Weight loss diets for "senior men"?

[FrenchieBoy]

Have any of the more "senior" men on here ever tried to loose weight through dieting and if so how did they do it?
I desperately want/need to loose some weight. I am over 70, 5' 6'' tall and weigh nearly 15 stone with a weight of nearly 15 stone and am about 42 inches round the waist. I tried exercising with a mountain bike by riding about 5 - 7.5 miles per day each evening but my heart monitor showed that my heart was going up to crazy levels and the doctor strongly advised me to stop. It seems that I am caught in a catch 22 situation where if I try to use exercise to loose weight it plays about with my heart rate far too much but if I don't loose weight I am contributing to the strain on my heart.
I should add that I am waiting for minor heart surgery (Possibly another stent or two and according to the consultant possibly a pacemaker) but I realise that it will not be the entire be all and end all to my problems so with that in mind I am thinking that I ought to maybe try some sort of a diet. At the moment I eat quite healthily but now have smaller portions than I used to but that is not helping me to loose any weight.
I have read about these "cabbage soup diets" but I am not sure on them as I do like a bit of meat with my main meals. (No intention of becoming a Veggie or ending up farting that much that i could cure the natural gas situation anyhow)
Would any of you guys like to suggest some sort of diet that is not too expensive, is reasonably tasty to eat and will help to loose a few pounds please?

 

[Shabz]

Stay away from fad diets. They do you no good. You should not deny yourself anything. You’ll only want it more. Weigh yourself regularly and count calories/fat/sugar. I believe there are pretty good NHS apps that read labels for you and offer a healthier alternative.

 

[Hornet 6]

From late 2019 to date, dropped from 18 ½ stone to 11 stone in feb this year.
Eating less is all I did, no change to diet, just a lot less of it.

Neil.

 

[dartmoordog]

Slimming World mate, you won’t lose much weight just by exercise. I am not that far behind you age wise, so have to watch what I eat and drink, the one thing that will keep you fat is alcohol…….Unfortunately!

But you do NEED to lose weight, Type 2 is a reality. Good luck.

 

[Stringer]

Look into low a carb lifestyle. Loads on youtube. Eat less move more (unless you are doing huge amounts of exercise) just doesnt work long term.

 

[I. Farticus]

WeightWatchers app is fantastic. I lost a couple of stone using that. Get one of the recipe books as well, and you'll not be hungry. The app scans most food barcodes and gives you a number count against your daily allocation. Exercise, and you build up additional points/beer vouchers!

 

[Apthorpe]

Porridge (only) for breakfast is a good start. Soup and a roll for supper. Proper lunch. No snacks. Ditch alcohol completely, or limit to one glass or a half-pint. Really stringent diets are not sustainable.
It sounds like the challenge is to get the metabolism going and a bit of fitness without upsetting your heart. If you can get a bit more regular activity, it should start the weight shifting.

Maybe try your exercise in the mornings. Do you swim?
Cycling is excellent. Was the heart trouble caused by cycling uphill, or even on the flat? Of you can do it on the flat at a very sedate speed, but just gently edge up the distance, that would help.
The difficulty with getting older is that one tends to try to do exercise like you used to when younger. Any form of mobility outdoors all helps.
A slightly brisker walking speed should help. A couple of miles walk early every morning?
Possibly even turning the heating down a degree or two might help.
Whatever it is, pick something pleasant which you will feel better for doing. Good luck.

 

[dartmoordog]

From late 2019 to date, dropped from 18 ½ stone to 11 stone in feb this year.
Eating less is all I did, no change to diet, just a lot less of it.

Neil.

Yes, it is all about what you shove in your mouth. Simple as that.

 

[Woodsmoke]

Cut right down on carbs! I did this a few years ago and the weight practically fell off me! Granted, it was aligned to more exercise too, but it worked. I used to roast a heap of vegetables over the weekend (shallots, tomatoes, courgette, mushrooms, etc) with rosemary and garlic. That gave me enough to do meals throughout the week if you added a pork chop, chicken breast, steak, or what have you. Lunchtime was soup, and I didn't bother with breakfast (never really have)

 

[FrenchieBoy]

Porridge (only) for breakfast is a good start. Soup and a roll for supper. Proper lunch. No snacks. Ditch alcohol completely, or limit to one glass or a half-pint. Really stringent diets are not sustainable.
It sounds like the challenge is to get the metabolism going and a bit of fitness without upsetting your heart. If you can get a bit more regular activity, it should start the weight shifting.

Maybe try your exercise in the mornings. Do you swim?
Cycling is excellent. Was the heart trouble caused by cycling uphill, or even on the flat? Of you can do it on the flat at a very sedate speed, but just gently edge up the distance, that would help.
The difficulty with getting older is that one tends to try to do exercise like you used to when younger. Any form of mobility outdoors all helps.
A slightly brisker walking speed should help. A couple of miles walk early every morning?
Possibly even turning the heating down a degree or two might help.
Whatever it is, pick something pleasant which you will feel better for doing. Good luck.

In answer to your question about the cycling - It was on flat ground! I used to put the bike in the back of the car and drive to Hollingworth Lake each evening where I could cycle round the perimeter which is near enough perfectly flat and offers a distance of 2.5 miles for each lap on even hard standing footpaths. Each 2.5 mile lap would take me around 15 minutes so not pushing myself too hard. What was happening was that after one lap my heart rate was up to over 100 or so BPM but after that it would rise to over 150 and leave me feeling quite "distressed" which is why the doctor told me to stop.
I had one of the 24 hour heart monitors fitted a while ago and my heart fluctuated from 66 BPM up to 155 BPM - The only exercise as such that I did on that day was a steady game of Crown Green Bowls with the wife which is quite slow and doesn't involve using ant real energy as such. And there lies the "Catch 22" situation, even the simplest or exercise like walking our dog for about 200 yards sends my heart rate up over 130 BPM.
I am not worried about the minor heart surgery but I do realise that without loosing some weight I am fighting a loosing battle and doing myself no favours.

 

[Mike_E]

Won't class myself as elderly and It's a bit old school now but the 5 and 2 seems to work well for me. I can't "be good" all the time so 5 days of being relatively normal and 2 days of focus works well. 1sf few weeks of it are a bit rough but once your body adapts it's easy. Parents in law are over 70 and they both shifted multiple stones of weight and found it no bother.

Cuts down on hunger pangs on the other 5 days too.

Only other tip is cut out sugar and sweet stuff as far as possible... Again hard to do at the start but feel so much better in the long run. Stable blood sugar rather than highs and dips.

You have already conquered the most difficult bit though... Accepting you need to do something about it so that is a fantastic start

 

[plonker]

Ive been using a free app called carb manager so i can choose and track my calories.
Its surprising over the years that you think you have been "good" for a month and hardly shift anything because its the wrong food.
If you eat lean meats/fish coupled with plenty of vegetable/salads and fruit and keep a track of your calories then at 15 stone you will loose weight pretty quick.
Choose healthy carbs from potatoes/sweet potatoes and veg and ditch the bread/pasta and rice for a while, not only will it help with weight but also your heart and blood sugar.

 

[long_range_rob]

Cut out sugar completely. Cut out or at least right down on starchy carbohydrates. That’s where all the weight comes from.

 

[VSS]

Low carb is the way to go. Cut out potatoes completely. Rice and pasta reduced to absolutely bare minimum (maybe just one spoonful with a meal). Bread limited to just a couple of slices of brown per day. No cakes or biscuits.
Eat loads of meat, dairy (but watch the fat), eggs, green veg, salad and fruit.
Use a carb / calorie counter app and log each meal. I was sceptical about that, thought it just a trendy thing, but it really does help.
Plenty of exercise - walking is good.
My missus has adopted all of the above guidelines and lost 25kg in a pretty short time. She's now slimmer and fitter than she's ever been.

 

[The Singing Stalker]

As has already been said. eat less. I now it sounds easy to say but, you will be surprised by how little food you need. I certainly was. Cut out the crap and snacks, only eat when you are hungry, if you get to lunch and you eat but don’t actually feel hungry, then you had too much at breakfast.
as an example I now eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast then about 12 or 1 pm I have a sandwich, usually 1 slice of rye bread with something on it (what can I say, I like rye bread) then have a meal at 5 or 6 pm.
it did take my body a while to adjust to this but now it works fine. And drink more water, they say 2 litres a day, I could never manage that, aim for about 3/4 to a litre.

Instead of cycling would a brisk walk help? 35 to 40 minutes a day. The first 10 minutes don’t count because you are getting the heart rate up, once it is up then starts to burn the calories. If you have some sort of heart rate monitor then you can slow down if the rate goes up To much.
if exercise isn’t an option then, honestly, if you weight is stable you need to remove the amount of stuff going in your mouth. I think diet is a bad word, because once you finish, you then go back to what you were eating before, it really has to be seen as a life style change.

 

[opticron1]

Speaking with a Cardiology slant on this....... In view of your very irregular heart rate (on least exercise) a little caution may be advised with regards "strenuous" exercise. The fact that the medic's are contemplating a pacemaker/ICD as well as further stents should be a teeny weeny bit of a warning against overdoing it!
As has been said above, eat less, move more is the key, but the move more in your case may not be a great idea until post surgery (and hopefully cardiac rehab). Try and cut down on processed foods, increase the fruit and veg intake and reduce the quantities - small tasty meals, don't punish yourself..... knock off the sugary stuff as well.
Sadly by the time any of us reach this sort of age/situation it's very hard to return to the svelte and healthy bodies we had as youngsters (ahem!), it's an awful lot more challenging to lose weight if your exercise tolerance is restricted by arthritis/joint replacements/back problems/cardiac problems or any other variety of issues. Hopefully you'll get a wee bit of support from the rehab/physio team.

 

[Ooops]

@FrenchieBoy
exercise alone isn't a solution to weight loss, its important but not the total solution

Track your daily intake in terms of grams & calories of protein, fat & carbohydrate so that you can see what you're consuming
At the same time track your weight (same day/time each week)

When you've established your current baseline reduce your carb intake & continue to track your intake cals & weight

My ball park & unqualified suggestion.....
don't worry about your fat intake other than for tracking its cals
ignore veggie carbs as you need to eat a field of them to have a significant impact
cut back on your daily carbs by a small amount, perhaps 30-50g a day - pasta, rice, potato
slightly raise your protein intake (we need more when we're older because we don't process it as well as before)

Then further manipulate your carb intake in small 10g increments until you can see you're loosing weight at a slow sensible rate
You can realistically and safely expect to loose up to a max of 500g a week and not feel like you're missing out on anything

IMHO you should base this off what you normally eat so that you don't have cravings and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised
Allow two weeks for the first change then you should see weekly improvements

exercise of any type & however gentle will help drive the process (keep within the confines of your doctors advice)

cut back on the booze, eat healthy natural foods rather than processed.
Don't worry if you have the odd day off each week, it'll probably help you suceed.
Remember its a marathon & not a sprint

All I can say is it works for me. Good luck

 

[Hunter 53]

Slimming World works l lost 3 1/2 stones in less than a year and have kept it off. To make it easy and eat well you need to cook, the Hairy Bikers diet recipes are good and easy to do.

 

[Apthorpe]

In answer to your question about the cycling - It was on flat ground! I used to put the bike in the back of the car and drive to Hollingworth Lake each evening where I could cycle round the perimeter which is near enough perfectly flat and offers a distance of 2.5 miles for each lap on even hard standing footpaths. What was happening was that after one lap my heart rate was up to over 100 or so BPM but after that it would rise to aver 150 and leave me feeling quite "distressed" which is why the doctor told me to stop.
I had one of the 24 hour heart monitors fitted a while ago and my heart fluctuated from 66 BPM up to 155 BPM - The only exercise as such that I did on that day was a steady game of Crown Green Bowls with the wife which is quite slow and doesn't involve using ant real energy as such. And there lies the "Catch 22" situation, even the simplest or exercise like walking our dog for about 200 yards sends my heart rate up over 130 BPM.
I am not worried about the minor heart surgery but I do realise that without loosing some weight I am fighting a loosing battle and doing myself no favours.

I’m not as old, but had got terribly unfit and am sorting it out too. The first stage is the most dispiriting, and of course the hardest, because you are heaviest and least able to exercise. Stick with it!

At least you have the heart rate monitor to help you, which is great because you know what you can do safely.
Try to set a target to (as frequently as possible, but at least every hour) walk gently however far you can get until your heart rate reaches 115. Stop. Repeat frequently. If you can walk even 70 yards every hour between 8 and 8, then you’ve walked half a mile, which is much better than one walk of a few hundred yards. Soon it will be 80, 90, 100, 120 yds etc, and you‘ll be back up to walking a mile or two or more a day. But don’t try to force the increase, just do what works for you and let it happen naturally.
Failing that, make sure you don’t stay seated constantly for long periods - even if it’s getting up to make tea.
If you can think of exercise and movement as your main priority each day, you’ll soon notice a difference. And if you don’t, spring’s coming and it will be lovely to be outdoors even if gasping.



For the diet, can you work out how much you can ditch?
Can you bear to (for 6 months) do the following? :
1. Throw away the biscuit tin, no crisps or nuts?
2. Go without alcohol more than once a week, and keep that to a pint?
3. Eat no more than two slices of bread / a little potato per meal. No chips?
4. Eat meat only once a day? Avoid sausages, bacon and processed meat for small steaks/venison or chicken? Actually a good tip is to have game for as much meat as you can. It’s leaner and more filling. For stews and stuff, use half or two thirds as much meat as usual and replace the rest with beans, barley or, green lentils and otherwise the same recipe.
5. No ready meals?
6. Eat twice as much fruit and veg. Spring greens and kale are good choices. Not offensive tasting, quite filling and you don’t fart like a buffalo after.

 

[timbrayford]

Have any of the more "senior" men on here ever tried to loose weight through dieting and if so how did they do it?
I desperately want/need to loose some weight. I am over 70, 5' 6'' tall and weigh nearly 15 stone with a weight of nearly 15 stone and am about 42 inches round the waist. I tried exercising with a mountain bike by riding about 5 - 7.5 miles per day each evening but my heart monitor showed that my heart was going up to crazy levels and the doctor strongly advised me to stop. It seems that I am caught in a catch 22 situation where if I try to use exercise to loose weight it plays about with my heart rate far too much but if I don't loose weight I am contributing to the strain on my heart.
I should add that I am waiting for minor heart surgery (Possibly another stent or two and according to the consultant possibly a pacemaker) but I realise that it will not be the entire be all and end all to my problems so with that in mind I am thinking that I ought to maybe try some sort of a diet. At the moment I eat quite healthily but now have smaller portions than I used to but that is not helping me to loose any weight.
I have read about these "cabbage soup diets" but I am not sure on them as I do like a bit of meat with my main meals. (No intention of becoming a Veggie or ending up farting that much that i could cure the natural gas situation anyhow)
Would any of you guys like to suggest some sort of diet that is not too expensive, is reasonably tasty to eat and will help to loose a few pounds please?

This is what helped me to lose around 1 1/2 stone over around 6 weeks:-
1. No alcohol
2. No crisps, spuds, or bread
3. No breakfast or lunch
Avoid carbohydrates if possible but don't cut back on fats on meat etc., no need for boring diets based on steamed skinned chicken breasts either unless you're thinking of ending it all!
You will have to get used to feeling hungry, its just your body's way of telling you that you are losing weight, take as much exercise as your are comfortable with but eating is the key as it is a very simple matter of calories in vs calories out.
So how do you cope with the inevitable hunger pangs? Its quite simple, although its a myth that celery takes more energy to digest than its food value in practice its a very good way of avoiding energy rich foods, just keep a bunch to hand, several in fact to get you through the day.
Hope this helps!