50+ AND FABULOUS: HEALTHY EATING AND WEIGHT MANAGEMENT ( Part 1 )

by Joanna Robinson

Living a healthier lifestyle at 50 isn’t just about losing weight; it’s about a better quality of life. Healthy eating and regular exercise can not only help you manage your weight, they also make you look and feel healthier and even sleep better.

Not only that, but good nutrition is vital for women over 50 because it reduces your risk of stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes.

We know that healthy eating and weight management aren’t always easy – particularly once you pass the big 5-0 milestone – but Moneymagpie is here to show you that with a little help and advice, you can be 50+ and fabulous!

• EIGHT MANAGEMENT

Maintaining a healthy weight as you get older can be tricky. A number of the factors that we’ll go on to explain will mean that you have to be more selective about the sorts of exercise that you do, and pay much more attention to your diet. This needn’t be miserable or especially difficult, but it’s important to remember that for women of any age, fad diets proclaiming ‘fast weight loss’ are not good for you.

Why? There are a number of reasons for avoiding fast weight loss diets:

Firstly, dramatically cutting the amount of calories you consume might mean you lose weight quickly, but you are also more likely to lose muscle than fat by doing this. What’s more when your diet is over and you return to regular eating, your body will want to store that food as fat after being deprived, meaning you’re likely to put on more weight afterwards.

Some of these diets are low in carbohyrdates but high in protein and fat – while you may lose weight eating like this, increasing your intake of saturated fat will increase your chances of heart disease or stroke. And remember your risks of these are unfortunately already going to be increased by your age.

If diets like these recommend cutting out certain foods, again this might lead to short term weight loss, but it is really just making your diet imbalanced, which in itself is unhealthy.

So how can I go about losing weight? If you want to maintain a health weight you have to make lifestyle choices and stick to them. Starving yourself for a few weeks is not the answer. There are five easy ways to kick start healthy weight loss:

1. Don’t skip breakfast – it’s important for setting you up for the day and giving you some energy to get going in the mornings; often a good breakfast will stop you wanting to snack before lunch and there are some studies which show people who eat breakfast regularly are less likely to be overweight.

2. Reduce the amount of fat you eat – you can do this by switching to lower fat versions of everyday food and drink, for instance by switching from full fat to semi-skimmed milk, or cream to low-fat yoghurt. Trim the fat off meat and try to avoid having too much butter or cheese.

3. Eat wholegrain foods – like wholemeal bread, brown rice and pasta as they are digested more slowly than their white equivalents and will make you feel fuller for longer.

4. Drink don’t snack - if you’re craving a snack between meals try having a glass of water or a cup of tea instead. Often we think we’re hungry when we’re actually thirsty.

5. Make sure you get your five a day – really important for maintaining a healthy balanced diet.

Remember that if you’re dieting to lose weight and keep it off, it’s a gradual process and there are no quick fixes. These are habits you must stick to if you really want to keep the weight off. If you are worried about your weight, you can check your BMI on the NHS wesite here. If you do find that you are overweight, the NHS have loads of great advice and help on the healthy ways to lose weight here.

SOURCE:  moneymagpie.com