Ladies, at what age did you realize that you need to drastically reduce portion size?

[Anonymous]

It only happens if you decrease your activity and let your muscles atrophy. If you exercise regularly and maintain your muscle mass there is no reason to decrease portion sizes. Age per se is not a reason to eat less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

Hmm I do this and wear size 2.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

I want to join this club. Adopt me!

[Anonymous]

Early 40’s. I eat so much less now and scale barely moves. Was so easy all the way to 35.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50. Perimenopause. I’m beginning to eat like my grandmother did.

Also, alcohol feels like it’s poisoning my body. I can feel it the next day even after one glass. Another grandmother characteristic. 🙄

+1 on the alcohol. It's crazy.

Can someone share info on this? I had half a glass of red wine on Valentine’s Day and felt drowsy and ended up falling asleep. I haven’t had any alcohol since (have always been a minimal drinker, max 2 drinks a week) so don’t really know what is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

I want to join this club. Adopt me!

Everyone is welcome in Size 10 Livin’! Or whatever your personal “size 10” is. If I didn’t put in any effort, I could easily be a size 14. If I put in an insane amount of effort, I could be a 6. But to me, Size 10 Livin’ is where I want to be. I don’t want to do mental gymnastics just because I decide to eat some popcorn at the movies with my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just str
ong and healthy, enjoying life.

Hmm I do this and wear size 2.

“Hmm,” OK? I’m 5’11 and my sister is 5’10. If you are a better person because you are a size 2, that’s great. I think my sister is the best person I know: she and her husband fostered and later adopted a girl who really need a home, and she is a grief counselor and a hospital chaplain. I really admire her, who she is, and what she does. I’m also proud that we both at one point held state swimming records. You sound great, though, what with your insistence on trying to make total strangers feel inferior to you based simply on their size.

Being 5'11 and 5'10 does not mean you have to be a size 10. Do you think Giselle Bunchen wears a size 10 just because she is tall? My point is that if you're actually exercising, eating healthfully, paying attention to portion sizes and enjoying life, you do not have to resign yourself to being a size 10. If you're comfortable with that, great! I would not be comfortable at that size. I had to buy size 10 jeans when I was in the early post partum phase and I did not like how I looked and felt at that size.

You seem weirdly defensive though.

Are you slow? The whole point is I AM comfortable at a size 10. So I guess we’re at “great” and not “but don’t you want to be like ME”? IDGAF what size you are or what size you are comfortable with. I’m living my life. You should get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

Hmm I do this and wear size 2.

“Hmm,” OK? I’m 5’11 and my sister is 5’10. If you are a better person because you are a size 2, that’s great. I think my sister is the best person I know: she and her husband fostered and later adopted a girl who really need a home, and she is a grief counselor and a hospital chaplain. I really admire her, who she is, and what she does. I’m also proud that we both at one point held state swimming records. You sound great, though, what with your insistence on trying to make total strangers feel inferior to you based simply on their size.

NP. Okay, but this isn’t a post about best person you know, it’s about weight. And you chose to participate in it. PP’s response was a little betchy, but yours was over the top. No one said you and your sister were bad people. It seems like weight is a sore spot and maybe this thread is not a healthy place for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

Hmm I do this and wear size 2.

“Hmm,” OK? I’m 5’11 and my sister is 5’10. If you are a better person because you are a size 2, that’s great. I think my sister is the best person I know: she and her husband fostered and later adopted a girl who really need a home, and she is a grief counselor and a hospital chaplain. I really admire her, who she is, and what she does. I’m also proud that we both at one point held state swimming records. You sound great, though, what with your insistence on trying to make total strangers feel inferior to you based simply on their size.

NP. Okay, but this isn’t a post about best person you know, it’s about weight. And you chose to participate in it. PP’s response was a little betchy, but yours was over the top. No one said you and your sister were bad people. It seems like weight is a sore spot and maybe this thread is not a healthy place for you.

Do you get that this thread was constructive and encouraging until PP came along and decided to make unnecessary comparisons? Guess what, people are tired of Mean Girls and Mean Girl behavior. This is a thread mostly for women in their 40s, 50s, 60s by all accounts. So yeah, if Sneering Sally comes along, she might get a taste of her own medicine. Don’t come here with your BS. Really, most of us are over the Mean Girls and we’re not intimidated by them or indulging them at this point in the game.

[Anonymous]

Age 44. I gained 20 pounds and never lost it. I am a life-long athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about intentionally eating smaller portions, but I naturally started eating way smaller portions in my 20s (probably in part because I was paying for my own food and was motivated to be frugal lol), then huge portions when pregnant/breastfeeding, and now scaling back again as my kids get older/my hormones return to normal. I’m still bigger than I was pre-pregnancy but that’s at least partly because I don’t exercise as much any more. Trying to get that back…

This is what I was going to say. I've just generally noticed a decline in my appetite over the last 4-5 years (I'm 44, youngest child is 6). At this point I only eat one large meal a day (either lunch or dinner) and the rest of the time I'm eating what I would previously have considered a "robust snack." So I don't find I have to deny myself larger portions -- a restaurant-sized portion now just looks like two meals to me.

The flip side of this is that it's not like I always crave healthy foods -- I've always loved carbs, fats, and sweets. So when I'm eating smaller meals, I have to pay attention because my tendency will be to just eat the protein (and fat) heavy part of the meal and skip the veggies and fiber. Last year I started meal prepping on the weekend so that I could prepare easy small salads for weekday lunches, which helps me do a better job of eating something balanced in one smallish dish, instead of just eating a bagel with cream cheese and feeling too full for anything with actual nutrients in it.

PP, this is what I have been struggling with as well. A lot of it is based on my monthly cycles, and it’s nice for a week or two to not be ravenous or actually hungry at all, no matter how much I work out, but it tends to lead to making poor choices and somewhat disordered eating overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

Yes! I am focusing less on the scale and trying to get into a two-piece and more on how much I can squat and deadlift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

This is me. I was a chubby but active kid and spent too many years trying to count calories and diet to no avail. It was only when I stopped all of that and just embraced feeling healthy and enjoying life when my weight stabilized and I stopped overeating. At 40 I eat whatever I want and stay active and don’t stress the number on the scale.

[Anonymous]

I have never modified how I eat. When I was in college I had food problems, anorexia and bulimia. I stopped that and have never tried to restrict my eating. I eat a very healthy diet, no alcohol, fresh fruits and vegetables, organic meats, nuts, no gluten, yet I continue to gain weight, about a pound a year. It's frustrating.
I do try to eat less food in the evening so I'm not bloated when I go to bed. I'm in my late 50s, went through menopause at 55.
I have consciously tried to increase my activity, including tennis, running, lifting weights, and just hrisk walking. It seems to help.
But going hungry is not an option for me. Spiraling into disordered eating would be so much worse than wearing size 14. I was a size 6 pre children, so it upsets me, but I'm never foing there again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, and my 46yo sister and I have embraced what we call “Size 10 Livin’.” This is where you do exercise, you do try to eat healthfully, you do pay attention to your portion sizes…but you also live. You also enjoy yourself. You are healthy, but your goal is not to be “slim” or “skinny,” just strong and healthy, enjoying life.

Hmm I do this and wear size 2.

Sorry you have to pay attention to portion sizes to remain a size 2. Some of us are able to eat and drink whatever we want to be that size or even a 0 or 00.

That’s great pp! I am personally very comfortable with my body at size 2- I think at this point I would look emaciated at size 00. Glad you have found a weight and lifestyle that works for you.

…..Oh wait there is literally 0 way the above pp is actually an effortless size 2. My money is on a bitter size 16 hoping to make me feel bad about having to maintain a healthy lifestyle to be a size 2. Sorry didn’t work!