Losing weight becomes more difficult as we age for two solid reasons. First, our metabolism slows down due to a loss of muscle mass, and two, the aches and pains we’ve accumulated make it more difficult to get moving.
Given these two issues, most people over 50 tend to focus on diet in an effort to lose weight. While that is certainly part of the formula, it should not be the sole focus.
How to lose weight after 50
There are three areas to focus on if you want to lose weight after 50.
- Building Muscle
- Increased Daily Movement
- Diet and Nutrition
Let’s do a deep dive into all three of these areas.
Building Muscle
Yes, this is easier said than done. But, if you have never done much strength training, it will be easier for you to build muscle compared to people who have trained regularly for years.
Why? Those people are much closer to their muscle mass potential. Untrained people will gain some strength and muscle after just a couple weeks.
Building muscle should be the primary focus of your efforts to lose weight.
Muscle tissue requires more energy to maintain, and therefore, your fat stores will be used to help maintain the new muscle mass.
Also, just by lifting weights, you are going to burn many more calories compared to just sitting on your ass doing nothing.
Lastly, strength training will help with your mobility, and improve your overall quality of life as you age.
Best Exercises For Building Muscle
The best exercises for building muscle are those that incorporate multiple joints and muscle groups. Exercises such as squats, the deadlift, bench press and overhead press incorporate the most muscle mass.
However, for us older folks, these particular exercises may not be feasible.
I personally have a lower back issue I’ve dealt with for nearly twenty years, and it can get aggravated by squats, deadlifts, and even the overhead barbell press.
With that said, there are plenty of other exercises that you can incorporate into a routine that will get the job done.
For the legs, I like Bulgarian Split Squats, lunges, leg extensions, leg press, leg curls and calf raises.
Instead of doing the overhead barbell press for my shoulders, I do seated dumbbell presses instead. I then round out my shoulder training with front and side lateral raises, and bent over dumbbell flies.
Other exercises I include in my routines include chinups, lat pulldowns, seated rows, a variety of curls and triceps exercises. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget that I also have a routine for the abs as well.
How many sets and reps to build muscle
In order to build muscle tissue, research indicates that you need to train a muscle with 10 to 20 sets per week with moderate to heavy loads.
In general, you will want to do three or four different exercises, 5 or 6 sets of each exercise, and 6 to 12 reps in order to achieve the stimulus needed.
You then need to provide those muscle groups with plenty of rest to allow full recovery, which then allows the muscles to grow.
If that sounds like alot, it is, if you are new to strength training. However, if you consider a two week cycle where you alternate upper body and lower body workouts, you’ll be able to get in the proper set range fairly easily.
In other words, in Week 1, you train the upper body on Monday, lower body on Wednesday and upper body again on Friday. In Week 2, you train the lower body on Monday, the upper body on Wednesday and the lower body again on Friday.
Therefore, you hit each muscle group three times every two weeks and you get plenty of rest in between.
If you are untrained, or haven’t trained in years, you will get good results with this type of routine.
How to lose weight after 50 – Get Moving
One of the common themes among people who live in the Blue Zones around the world, those areas with the highest average longevity, is lots of daily movement.
This has nothing to do with cardio exercise, but is instead a reflection of daily lifestyle. For example, goat herders on the island of Sardinia tend to walk hilly terrain for upwards of five miles per day.
Other people spend a significant amount of time just walking around town accomplishing their daily chores.
One of the benefits to being constantly on the go is that you aren’t sitting down for a meal. This naturally keeps you from over eating throughout the day.
Let’s face it, many people eat because they are bored.
Now, many people simply don’t work at a job that allows them the luxury of being out and about all day long.
Therefore, they are going to need to incorporate cardio exercise into their fitness program.
The most efficient type of cardio exercise for burning fat is known as Zone 2 cardio. Zone 2 cardio is easy to do, but it can be a bit boring.
Brisk walking, or riding on a stationary bike at a steady pace are two examples of Zone 2 cardio exercise. The key is to do at least two or three sessions per week (3 or 4 is ideal) for a minimum of two hours per week.
Diet and Nutrition
And now for many of us, the hard part… diet and nutrition.
If you want to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories than what you are burning on a daily basis.
The problem is, many people focus on diet alone, and eat far fewer calories than they should. The result is that, while they lose some weight, the weight loss comes in the form of both fat loss and muscle loss.
As a result of the loss of muscle, their metabolism slows down. Once they stop counting calories, they regain the weight in the form of body fat, and they are less healthy than when they started.
A better approach is to calculate your BMR and your daily calorie needs. The BMR is the basal metabolic rate, which is the energy you require just to live and breathe.
For most people, their daily calorie needs will be about 1.35 times their BMR.
Let’s say your daily calorie needs are 2,500. Many people will reduce their calories down to 1,000 to 1,500 to lose weight.
That is far too drastic, and these people end up on the diet roller coaster.
A better approach is to combine a proper diet with strength training and increased daily movement. You can then just reduce your calories by about 10% below your daily needs.
This is a much more sustainable approach.
What to eat
In order to successfully build muscle, you need to consume more protein than what you are probably used to. Also, if you are trying to lose weight, you want to eat fewer carbs.
In general, you will want to consume about 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
There are about 2.2 pounds per kilogram. Therefore, if you weigh 200 pounds, you weigh about 91 kilos.
You’ll then want to eat from 109 to 146 grams of protein per day.
Just as an example, a six ounce serving of Atlantic salmon contains about 33-35 grams of protein.
As I mentioned, you’ll need to reduce your carb intake to lose weight. Carbs are the primary source of energy utilized during vigorous exercise.
Therefore, during our strength training sessions, we are primarily using up carbs to fuel our workout.
On the other hand, our Zone 2 cardio workouts will burn more fat.
Some carbs are necessary in order for us to have the energy to train hard during our strength training sessions. We just want to be sure we don’t over do the carbs.
Fats will round out our diet.
To get the most out of your training, you’ll likely need to experiment with your intake of these macros (protein, carbs and fat), and the amount you need to consume of each will change as your body composition changes.
If you struggle to keep your overall calories down, here’s a pro tip… eat a large salad about 30 minutes before dinner, and have a glass of water with that.
The body needs time to digest all the fiber, and you won’t feel the need to load up on starchy carbs to satisfy your hunger at dinner time.
Final thoughts on how to lose weight after 50
By now you may feel that losing weight after 50 is a daunting task.
For people who are not used to training, that is likely the case.
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to focus on the benefits of losing weight, the increased muscle that comes with strength training, and the improved condition of your heart from the increased daily movement.
I personally do all this not to live longer, but in case I happen to live to an advanced age. My goal is to enjoy a decent quality of life as I hit my 80s.
While we don’t have complete control over our health in the long run, there are definitely things we can control.
Our weight is one of those things, and now you have a complete approach for achieving your optimal weight after 50.
