The best way to avoid yearly weight gain is to make a lifestyle change. Usually, that means eating healthier food consumed in strategic amounts – while also increasing physical activity levels. You don’t need to see a personal trainer in person, either. Several coaches have created weight loss blogs to help guide mature people on their fat loss journey.
Here, I share three weight loss blogs that you might find particularly helpful. I’ve also included an exercise video designed specifically for fat loss.
Weight Loss Journey and What to Expect As Your Body Changes
Are you considering starting a weight loss journey of your own?
Familiarizing yourself with obstacles you might face on your weight loss journey can help prevent you from becoming discouraged or derailed from achieving your target body weight.
Here are weight loss tips that make an actual difference during your journey.
Positivity and How to Adopt an Adventurous Attitude about Your Weight Loss Journey
It’s unquestionably beneficial to approach a new nutritional plan or exercise goal with a light-hearted attitude of adventure.
People come in all shapes and sizes, and physical diversity helps make life interesting and meaningful. You’ll likely have more success moving from fat to trim if you have an empowered perspective:
- You’re not trying to shame yourself into conforming to society’s ideals of the perfect physique.
- Instead, you are emboldening yourself. You are seeking to master the destiny of your own health.
Everyone wants to look better naked – that’s a natural part of human psychology. It feels congruous and satisfying to look as strong on the outside as you feel on the inside.
However, you’ll be accomplishing more than just a youthful appearance. You’ll also be extending the healthy years of your lifespan.
I encourage you to approach body composition with a positive outlook.
Be Realistic about your Start Point
I suggest you resist the influence of our current culture when it comes to nutrition and movement. What’s normal isn’t normal.
Readers of this website come from all over the globe.
Have a look at average body compositions by country:
- In the US, almost 40% of adults are obese. Approximately 72% of adults are overweight.
- In the UK, 28% of adults are obese. Approximately 65% of adults are overweight.
- In Canada, 28% of adults are obese. Approximately 65% of adults are overweight.
- In Australia, 32% of adults are obese. Approximately 67% of adults are overweight.
- Body fat is also increasing in India, Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the Philippines.
What to Expect As Your Fat Cells Empty
When younger people lose weight, they tend to lose it more evenly than older people. If you happen to be over the age of 50, you’ll likely notice that, at first, the fat shrinks unevenly:
- Feet have fat cells, too, and as fat cells shrink from the padding on the bottoms of your feet, you might experience temporary discomfort. Eventually, the body adapts, and comfort is restored.
- Fat deposits along the waist, arms, and thighs often develop a watery texture during the cutting phase. This also doesn’t last. Eventually, the cells empty, and the tissue becomes firm again.
- You might be left with extra skin if you lose significant weight. Again, younger people have an easier time metabolizing this extra tissue (especially when they eat enough healthy fats and avoid excess carbs and inflammatory foods). After 50, extra skin is harder to remedy – but you’ll still look fantastic in clothes at your new, trim weight.
Medical professionals do not all agree on what body compositions are considered overweight or obese. Generally, however, the criteria for people in middle age and post-middle age seem to fall within these ranges:
- For men: the percentage of body fat greater than 22% is overweight, and over 27% is clinically obese.
- For women: the percentage of body fat greater than 33% is overweight, and over 40% is clinically obese.
If you’re a man over 50, your ideal weight – the weight that most increases the odds of you having a long and healthy lifespan – will vary based on bone structure, your unique metabolism, and genetics. Even so, it’s likely that your ideal body composition percentage will be somewhere around 14%.
If you’re a woman over 50, your healthiest number might be in the neighborhood of 24%.
It has been proven that most people think they’re healthier than they are. Having worked with clients for decades, I can also tell you anecdotally that most people need to lose more body fat and reduce more inflammation than they realize.
How to NOT Lose Weight
My least favorite way to lose weight is what I call “The Skinny-Fat Diet.” It’s kind of popular, even though most people gain back what they lost (and often gain even more).
You restrict calories, eat low protein, and do mostly cardio (and almost no weight training). This weight loss method is not my favorite because it doesn’t significantly raise your resting metabolic rate (the number of calories you burn while at rest).
Instead, I suggest you lose weight the following way (ask your doctor first) so that you can keep the weight off while getting healthier in the process:
3 Valuable Tips for Your Weight Loss Journey
Knowing what to expect as you transition to an anti-inflammatory lifestyle can be helpful. There are particular strategies that many have found useful during their weight loss journey.
1. Meal Prep
When people get hungry and haven’t planned their day’s nutrition carefully ahead of time, they tend to make impulsive decisions with food.
Meal prep is when you make meals ahead of time for the next several days. Maybe it’s lunches. Maybe it’s dinners. Maybe it’s both. In my case, I make 3 to 4 days of greens smoothies at once, then seal and refrigerate them.
You’ll probably need to be more organized in your weekly grocery shopping process to succeed at weight loss. You’ll need to make lists, and you’ll need to meal prep once or twice a week – or use a meal prep delivery service.
2. Develop New Associations
Almost all of us associate certain activities with certain foods. For example, watching television at night while having ice cream. Or having popcorn and soda at the movie theater. To succeed at changing your body composition permanently, you’ll probably need to develop new associations with these activities. Or choose entirely new activities (at least until you reach your target weight).
When I worked in a traditional office environment, two or three times a month, everyone would gather in the breakroom to congratulate a coworker at the start of the lunch hour. I would join in to sing “Happy Birthday” with everyone else, then stand around and chat while holding a bottle of water. Eventually, people noticed I never ate the cake, and it became a running joke. But that’s fine. My new association became birthdays = hydration.
3. Stop Underreporting (Track Accurately)
In studies, researchers have established that, when tracking calories, almost everyone underreports their intake – even professional dieticians!
Your new, trim physique is waiting for you underneath subcutaneous and visceral fat layers. Still, to get at it, you’ll need to be meticulous about counting your caloric intake accurately. Once you’ve achieved your target weight, many of your new habits will be automatic, and you might be able to enjoy a diet cheat day now and then.
Weight Loss Blog: Flex Success
Flex Success is a weight loss blog run by Dean and Lizzy, an Australian couple who help people develop healthy eating plans.
Though they don’t specialize in seniors, per se, they serve a broad range of age groups, including those who happen to be over 50.
Dean focuses on strength training competitors, and Lizzy focuses on nutrition, calorie intake, and eating habits. They also have a talented team of coaches who work under them.
The decision to assign a coach to a particular client is based on that client’s unique needs. Their blog is provided in audio format – an entertaining podcast that provides useful tips. Give it a listen.
Weight Loss Blog: Faz Lifts
Faz runs his site, Faz Lifts, from the UK and helps clients lose that extra weight without experiencing the muscle loss that can sometimes occur with dieting.
Though he doesn’t necessarily specialize in clients over the age of 50, Faz does represent clients in all age groups, including those who happen to be in midlife or beyond.
Like Dean and Lizzy from Flex Success, Faz has a fun, no-nonsense communication style that seeks to dispel weight loss myths and keep dieting as simple as possible. Faz provides blog content in video format. Give it a look.
Weight Loss Blog: Over Fifty and Fit
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention this blog. The purpose of Over Fifty and Fit is to entertain people over 50 while inspiring them to make the occasional, incremental, small change in their food intake and exercise program.
Though most people already believe they are living a healthy lifestyle, this blog seeks to motivate people to keep improving and achieve exciting new goals along their weight loss journey.
Over Fifty and Fit serves another purpose: to help people prepare for the Silver and Strong course. Generally, I don’t like people to purchase the course until they’ve had two specific realizations:
- The first realization is that your health is your most important priority.
Everything you deeply enjoy in life is made possible by your health. Even if your main priority is to care for your loved ones, you still require good mental and physical health to be present for those you love.
- The second realization is that inflammation accelerates aging. The most impactful thing you can do to improve your health is to start consuming an advanced-level anti-inflammatory diet.
So, this weight loss blog over 50 is also intended to facilitate those two fundamental realizations.
How to Track Progress Along Your Weight Loss Journey
My favorite way to accurately track fat loss is with a measuring tape.
It’s easy. Put the tape around the widest part of your abdomen (love handles) at navel level, and take two measurements:
- One measurement is your abdomen when sucking your gut in as much as possible.
- The other measurement is your abdomen when your muscles are fully relaxed.
These numbers will not lie and will tell you accurately how your weight loss journey is going.
I don’t like using scales because water loss (or water retention) messes with the number. Also, gaining muscle will make it seem like you’ve lost less fat than you actually have. Muscle is highly beneficial (and much harder to create) than most people realize. Muscle burns calories even while you are at rest.
Jumpstart Your Weight Loss Journey with Higher-Intensity Resistance Training
Sometimes a person’s metabolism plateaus.
Does it seem like your metabolism has stopped responding to your nutrition and exercise interventions?
If so, you might find that higher-intensity resistance training can help your body start to burn fat cells for energy again.
The T2 Iso-Trainer
Suppose you are interested in improving sports performance and are an intermediate to advanced-level athlete. In that case, you might find the T2 Iso-Trainer helpful for using higher-intensity resistance training exercises to burn more calories while strengthening muscle tissue.
The T2 Iso-Trainer is an exercise accessory that can add dimension to your workouts, combining isometrics, suspension, body weight, and elastic resistance training. (If you are a beginner at suspension training, I recommend a TRX or Lifeline Jungle Gym XT). In the video above, I demonstrate some exercises that can be done on a T2 Iso-Trainer.
List of Exercises
- Reclining, Alternating Rows with Spinal Rotation (keep pelvis centered to avoid over-arching)
- Chest Press
- Face Pulls
- Alternating Punches with a Spinal Rotation
- Rows
- Sundial (lean forward and engage core muscles while sweeping the arms)
- Biceps Curls (keep knees bent and activate the glutes)
- Spinal Rotations with “T” Arms
- Alternating Lat Pullovers
- Alternating Tricep Extensions
- Lunge with Knee Lift
- Alternating Bicep Curls (with a strap under feet)
- Alternating Upright Rows
The Shadow Side of Your Weight Loss Journey
Society is peculiar:
- The more trim you are, the more visible you become.
- The more fat you carry, the more invisible you become.
If 20 people are in the grocery store, almost everyone’s eyes will linger longer on the fit person.
Someone who is obese might be noticed briefly, then quickly disregarded on an unconscious level.
This is unfair, but it is true.
I mention this to prepare you for the possibility that you will garner more attention as you become healthier and trimmer. This might make you uncomfortable because it can be a vulnerable sensation. But if you know this might happen ahead of time, it helps make the experience less jarring.
Beginning a weight loss journey can be challenging, but it can also provide so many significant rewards that the entire experience is ultimately worthwhile.
- Do you happen to be overweight at this moment?
- Do you want to be even healthier than you are right now?
- Do you want to improve your physical appearance?
Silver and Strong: The Complete Guide to Getting Fit After 50 is a step-by-step coursebook that helps you adopt an advanced-level anti-inflammatory diet to look better, feel better, and significantly improve your overall fitness and health.
As we get older, our bodies change. We have to deal with a slower metabolism and hormonal changes that can cause us to gain weight.
The good news is that there are diet and lifestyle changes you can make today that help you get lean and strong – and reduce the risk of accelerated aging.
This digital coursebook offers a step-by-step guide for getting fit after 50 using the latest anti-inflammatory diet strategies from emerging nutrition and exercise physiology science.
Improving mental clarity is one thing that gets better in younger and older people when they lose excess fat from adopting an anti-inflammatory diet. The benefits of this are not to be underestimated. As inflammation lessens, so does brain fog. The ability to self-motivate, sustain focus, and achieve goals is increased.
Additional Sources:
Clinical Definitions of Obesity – https://www.medscape.com/answers/123702-11456/what-is-the-definition-of-obesity-based-on-body-fat-percentage
How Much Body Fat Should You Carry? – https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/how-to-calculate-your-ideal-body-fat-percentage
Undue Health Risks of the Obese – https://www.medicinenet.com/obese/definition.htm
T2 Iso-Trainer Advantages – https://www.t2isotrainer.com/isokinetic-primer