15 Ways to Lose Weight Over 50 Without Feeling Hungry

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.

Losing weight over 50 can be tricky—no one knows that better than menopause health coach Amy VanLiew from Be Healthy Enough. “By age 40, and even as early as 30, your metabolism, hormones, and other body changes start to occur. If you’re doing exactly what you did in your 30s or less, you’ll gain weight because your metabolism is slower,” she says, adding that you lose muscle mass every year. So, does that mean you’re doomed to be unhealthy? Not at all. VanLiew has excellent advice on how to make changes so you lose weight and feel great, all without feeling miserable and deprived. Here are her top tips.

Talk to Your Doctor

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VanLiew says the first thing you need to do when you hit 50 is go and see your doctor and get some data to work with. “She can address your health and any problems that might be affecting your weight, like prediabetes or sleep apnea,” she says. “Ask her to check not just your hormones but your thyroid. Thyroid imbalances can make it impossible to lose weight.”

Find Your Why

VanLiew makes the excellent point that if you don’t know why you’re trying to lose weight, you just won’t be motivated to keep going. You have to know why you will prioritize your health, whether it’s to stay active for your grandchildren or to not feel tired on vacation. Find your why!

Don’t Drink Your Calories

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This is a good one—Van Liew reminds her viewers not to drink their calories. “Sodas, coffee drinks, Gatorade, alcohol… which are all just sugar bombs in the form of a drink,” she says. “When you drink these high-calorie drinks, our bodies don’t feel full physically because we don’t have that fiber and nutrition to fill us up.”

Make Water Fun

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Drinking water doesn’t have to be boring—VanLiew adds lemon or a squeeze of juice to her water. “I also love mint and cucumber,” she says. “Sparkling waters are also a savior for me at night when I want that glass of wine.”

Swap the White Stuff

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VanLiew recommends swapping out ingredients for healthier options. Sugar, white flour, white rice, and white potatoes can cause an insulin spike.

Eat Protein For Breakfast

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VanLiew recommends eating protein for breakfast. “Have you ever noticed that when you eat a breakfast that's got a lot of sugar or white flour, you're hungry in about an hour, as compared to eating a protein loaded breakfast like an egg scramble or something?” she says. “I notice a huge difference in my hunger and cravings.”

Healthy-Enough Sweets

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VanLiew recommends using honey or maple syrup instead of white sugar. “If you have to have something sweet and that's okay, choose a form of sweetness that takes a bit more time to digest and gives your body something as opposed to totally empty calories,” she says. “What about just plain old fruit? Fruit is so sweet in and of itself, and it's loaded with fibers and nutrition and water, which is good for you.”

Brown Rice and Shitake Mushrooms

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Van Liew recommends swapping out white flour for almond flour and white rice for brown rice. “Brown rice can be a bit boring,” she says. “I've found some brown rice with shiitake mushrooms that have some good ingredients, and sometimes it's really fun to use wild rice. All of these rice have a lot more fiber and nutrients in them.”

Read Labels!

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VanLiew says to check every nutrition label for things like added sugars and sodium. “Try to stay away from anything that has trans fats, which would show up as partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredients list,” she says. “Trans fats have no room in a healthy diet. They are just not good for you, and if you see this, put that back on the shelf. Newer labels now show added sugars, which are the ones added during the processing of foods. These are the ones we want to minimize or avoid altogether.”

Eat your Vegetables

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VanLiew emphasizes how important vegetables are. “Of all the things we want to crowd in, the most important thing is our veggies. They are the cornerstone of any healthy diet,” she says. “Plants contain phytonutrients, which are important for boosting energy, promoting vibrant health, and protecting against aging. And if you're swapping these for some of the crap we normally eat, you can lose weight over 50.”

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Cook Your Own Food

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VanLiew recommends eating at home as much as possible. “All the tips I've shared so far are about eating better, minimizing the empty calories, and choosing the right foods to nourish your body,” she says. “But you cannot find these foods in a drive-through or even in those healthier microwave choices. To eat better, you must cook, and this might seem daunting to most, but take it from a person who hated to cook for so many years. You can do it.”

Food Prep

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VanLiew recommends food prep to make the rest of the week easier. “Find a few free hours to prepare some things in advance,” she says. “You can clean and chop vegetables. You can make some sauces or a soup on the night you cook. Give yourself plenty of time so it can be fun and not a chore. Turn on some music. Have a glass of wine or your favorite zero calorie drink.”

Move Throughout the Day

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VanLiew emphasizes the importance of staying active. “The basis of a good plan is to simply get more movement throughout your day,” she says. “Motion is a lotion for our aging bodies and if we sit too long, we can become like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. Motion is the oil can we need to keep our bodies healthy.”

Strength Training

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VanLiew recommends two weekly strength training sessions. “Strength training is a must because it not only builds stronger capable muscles, it also helps build that bone density as long as you're lifting heavier weights and it improves that slowing metabolism, which is the key to losing weight over 50,” she says. VanLiew recommends HIIT sessions for cardio.

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Pilates

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VanLiew is a huge fan of Pilates. “If you want to improve your posture and balance and reduce low back pain, then incorporating core moves into your routine is a must,” she says. “You can just add these into your strength training day or, better yet, make one of your days a Pilates day. Pilates is a form of exercise that works all of the core muscles in a super effective way.” And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 20 Superfoods for People Over 50.

Are you tired of counting calories and still not seeing results? With Ozempic costing up to $1,014 per month and coming with potential side effects like nausea, vomiting, and the dreaded "Ozempic face," many people are seeking natural alternatives. Meet Chelsea Mae, a Kiwi vegan mom who discovered a better way. Despite being vegan for years, Chelsea struggled with her weight until she learned about the science of calorie density and proper portion sizes. Now, she not only helps other frustrated vegan women, particularly moms, lose weight and stop self-sabotaging, but she's also maintained her own 40-pound weight loss for five years without expensive medications or restrictive diets.

1. A Natural Success Story: How Chelsea Lost 40 Pounds

"I've used all of these things to help me drop 40 pounds and now keep them off for the past five years. So this really does work not just in the short term but in the long term as well," Chelsea shares in her post. Her approach focuses on eating more, not less, but choosing the right foods in the right portions. What makes her story particularly compelling is that she achieved these results without the thousand-dollar monthly price tag or side effects of weight loss medications. "The real effect and the real reason that weight loss works is that it changes people's behavior. When we are less hungry, it changes our behavior," she explains.

Understanding Modern Weight Loss Solutions

To appreciate why Chelsea's natural approach is so revolutionary, it's important to understand current medical solutions. "Ozempic enhances the release and action of insulin throughout the body, which helps with fat loss," explainsDr. Sue Decotiis, MD, NYC weight-loss doctor. "It acts on receptors in the gut and brain that regulate appetite." While effective, these medications come with both financial and physical costs that many find prohibitive.

The Science Behind Natural Appetite Control

While Ozempic works by chemically controlling appetite, Dr. Decotiis notes that "when insulin works well, you can burn fat, when it doesn't you gain weight." Chelsea's approach naturally supports healthy insulin function through specific food choices and eating patterns. Her method mimics the appetite-suppressing effects of medications but through natural means. Here's her comprehensive strategy:

Load Up on Non-Starchy Vegetables

"I recommend eating a pound of non-starchy vegetables a day," says Chelsea. "They work out to about 100-150 calories per pound, but because they're 95% water, they fill up your stomach without adding many calories." She compares it to ordering a tiny camera that comes in a huge box: "Think of this like ordering a tiny camera from Amazon, and it comes in this huge box, and there's all this foam in there that doesn't really help you, but it's there to protect the foam. It's a similar kind of thing with vegetables."

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Embrace Dark Green Vegetables

"Thalcoids actually delay calories being absorbed until the end of your intestines," Chelsea explains. "And what happens is at that point there is a signal hormone that tells your brain because there are undigested calories at the end of your intestine that you should shut off hunger. You're going to have an appetite suppressant effect just from eating green vegetables—if that doesn't make you want to eat your broccoli, I don't know what will." This natural appetite suppression mirrors what Dr. Decotiis describes as Ozempic's effect on "shutting down appetite so the patient feels very full after eating much less food."

Make Potatoes Your Best Friend

"Potatoes have the highest satiety index—they're the absolute queens of satiety," Chelsea shares. "I challenge you to try eating five boiled potatoes. You'll struggle, but that's only 500-600 calories. By contrast, you could eat 34 Oreos for 1,800 calories and still not feel full."

Size Matters: Eat Bigger Portions of the Right Foods

"One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they just don't understand what an adequate amount of food is to feel full and satisfied and actually shut off hunger," Chelsea notes. "We are consistently telling our clients inside of my coaching program to eat more food for this reason." Her typical plate includes "about a pound of vegetables, at least one to two potatoes, sometimes even more. If I'm hungry, I will eat more, and then I'm going to have a little handful of tofu in there... I add a little bit of fat in there as well, like a quarter of an avocado or a couple of tablespoons of a tahini dressing or some kind of hummus."

Start Your Day with Fiber

"If you eat breakfast daily, regardless of whether you're hungry or not, I don't care if you're not hungry in the morning... your consistency is going to skyrocket because you have more food in your stomach throughout the day," Chelsea insists. Her go-to breakfast is "the same thing every day. I do oats, and I do flax for the fiber in there as well. I do soy milk, and I do berries to bulk that out, and I have a decent portion of food. None of this quarter of a cup of oats business—do a full cup!"

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Maximize Your Fiber Intake

Chelsea explains the science behind fiber's effectiveness: "The only calories that your body is actually going to absorb from your intestine where it's traveling through is the calories that come in direct contact... If they can't touch them, if they're like, I can't touch the calories because there's a bit of fiber there blocking it, then you can't actually absorb those calories." This natural approach helps regulate blood sugar levels, which Dr. Decotiis confirms is crucial for weight loss.

Slow Down Your Eating

"If you chew more, you actually create more saliva, which means that you have more bulk in your stomach, which means that it's going to be emptying slower, which means that you're going to feel fuller for longer," Chelsea explains. This works both psychologically and physiologically to reduce overall intake.

Choose Fruit for Snacks

"Fruit has got a ton of water which has no calories, it's got fiber which has no calories or none absorbed at least, and it's super satisfying because it's naturally sweet and we do tend to crave sweet things," Chelsea shares. Her favorites include "pears, oranges, peaches... and hands down best fruit option would be berries. They're just hard to get where I live, but they're super low in calories and they're absolutely delicious."

Eat Three Meals Plus Snacks

"I have not seen intermittent fasting be successful for the majority of people simply because, on a long-term basis, it doesn't help with the satiety and the fullness and the hunger reduction. In fact, it contributes to the opposite," Chelsea states. She adds, "I've just gotten over myself where I don't tell myself a story that I'm not hungry in the morning because it's natural—hunger is going to be less in the morning. Hunger peaks at night, and it troughs in the morning."

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Plan Ahead for Challenging Situations

"I bring food with me when I leave the house. I always have food with me when I'm going to parties or going to events where other people are going to be eating tons of processed food," Chelsea reveals. "If I'm going to go out for dinner, I'm going to eat more during the day because I know that's going to help my behavior that night rather than what most people do, which is they'll eat less because they're saving up their calories for what they're going to do later."

The Cost Comparison: Natural vs. Medical Approaches

While the Ozmepic can cost over $1,000 per month without insurance, Chelsea's approach relies on affordable, whole foods. According to a study published in JAMA Network Open, weight loss medications could be manufactured for as little as $0.89 to $4.73 per month while still making a profit. This stark contrast makes natural weight loss methods not just effective but economically sustainable.

Sustainable Results vs. Rebound Weight Gain

Studies show that after stopping Ozempic, participants regained two-thirds of their prior weight loss within one year. In contrast, Chelsea's five-year success demonstrates the sustainability of her approach: "Even if you were to absolutely eat so much of these foods, you can still only naturally cap at, say, like 2,000 or maybe even 2,500 calories because they are so satisfying. You're going to feel sick before you eat too many calories... You can eat upwards of 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, even up to 10,000 or maybe more calories from processed foods because they're simply higher calories for smaller amounts of bulk."

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Natural Weight Loss Without Side Effects

While Ozempic users may experience "Ozempic face"—a hallowed look and premature aging due to rapid weight loss—Chelsea's gradual, food-based approach helps maintain healthy skin and muscle mass. Harvard Health notes that losing weight too quickly can cause facial aging and loose skin, making Chelsea's sustainable approach even more attractive.

Chelsea says that her approach isn't about restriction—it's about abundance and sustainable change. By focusing on nutrient-dense, filling foods and consistent eating patterns, you can achieve lasting weight loss without the high costs and potential side effects of medication. The choice between pharmaceutical and natural approaches is personal, but Chelsea's success shows that sustainable weight loss is possible through mindful eating and lifestyle changes alone. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.