How to Lose Weight After 60 Without Unhealthy Diets (2021)

Want to lose weight, but feel it’s impossible now that you’re in your 60s?

You’re in the right place. Today, you’ll learn exactly how to lose weight after 60.

Want to learn more? Read on. 

Is it even possible to lose weight after 60?

Can you lose weight in your 60s? The answer is: Yes. I’ve helped hundreds of women lose weight, even when they had struggled for years and were in their 60s. What it comes down to is making a few, simple lifestyle and mindset changes and getting the right support.

But before we talk more about those, why should you lose weight? 

Why should you lose weight in your 60s?

Knowing your ‘why’ before you start your weight loss journey can make all the difference. After all, this is what can help you commit to your goal and then push forward even when you plateau or feel your weight isn’t budging. 

Fewer health issues

One of the main reasons to lose weight in your 60s is your health. You see, by now, you might have quite a few health problems. Maybe you’re pre-diabetes or you already have diabetes. You might have high blood pressure, blood sugar problems, and cholesterol problems. Maybe you’ve been on medication for a while. 

Being overweight increases the risk for all of these health problems. Losing weight is one of the best ways to ensure you don’t risk getting these issues and if you already have them, to come off your medication. That’s what a lot of my own clients have been able to do after just a few months of losing weight. 

You might even have had surgeries and other procedures due to your weight. Or you’re considering a procedure. Either way, those risky procedures become unnecessary when you lose weight on your own. 

And the great news is: Even a moderate weight loss will help you reverse many health problems that you get from being overweight or obese. 

More energy 

But your health isn’t the only reason. If you have grandchildren, you probably want to be able to get on the floor and play with them. Or take them to play in the park and have the energy to be there with them. You also want to have more time to spend with them. This really depends on you taking care of your health, so that you can be there for your family.

You might also have a passion project you’ve been wanting to work on for your entire life, like writing a book, starting a business, taking up a sport or a hobby, or helping other people get to where you’ve gotten to. 

Eating unhealthy foods makes you unfocused, sluggish, and tired. By changing your diet and losing weight, you get more energy to focus on the things you want to spend time on.

Planning for retirement

You might also be planning for retirement. You want to experience life instead of not feeling good in your body and restricting yourself because of that. In retirement, you have all the time to do those activities you love doing, like going hiking, traveling to new countries and places and picking up a sport like tennis and just taking nice walks. 

I talk to plenty of women in their sixties and seventies and they look at pictures from a few years before and they see themselves wearing skinny jeans. They want to look like that again and be able to put on those jeans. They also want to be able to wear a bathing suit and take a swim in their pool, the lake, or the ocean and feel confident. 

Maybe that’s what you want, too? 

There’s every reason that you can when you use the right strategies. 

Why is it so hard to lose weight in your 60s?

But you might be wondering:

Is it even possible to lose weight after 60? 

True, it IS harder to lose weight as you get older.  

First of all, your metabolism has slowed down. In your 60s, you need 400-500 calories less than in your 20s. 

You see, hormones and weight gain after 60 go hand-in-hand. After menopause, your estrogen levels go down. This likely lowers your metabolic rate, makes you eat more, and exercise less. 

But that’s not all. What I’ve noticed after working with hundreds of women is that women in their 60s tend to undereat rather than overeat. 

They’re not eating the right, metabolism-boosting foods. 

Let me explain: Your body sees your current weight as your normal weight. And because one of the biggest threats to humans over the past thousands of years was starvation (you know, the time before giant supermarkets and home deliveries), it works to ensure that you keep your body weight.

This works against you when you try to lose weight. Your metabolism slows down, which makes it very hard to shed those extra pounds — unless you know how to feed your body, but to do it in a way that satisfies it. 

Plus, as we age, we tend to exercise less and the rate of energy we use up during exercise goes down, as well. You lose muscle mass and your metabolism goes down even more. 

But also your habits play a part. It’s hard to change safe habits you’ve kept to for so many years. Maybe you’re stress eating and have done so for years. Or you like snacking to keep energy levels up throughout the day. 

Good news: With the right approach, it’s doable to change those bad habits that are keeping you back.

That’s how many of my clients in their 60s have been able to sustainably lose weight and keep it off, even if they spent decades feeling like they weren’t comfortable in their own bodies.

How do you lose weight in your 60s?

That takes us to the next question:

How can you as a 60-year old lose belly fat, even when it’s getting harder? 

You might feel that your metabolism has really slowed down and that what worked before doesn’t work anymore. You try different diets and while you lose a few pounds, they seem to stick themselves right back on.

While it is true that your body works differently now than it did when you were younger, it’s absolutely not true that you can’t lose weight. 

This is something we teach in my accountability weight loss coaching program, Slim Down Transformation.

In this program, we teach women in their 60s to speed up their metabolism by learning how to eat foods that eliminate their sugar cravings. 

You see, as you lose weight, you naturally have more energy. That’s when you incorporate strength training, which is a key part of the formula for keeping weight off permanently. 

The thing is:

Strength training helps you to lose weight faster. Not only that but you also lose more of your fat than muscles. 

You get more active, which helps you keep up your energy levels and get out there to keep up activities like hiking and swimming.

This strategy can have a significant impact on your life in a short amount of time.

When women over 60 join our online weight loss coaching program, they typically come down on their medication within the first four weeks and then they’ll eventually fully get off their medication. 

And when they make changes to their diets, they tend to no longer feel the need to eat sugar. They’ll instead lose weight incredibly quickly (but in a sustainable way). 

What a lot of our past students tell us is that as a result, they start feeling so good in a bathing suit and they can even fit into old clothes! They have more energy to spend with their grandchildren and on themselves. 

Weight loss after 60 – success stories 

Now you know how to lose weight in your 60s. But what are some real success stories that show you just how possible this all is? Here are some of my wonderful senior clients and their weight loss stories to show you just how doable it all is. 

Pam – Lost 100 pounds!

Pam is in her 60s and diabetic. This means that she can’t eat just anything and that makes it even more challenging to lose weight. But within five months after joining my program, Pam had lost 50 pounds. Within seven months, she had lost 70 pounds and to this day, she has lost more than 100 pounds. Impressive, right? AND all of this while she had to restrict some of what she was eating to make it work with her diabetes. 

Barbara – Lost 25 pounds within three months

Barbara, a retired teacher, wanted to make the most of her retirement years and as she finally had the time to put herself first, she decided to join my program. 

While we worked together, she lost 18 pounds and then went on to lose a total of 25 pounds within three months. She shed off 11 inches from her body and as her blood work improved, she came down on many of her medications. Even her doctor was impressed by all the things Barbara had achieved and wanted to know her secret!

The best part is that Barbara has been able to do it while feeling full and eating delicious food. 

Cindy – Eliminated her sugar cravings for good

Cindy had sugar cravings her entire life. She tried diet after diet but she could never eliminate those cravings. And when she was 68, she saw a picture of herself when she was 63 and wearing skinny jeans. She liked how she looked in those skinny jeans but she was no longer able to wear them because they just wouldn’t fit. 

That gave her the motivation to join my program. 

We started working together and within the first two weeks, her sugar cravings were eliminated. That was because I taught her how to balance her foods and how to combine specific natural real foods that eliminated her sugar cravings because she was so satisfied with the food that she ate. 

As a bonus, she and her husband loved eating the meals. They took road trips to visit their children and pack the foods that she had learned to make by working with me. It was so tasty that she would bring it to her daughter’s house and share it with them and they all loved it! This became a true lifestyle where Cindy eliminated her sugar cravings for good. 

Laurie – Lost weight off her waist and feels comfortable in a bathing suit

Laurie, who is 60 years old, had tried so many diets that didn’t do much more than restrict her life. But when she joined my program, she learned how to eat more real foods — without restriction. We created customized meals that she loved and within just a few weeks, she lost one and a half inches off her waist. 

She had never felt so good before she got healthier and the food felt sustainable. She felt satisfied at all times and loved what she was eating every day.

Laurie has a pool in her backyard, which she never used before losing weight because she didn’t feel confident in a bathing suit. But after going through my program, she started feeling comfortable in a bathing suit again and she started swimming regularly. 

She even got more energy to fulfill her life’s purpose, which is to write a book.

Over to you!

There you have it. Now you know how to lose weight after 60.

It IS possible and you can actually be healthier in your 60s than you’ve ever been before. What it comes down to is eating food that helps you lose weight and to add on strength training on top of that. Soon enough, you have created a lifestyle that makes it very hard to ever go back to any unhealthy dieting or overeating sugary foods.

Now I’d love to know:

What have you tried so far to lose weight? Why do you think it hasn’t worked?

Let me know in the comments below.