest, I really got discouraged in this process at the beginning. There were days that I thought it might not work, but I knew with my whole heart that I still did not want to diet or take any medicine.

So, I started with my foundational process and stuck with that. In addition, I changed my workouts, refined a couple of steps, and really really paid attention to my hunger.

Then one day, I was able to wear a size smaller shorts. When I got on the scale, I had lost about five pounds. Once those two things happened, I knew it was working.

But it took five months to get to that point! You need a strong resilient mindset to make that happen.

However, in addition to losing weight, I improved my nutrition, got stronger, and created even more trust in my body.

Look, I know that no one wants to do it the slow way. We want guaranteed results and we want them as fast as possible.

What About GLP-1?

These days, more and more women are being encouraged by doctors, the media, and even friends to consider medications like GLP-1s for weight loss.

If you’ve felt the pressure or have been wondering if this is the only way forward, I want you to know this:

You still get to trust yourself.

There are many women who don’t feel called to take medication because they want to explore what’s possible for their bodies through nourishment, intention, and support.

If that’s you, you are in the right place.

For me, my intention is to live in a healthy body for as long as I can. I’m not just living for today; I am also creating my future body, the body that will be as strong at 80 as it is now.

The bottom line is this. You need to eat and move your body in a way that you can sustain forever. You don’t ever have to be perfect, just consistent.

Let’s dive in!

The Undieted Method: Eat Like You Love Your Body

Let’s start with your mindset and your belief in yourself. For way too long, we have been taught to NOT trust our bodies. For those of us that struggle with weight, we’ve been taught to punish ourselves by dieting.

For the past 10 years, I have been writing about how to eat instead of dieting.

One of the problems is that we have been sold diets for decades. But after decades of trying to manage our weight and health with diets; we are sicker and heavier than ever.

This seems so obvious to me now but for years I was just like everyone else, just trying to find the right way to deprive myself.

Fortunately I was never very good at depriving myself! So, I found workarounds. For example, low carb and intermittent fasting have been very helpful for me. I can eat in a way that feels sustainable and manageable without being uncomfortably hungry.

My work with other women over 50 enlightened my work. I discovered that women in general tend to restrict at meals and overeat by snacking or binging.

Here’s something to think about. The problem IS NOT YOU. The problem is a system that just DOES NOT WORK.

You have probably been on several diets over your life. Some probably worked for a time and when they quit working, you blamed it on yourself.

However, that is a thought-error. Most women are really trying to do it right but what we’re told is the “right way” is always changing.

But what works and has always worked really hasn’t changed.

Once upon a time, food was scarce enough that people couldn’t really overeat like they can now. Our struggle was to get enough food.

Now food is plentiful and the most plentiful of all is food that isn’t really food but is designed to make us crave it more and overeat past our hunger.

Growing up, we ate three meals a day and didn’t snack. We had dessert sometimes and candy was an occasional treat.

It’s not fancy, but if you did only that, you would be in better shape than you probably are now.

Instead, many women try to arbitrarily eat less at meals or smaller portions. They end up hungry and feeling deprived. That can lead to overeating and binging between meals or at night.

This often results in weight gain that feels out-of-control.

How to Eat Like You Love Your Body

For way too long, most of us eat like we hate our bodies and sadly many of you do hate your body. So, we’re going to start this process with a new foundation of loving your body.

No matter what shape you are in, your body deserves love, respect, and compassion.

You deserve to eat foods you like and you deserve to feel satisfied.

You deserve to not be afraid to eat and you deserve not to obsess about everything you eat.

Here’s the deal. You’re going to eat meals of foods you like and you’re going to eat enough that you feel comfortable and satisfied.

You are going to learn to trust yourself, trust your appetite, and trust your body.

What Causes Weight Gain or Weight Loss

Our weight is largely managed by hormones and insulin is the one in charge.

When your body is working well, you’re not constantly gaining or losing weight. Your body uses energy from two sources: the food you’ve recently eaten and your stored body fat.

It switches between the two as needed.

When you are gaining weight, your body is relying too much on the quick energy from food, especially if you are eating a lot of carbohydrates, too often.

When that happens, your body doesn’t need to tap into fat stores.

In fact, it may be storing even more fat because there’s more energy than it can use. Over time, your body may keep storing fat even when you’re eating normally.

When you aren’t constantly flooding your system with quick-burning energy, your body can shift into using stored fat for fuel.

This doesn’t always happen overnight—it can take time to switch from fat-storing mode to fat-burning mode and I’ll go into more detail on how to do that.

Here’s the important thing to know. Instead of thinking about calories and portions, you are going to focus on keeping your blood sugar lower and giving your body time to use up ready energy and access your fat storage.

How to Go From Fat Storing to Maintaining

Step one is to stop gaining weight. I love this as a first goal because it’s relatively easy to do and gives you a win that lets you know you are making a difference with your body.

The long explanation of how to do this is to in my post about how to lose weight after 50.

In short, you eat all your food in two or three meals. You wait to eat until you are hungry. If you start eating when you are hungry, you will know when you are full.

You will give your body enough food to feel satisfied and you will give your body sufficient breaks in eating so that you can tap into your stored fat.

If you begin eating your food in meals and paying attention to your hunger, you will most likely stop gaining weight.

When your weight is steady, you can begin tweaking your meals and the timing of them to become fat-adapted, meaning your body uses your fat for energy.

Eat Your Meals

Most women snack so often, they never get a chance to get to know their own hunger and satiety in a way that helps them manage their weight.

Hunger is actually a really cool part of your system. Most of you are used to hunger that feels bad. This occurs when you don’t eat enough at meals and you feel so hungry a couple of hours later.

When you eat enough at meals, your body has enough energy to feel comfortable for hours. Your hunger will come on gradually letting you know to start planning for your next meal, that you will eat once you are actually hungry.

This kind of hunger feels good. I’ve had clients say that it’s kind of exciting when hunger comes on like this. It does not feel bad at all.

This kind of hunger signals that your body is ready to handle some more food. You won’t overeat because your body will let you know when you’ve had enough.

That hunger is an opportunity for your body to release fat for energy. So, by eating your food at meals, you give your body time to process the food you eat and ideally time to use more fat for energy.

If you are going to have a treat; I recommend eating it with your meal instead of on its own. You’ll eat less of it.

Eat Fewer Carbs

We all need carbohydrates; they are a macro nutrient, meaning they are essential.

However, these days many women eat way too many carbohydrates, too often, and the kind that are not nutritional.

It is well-researched and well-known that carbohydrates are the real fattening food rather than fat. Fat is neutral, in that is does not cause us to gain weight. We think it does because it is often combined with sugar and flour and that IS fattening.

When you are trying to help your body tap into your own fat, you will need to limit your carbohydrates, especially the kind that comes from flour (breads, pasta, cake, cookies, etc.)

You do not need to eliminate all carbs! The general rule is to eat as many low carb foods as you want. I also like to include one higher carb food with at least one meal a day.

This can be a potato, a small serving of rice, some beans or lentils, or some kind of whole grain if you can tolerate it. This really helps with satisfaction, energy, and satiety without driving up your blood sugar too much.

There isn’t one right answer for every woman. This is why I recommend writing down what you eat in a journal. This allows you to see what works and what isn’t working.

Eat Enough Fat and Oils

One of the things that can help is to make sure you get enough fat in your food. When you are switching from eating lots of processed carbs to a diet based on protein and veggies, you will need to eat more fat.

Remember, fat doesn’t cause you to gain weight. It makes food taste better and helps you feel full. Fat is also a macronutrient and is essential to your body.

I also believe it is so good for our skin! Too many carbs and sugar can wreck your skin. However fat is helpful to better looking skin.

My favorite types of fat are butter, olive oil, and avocado oil. These are the types I use the most. I typically use some for cooking my food and I also use some to dress my food with either a sauce or dressing or maybe just some straight oil drizzled on my food.

When I was at my thinnest, I ate a lot of fat. These days I just don’t have the same taste for it and I weigh more. So, I am going to try and be more intentional about adding some fat to my meals.

Have an Eating Window

One of the things that I started doing was paying attention to the timing of when I eat.

You may have heard of intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.

This means you don’t eat between meals and you give yourself one longer fast every day.

This is much easier than it sounds. Remember, we don’t eat while we sleep, so you already have a daily fast.

Then extend it by not eating after dinner and not eating right away in the morning. My sweet spot is about 14 – 15 hours between my last meal of the day and my first meal of the next day.

If you are eating in the way I recommend above this will be no big deal.

Many people like to have breakfast first thing. If you wake up hungry, honor that. You can get your fast in by finishing dinner early enough to give you a good fast.

Also, you may not need 14 hours or so. Your body may be happy with an easy 12-hour fast. As you practice this way of eating, you’ll get to know what feels best for you.

Another thing you can do is do a 24-hour fast once a week. For me the easiest way to do this is eat dinner and not eat until dinner the next day.

When I do that, I will drink some bone broth. It doesn’t really break the fast and it feels much gentler.

Can It Be This Simple?

Okay, you may have read that and not thought that it was simple at all. However, when you really get into it, you will realize that it is the simplest way ever.

You don’t have to count calories or measure portions. You don’t have to plan snacks or carry them with you all the time.

Hunger isn’t a problem; it’s a pleasure and a signal that your body is getting ready for food again.

You eat less food but you will be getting more nutrients.

You’ll enjoy eating more because you’ll be eating food you enjoy without guilt or worry.

My clients always report that they feel better, have more energy, and joint pain goes away.

Oh, and my clients always look better and more relaxed. You can see the results of this way of eating in their faces.

The best result is that you will feel comfortable and relaxed with food. You’ll eat without guilt. You’ll begin to trust food and your body.

And when you don’t have to worry about food, you can concentrate on other things. Life will feel more exciting and joyful.

Yes, it is this simple and it makes this much of a difference!