Post Retirement Weight Loss?
 

Go figure? I had gotten down to 200+ riding 75-80 miles/week pre-retirement. I retired last November. While my mileage isn't really up I'm at least not traveling. I'm not dieting at all. I weighed myself this am and the scale said 181 lbs (I'm 6'). Last time I was this light was in my late 30's, some 30 years ago, when I was running 50-60 miles/week. Anyone else experience this phenomenon? Reduced stress maybe? I'm not complaining.

No idea. Maybe you're just more active if you're not tied to a desk. It's normal for people to lose some weight as they get older, not necessarily at 65, though.

Maybe absence of stress!

rdtompki, I find myself in a similar situation, and it certainly is a good feeling!

Although I cheated with the weight loss routine and had bariatric surgery in 2009, I lost exactly 120 pounds and dropped from 284 to 164, which is four pounds less than I weighed in 1958 when I got out of Air Force basic training (where I’d gained several pounds after learning to appreciate military food).

I gained back about 10 pounds over last winter due to inactivity, and my focus now is to lose most of that and maintain a weight of about 168-170 pounds. I am 5'8".

My weight maintenance plan includes riding about 20 miles every day (with 40 miles being my maximum comfort zone), and although I realize that’s not many miles for most dedicated riders, I’m pleased with it and confess to feeling good when non-riders express disbelief that someone my age can ride that far.

Aside from the weight issue, the riding has enabled me to be more active off-bike than I’ve been for more than 30 years. I now walk everywhere I can, even to the extent of leaving my car at the far corner of a store’s parking lot so I can enjoy a brisk hike both before and after shopping. I take on chores and projects around the house I haven’t EVER done, and my wife of 55 years is very happy with me!

I recently retired. It's amazing how the work work world makes you eat, at least in California with all of its nanny regulations. You need to take a 15 minute break in the morning, so you eat. Then you need to take at least a 30 minute lunch, so you eat. Then you need to take a 15 minute break in the afternoon, so you eat. If you don't take a break or lunch, your employer gets fined, which leads to a disciplined employee. Talk about our regimented society!

Now that I'm retired, I eat less. Less food= less weight.

Hey rd,

Good on you! I hope I experience something similar when I retire next year.

I think you hit on a number of factors... Reduced stress (I eat when I'm stressed, and my body doesn't handle the food as well)... Lack of business travel (which always reduces exercise and increases intake of high-calorie food). Probably, too, you're moving around more simply doing daily tasks (as opposed to working at a desk). Whatever accounts for your success... congratulations!

Part of the answer is the fact that since you are retired, you are probably eating better. No stress and no eating fast foods on the run.

I was always 6'0" and 180 lbs when I was in the US Coast Guard. Fast forward all these years later and I'm still 6'0" but I am 210 lbs and have graying hair! What the heck happened to me?

Regarding weight, I have found the utmost worst thing in the world... Getting put on the graveyard shift at work. Since I retired, I spent a 2nd career in the I.T. industry. My first job was great as a database programmer and Unix systems administrator for a great company on days M-F. I'd stay active, play golf, bike ride, jog, etc... but I couldn't get back down to 180 lbs. The second and worst job was working in the computer operations center of a military base on a government contract. The salary was incredible, but the stress and long hours were killers. I worked 3rd shift for 1 year, 8 months, and 2 weeks, and begged to be put back on the day shift. Some people can do night shift. I learned that I just couldn't do it no matter how hard I tried. It messed up my body, my metabolism, and (to be a little personal), it started to strain my marriage. I was a mess and my weight rose to 235 lbs. I got myself together and am back down to 210 and can't lose any more for some reason. I'm stuck at 210. Anyway, I put the I.T. industry behind me (well, to be honest... the whole field pretty much tanked, and tons of jobs went overseas). So, I re-invented myself, got my CDL class B and now I drive a school bus for a living. It is so much fun, but the pay is obviously not like the I.T. industry, so I did a lot of cutbacks on personal finances and whatnot, and am surviving. I am still struggling to lose more weight (I'd like to at least get down to 200), and ride my bike, walk my dogs, etc... as much as I can.

Eventually after realizing I had the time to get back to biking after a career that left no free time, I lost 100lb. I no longer think diet or exercise can help alone, you need time for both. Retirement provides that time.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Hopefully it is all good. But I googled it for you.

You sure are a bundle of cheer.

Oh come on.... I thought we all knew that was scary crap. If you don't have medical professionals in your social group(s)... you might not get the unsolicited advice you need to hear.

Two factors I didn't mention in my original post About the time I retired we adopted a dog (found wandering in the street, couldn't find the owner). I walk the dog 2x/day for about 1/2 hour each. It's not the same as riding 30-40 miles, but I think it contributes to keeping my metabolism up. Also good for mental health. We have four horses and I'm doing more of the outdoor stuff on our 5 acres; makes for, again, more walking.

I have seen this happen to others who have retired. Maybe you end up being more active instead of sitting at a desk all day like I do. Hope it happens to me in a few months when it is my turn. Congrats!

Travel = restaurant food. Restaurant food = large portions. Since we tend to eat what's on the plate no matter what, we take the full blow of all the extra oils and dressings and stuff that makes restaurant food taste the way it does. It takes a real effort to avoid eating too much, and then there's the enforced sitting. Even at home, I rarely have the time to ride off a really nice restaurant dinner. I'm 6'4", and 200+ is about where I settle with stress and restaurant food. 180 is where I wind up after eating at home and exercising for a while, with an option for 175 if I really pay attention.

I dropped from 195 to 162 at 6' after I retired. I credit a small amount of that to reduction in stress and regular riding but most to cutting out the massive amounts of sugar and highly refined carbs I used to eat. I have slowly added back potatoes, rice, and the occasional pizza and pasta with no ill effect. For me I think sugar is the real danger. Never again will I regualrly eat half a pound of delicious milk chocolate at a sitting. But most of all I miss those double fudge brownies with coffee at breakfast.

Might want to have a physical, thyroid and testerone levels can affect weight gain and loss. At least they did on me I had to watch weight closely then found out thyroid levels were wrong after getting meds for that, weight levels dropped and leveled off.

I agree with the others that you should have it checked out by the Doc. At 71 I still have to fight my way down. An old pro told me to "go to bed hungry" and increase my mileage. It is taking around 200 miles per week with a lot of climbing but I do shed about a lb. per week.

Ain't it a fight, though? All those years I ate whatever I wanted and stayed 155. Now it's tooth and nail for every pound.

There was a book I saw recommended here, Racing Weight. It's good; the principle of increasing diet quality has been good for a number of pounds all by itself. It's been hard in a sense to cut out fast food and hot dogs and ice cream and chips, but in another sense it's been easier than being hungry -- I can eat 175 calories worth of hummus and carrots and feel as full as if I ate 800 calories worth of dill pickle potato chips. Last night I went to a dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. A special occasion, and a rarity. I exercised restraint. No appetizers (well, OK, two onion rings), but a blue cheese wedge salad. With bacon, just awesome. Not a big steak, just a petite filet. Some mashed potatoes, but not much, just a fraction of a side. Dessert, afraid so. Cheesecake. It was worth it. Two glasses of red wine. Adding it up on LoseIt, just under 2K calories. Could be more, but I took what the program gave me. That's a full normal day eating at home, breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it definitely showed up on the scale, even though I had attempted to create a vacuum for some of those calories with an afternoon workout. That's what I mean about restaurant food. If I were in a business where I had to eat out all the time I'd be 240. On the other hand, if I were able to stay active all day I'd probably lose more than I have, since work enforces at least some sitting.

I've read about stress hormones and lack of quality sleep making it more difficult to lose weight, so maybe you're onto something when you mentioned reduced stress. I've read that calories consumed in alcoholic beverages are harder to burn off than regular "food" calories--are you consuming less alcohol now? The dog-walking and chores are probably it, though.

I've never been more than 10 lbs. overweight so I can't relate to those who regularly battle the bulge. But I've always subscribed to the theory that you can't gain weight unless you consume more calories than you burn, and you can't lose weight until you burn more than you consume. There's only so much water we can retain without the fat cells to store it, and you can't get fat cells without an excess of sugar in your diet.

Those theories are probably wrong, at least I've been emphatically told by many that I don't know what I'm talking about. They say that some people just have a higher metabolism than others. Two people in a controlled environment can eat the same diet and perform the same exercise regimen, yet one may gain weight and the other may lose.

All I can do is live my own life and follow the rules I know apply to me. Those same rules apply to my bank account. Sigh.