I am looking for an elders group for males or males and females. Weight loss and add muscle.
I would like to benefit from the experiences of elderly members. I am 78 and want help in losing weight and adding muscle. I am muscular but need to lose 55 pounds. I like intermittent fasting and a mixed diet. I also want to talk about exercises for balance, walking, etc. Let me know if you want to share ideas or recommend an existing group.
Comments
I'm not sure if 54 is 'elderly' but I guess I'm getting upwards into that range :-)
I've been working on weight loss for years, off and on. Most recently I've been working to lose weight for a bit over 10 weeks in my current streak. Here's a few things that have been working for me:
The number 1 change I've made this time is that my doctor has gotten me onto Mounjaro (It's like Ozempic, only better.) Fortunately my weight plus pre-diabetes qualifies me for Insurance coverage. This has been a total game changer for me, as it very handily suppresses the appetite and eliminates food cravings. I've been able to skip breakfast (16:8 intermittent fasting) and maintain a 12-1600 calorie diet without much difficulty due to this wonder medicine!
Walking! It sounds to good to be true, but nothing else has a big-a-bang for the buck as just walking a few minutes each day. I get up 30 minutes earlier than my usual time and just head out to the parking lot. As a bonus, I live in a condo perched on a hillside. My 30 minute 'walk' is very flexible (I can do it all in my building lot, which is level, or extend to traverse the complex and add up and down hill segments.) I usually try to get in a hill climb component at least 3-4 days a week, which gives me a really great workout. in 30-40 minutes I can get 3500 steps, 15-20 flights of stairs, 12-15 minutes of cardio and 4-5 HIIT reps all in one exercise!
Strength training. Personally, from pervious experience I know that once I have lost any substantial amount of weight my metabolism begins to tank, making it almost impossible to continue losing weight. My doctor recommended strength training to counteract this effect. building muscle (which burns more energy than fat) theoretically counteracts the reduction in BMR rate as you lose fat. so far this seems to be helping me. I picked up some cheap resistance bands and a floor mat and try to get 2-3 days of workouts in per week. I'd recommend Caliber as a good strength training app with great support for body weight and resistance band exercises
My last go-to is our Pool here at the condo. you can get a good strength workout in the pool just by swinging your arms and legs vigorously, with much lower stress and strain on your body that full blown bodyweight exercises. I have an 84 year old neighbor who does his total fitness routine in the pool. He's had 4 complete sets of knee replacements previously, and this lets him get a good workout in without wearing out another set... :-)
The Caliber app recently recommended to me to include 'mobility' exercises, like 'shoulder displacements' and 'resting squats' The squats in particular are hard for me, and I find it much easier to do them in the water.