Contrary to popular opinion, senior weight loss is no longer a painful impossibility. According to the latest research, as long as you follow a low carbohydrate, moderate protein, and high fat dietary plan, you will lose weight, control your appetite, and reduce risk for chronic disease and premature death.
The reason I’m excited about these guidelines is because what works for weight loss also works for longevity and disease prevention. And, unlike the old low-fat, high carbohydrate diets, these high-fat, low-carb meals are delicious and satisfying.
Did I mention they work? Like many seniors, I had a spare tire I’d carried with me for the last 10-15 years. Once I discovered low-carb eating, it rolled off my middle never to return. My own example is nothing compared the weight loss that thousands of seriously overweight and obese people are experiencing.
The Importance of Senior Weight Loss
No one wants to be fat—everyone wants to be slim. But with seniors, it’s even more crucial to lose weight because being overweight is dangerous. It leads to premature death, chronic heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Every time we are told to lose weight, we get frustrated and discouraged. So many of us have restricted calories and followed strict diets to no avail. We’ve starved ourselves, avoided fats, consumed “whole grains,” eaten protein bars and “health food” that tastes like cardboard. And we’ve drank so-called slimming fruit smoothies loaded with sugar. We’ve jogged, worked-out in smelly gyms and sweated in Spandex.
All that effort for little results. Eventually, many seniors accept that gaining weight with every passing year is just a normal part of aging. But that’s not true. Many seniors are changing what and how they eat, losing weight, and feeling great as well.
Stop Eating Carbs and Low Fat Food
For fifty years we’ve been told that eating a low-fat diet and burning more calories were the keys to losing weight and getting healthy. Guess what? This dogma has failed. Everything we were told about weight loss is being proved false: Here are some lies that didn’t deliver weight loss:
- Calories in, calories out: it’s a numbers game
- Eat less, move more
- Reduce all dietary fat
- Use vegetable oils
- Avoid saturated fats
- Eat whole grains and cereals
If you followed such guidelines and didn’t lose weight, you’re not alone.
Everybody Is Getting Fat
For eons, our body’s appetite and weight control systems functioned well. They even worked well up through the 70s, when food was abundant like it is today. What has happened since?
A majority of US citizens are overweight and more than a third fall into the obese category. Even children are being swept into rising obesity and diabetes rates. Worse, so many chronic diseases are on the rise.
2020: Out with Low-Fat, In with Low-Carbs
The sad truth is that many professionals continue to stress low-fat diets, even though decades of this recommendation has led to gaining weight. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat. Fat is an essential macronutrient necessary for healthy metabolism, cellular functioning, and especially good for our brain and neurons.
Eating more fat will be more satisfying and curb your appetite instead of fueling it like carbs do.
Carbohydrates (wheat, grains, rice) are processed into flour and made into bread, pasta, cereals and all sorts of packaged foods. Unfortunately, these modified foods are known to trigger reward centers in the brain. We want more instead of being satisfied. Most carbs are addictive. To enhance flavors in low-fat foods, manufacturers often add sugar, which adds to their addictive nature.
Natural carbohydrates found in vegetables and fruit aren’t “refined” and don’t have this potentially addictive characteristic. Refined carbohydrates, however, have a double dietary whammy because they are manufactured with vegetable oils processed at high heat. This makes them unhealthy even when they come from vegetables sources like corn, soy, safflower and other food. Healthy fats are those cold-processed from olives, coconuts and other sources.
Carbs + Oils + Sugar = Frankenfoods
Just about all packaged food is high in processed carbohydrates and refined oils and to make them even more palatable, food companies add sugar.
If you’re one of the millions of people told by your doctor to lose weight, it would be futile to try to do so by continuing to eat refined wheat and grains, even if the label tells you it’s “whole wheat.”
Our bodies don’t do well with manufactured food. Even “gluten-free” products use substances (corn starch) that are unhealthy to make up for the lack of gluten. Switch to real food without a list of chemical ingredients you can’t pronounce. Fresh fruit and vegetables, healthy sources of protein, and natural fats from meat or plants are needed for your body to stay functioning and disease-free.
Prepare for Senior Weight Loss
Do your research online and read the most recent books about low-carb eating. It doesn’t really matter which diet you decide to follow—as long as you are smart about reducing your carbohydrate intake and increasing fat consumption.
Along with reducing unhealthy processed foods (bread, pasta, cereals, junk snacks) try using olive oil for cooking and salads. Increase your healthy fat intake as much as you can by eating avocados, full-fat cheese, and other full fat diary (butter, cream) if you wish.
In my first attempt to eat high-fat, I found it awkward since I’d been following low-fat directions for over 30 years. To my surprise, I found it satisfying and delicious. Without counting calories or trying to restrict the amount of food I was eating, I lost weight immediately.
I ended up losing my “last stubborn 10 pounds” I had been struggling with for over a decade. It has stayed off for three years now. I’ve stopped counting calories and enjoy meals much more. The only time I have to watch what I eat is when bread and carbs sneak onto my plate.
(And sweets, which have a way of finding their way to my mouth like thumb tacks to a magnet. This is especially true from Halloween until Christmas.) But I now have a way to eat that is reliable and healthy and my body has become accustomed to finding its way back to my new normal weight.
Wishing you health and happiness in your journeys.
Recent Comments