How To Lose Weight At Over 60

Four years ago, Diane Naylor, now 63, retired, moved from Fresno to Oakhurst, California, and was excited about all of the new activities her new location afforded her: hiking paths, biking trails in Yosemite and a great climate for being outdoors.

I felt miserable and depressed because of my weight, Naylor recounted to . I wasn't active at all and I couldn't do all of the things I wanted to.

Naylor had tried to lose weight several times before, but always gave up when whatever diet she was on ended. She was feeling hopeless until an episode of the TV show Castle inspired her to give it another try.

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One of the medical examiners was telling the lead actress she should follow her dreams, Naylor said. He pointed to the corpses and said, 'All those people had dreams, but their time ran out, so don't let that happen to you.' It was like a light bulb went off — I had a lot of dreams, too, and I wanted to accomplish them.

The next day, Naylor started her weight-loss journey and hasn't looked back since. Here, she recounts the steps she took to lose 225 pounds, and offers advice for people in similar situations:

Don't put it off, Naylor warned. No one gets any younger, and the younger you are, the easier it is. I started at 59, which proves anyone can do it. Why start six months from now? Start !

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Naylor started walking up and down her driveway. In the beginning, going to the mailbox was a challenge for her. Even though she felt unbalanced, like she was going to fall, she stuck with it. Once she lost 20 pounds (thanks to walking and a new eating plan), she started riding an indoor bike and taking longer walks around her neighborhood.

, she hikes 4-mile trails and does 20-30-mile bike rides with her niece. She doesn't stop moving until she hits 10, 000 steps a day. Naylor stressed it's all about starting small, and increasing your movement as you feel stronger.

Naylor joined the Taking Off Pounds Sensibly club, better known as TOPS, after she had lost 50 pounds on her own. The club provides accountability and constant support. Naylor attends meetings every Monday, and received calls, emails and letters of encouragement from other members when she first started.

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The Monday meetings help me keep myself in check during the weekends, when I'd be most likely to cheat, Naylor said. If you don't have access to a similar group — start one yourself! Find similar-minded people who will understand and support you.

I learned how to eat fish. I didn't care for it before, but I bought an air fryer which helped me cook it without the grease and I actually like the way it tastes, Naylor shared.

Before Naylor found TOPS, she had tried everything to lose weight, from Weight Watchers to Jenny Craig, and she always gained it back.

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This time around, instead of viewing her lifestyle changes as a diet, she simply approached it as small changes for a healthier and longer life. She started eating more veggies, less junk and moved more.

You will hit weight-loss plateaus along the way — it's inevitable — but if you stick it out, you will continue to lose weight.

It might take six or eight weeks for the scale to move, but during that time, you'll see the inches coming off of your body, she explained and stressed the importance of not giving up!

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Candy, popcorn and ice cream are all still temptations for me. Staying healthy is a constant, every day decision, Naylor said. Sure, that can feel overwhelming, but she suggests looking at it as just one decision, one meal at a time, and stresses that you need to be consistent.

, Naylor says she's 63 going on 45 and feels amazing. She can take advantage of all of the fun outdoor activities in her neighborhood and is even getting into public speaking on behalf of TOPS, the weight-loss club. Her motto: If she can do it, so can you! Start small, and just get started — don't keep putting it off until Monday.Five years ago, Marcie Jaworski and her husband, Mark, were waiting for their plane to Baltimore to visit their daughter when an airline employee approached the couple. The employee wondered how Jaworski bought her ticket. Fearing there was something wrong with her credit card, Jaworski went to the customer service desk, where the airline employee asked the first-grade teacher from Cleveland if she bought two seats.

“She took me aside and said, ‘If you can’t fit in one seat our policy is that you need to purchase two seats.’ I got really snippy and said I didn’t need two seats. Actually, I probably did, but I wasn’t going to tell her that, ” Jaworski, 62, told .

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Jaworski, who weighed 305 pounds at the time, felt especially discouraged because she had just lost 30 pounds. It seemed to make no difference. Despite how embarrassing that experience felt, Jaworski started gaining weight again, and eventually weighed 360 pounds at just 5 feet 5 inches tall.

For most of her life, Jaworski was thin. After having her children, and after her father died, she started eating at night to soothe her emotions.

For 25 years, she carried extra weight on her body. But another embarrassing experience and two positive ones encouraged Jaworski to transform her life and lose 171 pounds in a year. She and a friend were working out with a personal trainer in her friend’s basement on a treadmill and Jaworski struggled to run. She leaned against the treadmill control panel, accidentally turning up the speed.

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She injured her rotator cuff and spent 11 weeks doing very little. That’s when she knew she had to make a change. She had read Al Roker’s book, “Never Goin’ Back” and that, along with becoming a new grandmother, encouraged her to change.

When Marcie Jawroski was a young mother, she started stress eating at night. After 25 years of doing it, she was overweight, but finally felt inspired to lose weight after reading Al Roker's book.

She signed up for SlimGenetics, a meal plan for weight loss, and started going to the gym. At first Jaworski took a low-intensity, Jazzercise-like class. Even with its slow pace, she struggled.

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“I never wanted to show people that I couldn’t keep up with them. I still tried to do as much exercise as everyone else, ” she said. “But it didn’t feel good.

“It is really difficult when you are really heavy. That is why people give up, ” she said. “It was a mental thing; you have to hang in there.”

But she kept working and in one year she lost 171 pounds. She feels especially proud that she could do it at 62 years old.

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“I hear a lot of women say, ‘My metabolism is so bad’ … It is not your age, ” she said. “It is eating right and exercise.”

Jaworski works out five to six days a week and watches what she eats. She offered advice to others hoping to shed weight.

While Marcie Jawroski never had high blood pressure or cholesterol, the 62-year-old mom knew it was only a matter of time before her weight would affect her health.Courtesy Erin Boucher

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To remind herself how far she’s come, Jaworski keeps a before picture of herself, which she carries in her purse. Sometimes she shows others when they can’t believe how much weight she lost.

When Jaworski tried losing weight in the past, she never wrote down what she ate. But she did this time and it made it easier for her to stick with her diet.

Jaworski first started taking one exercise class but as she increased her stamina she decided to take different classes. This helped her stay interested in working out, and different classes helped to target her body in different ways.

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Marcie Jaworski works out six days a week and eats a healthy diet, which has helped her transform her life.Courtesy Erin Boucher

Jaworski suspects she kept exercising because the instructors at her gym were so encouraging. The first instructor she took classes with often came up to her after class and praised her for doing a good job.

When trying to lose weight in the past, Jaworski often shunned advice, such as drinking lots of water, exercising with a buddy, keep a food journal or measuring food. But those things work. When she finally decided to transform her health, following the tried-and-true advice helped her succeed.

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“Every time I started a diet I would never even try those things, ” she said. “I think that is one of the things that saved me.”

For more weight-loss success stories, check out our My Weight-Loss Journey page. Sign up for our One Small Thing newsletter for more diet and fitness tips!Many women are trying to lose weight after 60. Unfortunately, with nature playing tricks on our metabolism, it feels like we have to work twice as hard to move those pounds.

Most of us have found out that diets don’t

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