Into Onderland: there's hope for those who are older and losing slowly

I finally hit onderland this week and 30 pounds lost!! It feels so good!! I can now see and feel the difference. After losing only 2 pounds all last month, I lost 2 pounds this week!

As a yo-yo dieter, who has crept steadily up over the past 15 years here's what I am doing differently as of June 1, 2019, nine months ago. As an older slower loser, I just wanted to share some success with other people in the same boat, that it can be done. Stick with it! Slow progress is still progress!

• I am mostly achieving CICO targets on a weekly basis or limiting my overages. I started at 1750 calories a day and am now at 1585. I use the Lose it app which is super easy. My calorie consumption has at least decreased by 750 calories a day from June 1 as I had no idea of how much I was eating before I started measuring portions and I can EASILY eat at 2800 calories a day.
• On Sept 1, I decided not to "eat back exercise" calories and dropped my daily target from 1825 to 1725. This really helped to push more weight loss.
• I have lost 30 pounds in 8 months (July went off track). So I am pretty much on track for four pounds a month, even with some three-week plateaus.
• I am now accurately measuring CICO (thank you food scale!! an excellent purchase). I am no longer eating three ounces of cheese and thinking it was one ounce or having 10 tablespoons of cream in my coffee and thinking it was 4 tablespoons.
• having 8 to 10 glasses of water a day;
• not feeling hungry or having cravings but still having treats like mozza burgers and IPAs but now having IPAs twice a month instead of twice a week. However some food are just not worth calories/carbs or water retention including most french fries, movie popcorn, chips, milk chocolate and store-bought cookies;
• Mostly OMAD with a snack (or two) and mostly IF are good strategies for me;
• figuring out my macros with higher protein, lower carbs and satisfying fats (55% fat, 25% carbs, 20% protein) has really helped to not feel hungry. I have to take the Goldilocks approach with carbs though (50 to 100 grams a day) as too many carbs trigger cravings but not few carbs trigger depression;
• am staying motivated with: progress pics, before pics, my Pinterest board, this lovely subreddit and the other subreddit, ProgressPics. Plus picking up the weight that I have lost in the grocery store. When I had lost "only" 16 pounds and was feeling discouraged at the slow progress, I realized that that was the same amount as the cat food bag and it was darned motivating to hold that much weight, it was really quite heavy.

I am FINALLY developing a workable long-term sustainable life time approach to healthy eating. I only wish I had figured this out 20 years ago! and congrats to all the people here who are generally much younger and figuring this out much sooner (but it still possible for older people to lose weight too!).

submitted by /u/Light_a_Candle
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