10 Daily Rituals to Boost Metabolism and Lose Weight Over 50

Losing weight after 50 can be challenging, but it’s certainly not impossible. “Not all people over 50 will experience the same degree of difficulty with weight loss as genes determine 40 to 70 percent of what your weight is at a given time,” Holly Lofton, MD, director of the NYU Langone Medical Weight Management Program in New York City, tells AARP. Here’s how to kickstart an effective over-50 weight loss program in just two weeks.

Lift Weights

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Lifting weights helps burn fat even when you’re not exercising. “Muscle is more metabolically active — it burns more calories than fat,” William Yancy Jr., MD, director of the Duke Lifestyle and Weight Management Center in Durham, North Carolina, tells AARP. “So having a higher ratio of muscle to fat will mean you burn more energy — just while sitting. To build that muscle, you have to exercise, and that burns calories, too.”​

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Be Mindful of Drinking

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Alcohol can be kryptonite to any weight-loss regimen—but lowering intake or abstaining completely can help accelerate weight loss. “Across the board, for people who are trying to lose some weight, cutting out empty calories is a good place to start,” Leslie Heinberg, PhD, tells the Cleveland Clinic. “Oftentimes, beverages are a big source of empty calories — whether it’s soda, juice, sweet tea, beer, wine or cocktails. Any of those things add calories, but really without nutrition and without the sense of feeling full.”

Calories Count

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Calories count, so make an effort to track how much you are consuming. “First, multiply your current weight by 15 — that's roughly the number of calories per pound of body weight needed to maintain your current weight if you are moderately active,” say the experts at Harvard Health. “For example, to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week — a rate that experts consider safe — your food consumption should provide 500 to 1,000 calories less than your total weight-maintenance calories.” Don’t go too far, though: women should eat at least 1,200 calories a day, and men should eat at least 1,500.

Ditch the Sugar

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Want to lose weight quickly? Ditch the added sugars, experts warn. Not all foods containing sugars are the same,” dietitian Victoria Taylor tells the British Heart Foundation. “Fruit or dairy products contain natural sugars but are nutritious foods that contain vitamins, minerals and in some cases fiber. What we need to cut down on are free sugars, which include added sugars, syrups, or juices. It’s recommended that we eat less than 30g (1 oz) of free sugars each day, but most of us are eating more than this.”

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Aerobic Exercise and Active Hobbies

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Getting your heart rate going is a great way to accelerate fat loss. “For most healthy adults, experts recommend moderate aerobic activity,” says the Mayo Clinic. “This includes brisk walking for at least 150 to 200 minutes a week or vigorous aerobic activity, such as jogging, for at least 75 minutes a week. Find time to take care of yourself. Activities that you enjoy doing can help you get exercise. This can include gardening, yoga or other active hobbies.”

💪🔥Body Booster: Cut out empty liquid calories from sugary drinks, alcohol, and juices. Prioritize water and low-calorie beverages for weight loss.

Do you want to lose 10 pounds by the holidays? Jenn Markwardt is a fitness and nutrition coach and founder of Flourish Nutrition, whose goal is “helping you lose 20lbs in a stress-free way. In a recent social media post, she reveals how to drop weight fast by making a few simple tweaks to your routine. “Maybe it’s your energy, maybe it’s an extra 10-20lbs that came out of nowhere, especially around your middle, or maybe it’s exhaustion and brain fog you can’t get rid of,” she writes in the Instagram post. “Here are the three️ things I (and my clients) would avoid if I wanted to drop fat and get my energy back.”

Stop Eating Healthy and Start Eating with Intention

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Her first tip? Stop eating “healthy” and start eating with intention. “Track your food for a week (not forever, and you’ll be amazed at what you learn. It’s not about eating as little as possible; it’s about understanding how to build your pants in a way that leaves you full and satiated and helps your body lose fat without restriction and hunger,” she writes in her post.

Get More Focused with Exercise

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Next, “stop doing random workouts and only relying on cardio,” she says. “Muscle is the key to lighting up your metabolism and helping you actually keep your results! You should be training intentionally in a progressive overload style (building in weights or reps each week) to optimize your results!”

Don’t Do It Alone

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And her third tip is to “stop trying to go it alone,” she says. “Listen, things change as we age, but you are not broken. It’s not impossible to see results, but you have to do things differently than you did in the past, and it’s a heck of a lot easier when you have the support and accountability of coaches and other women just like you.”

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She Also Recommends These 5 Healthy Habits for Weight Loss

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In another post, she reveals that one of her clients dropped a whopping 30 pounds over a period of six months, “and this was someone who has done literally every diet under the sun,” she says in the clip. “Here are the five habits we focused on to optimize her metabolism hormones and get her energy back so fat loss felt easy,” she adds in the post.

Walk 8,000 to 10,000 Steps Per Day

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The first habit is to get your steps in. She recommends “daily movement of 8-10k steps.” Why should you aim for 10,000 steps per day? A 2018 study published in the journal Obesity found a link between walking that amount and weight loss and weight management. Other studies published by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) in JAMA Neurology and in JAMA Internal Medicine also linked walking 10,000 steps a day to less dementia and less cardiovascular disease overall, with less heart disease, less heart failure, and fewer strokes.

Amp Up Your Protein Intake

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Next, amp up your protein intake. “30g of protein at each meal for satiation and preserving and building muscle,” she writes. According to clinical trials, consuming more protein than the recommended dietary allowance not only reduces body weight (BW) but also enhances body composition by decreasing fat mass while preserving fat-free mass (FFM) in both low-calorie and standard-calorie diets.

Also, Increase Fiber Intake

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Also, she recommends amping up your fiber intake. “25g of fiber daily” is her suggestion. Why? “Fiber is key for balancing blood sugar and keeping you full, so you avoid mindless snacking,” she says.

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Strength Train

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In addition to getting your steps in, she recommends doing strength training to build muscle. Specifically, she suggests three 30-minute strength workouts a week “using our Flourish Fitness progressive overload program,” she writes. According to the Mayo Clinic, strength and weight training help reduce body fat, preserve and increase lean muscle mass, and burn calories more efficiently. Strength training may also help you:

• Develop strong bones
• Manage your weight
• Enhance your quality of life
• Manage chronic conditions
• Sharpen your thinking skills

Stress Management

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Lastly, she stresses the importance of mental health. She explains that “stress management and finding and creating the time to prioritize” yourself is fundamental in getting in physical shape.

A Lot of Factors Impact Weight Loss

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“And here’s why this works: your metabolism isn’t just ONE thing. There are a lot of factors, and your daily habits have the biggest impact on your metabolic health and hormones. You don’t have to do these things perfectly, but consistency (even on the weekends) matters for forever results,” she writes at the end of the post. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.