3 Steps To Lose Weight After 50 Without Tracking Forever
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Dr. Ruth Machin gives us the minimum-effort method:
Tracking’s days are numbered
Tracking calories can be useful. But it can also become time-consuming and tedious, especially when every meal needs to be logged, foods weighed, and restaurant meals estimated.
And yes, even when tracking, food intake is still easy to underestimate because things like cooking oil, dressings, spreads, snacks, and small portions are often forgotten, or otherwise misjudged, if you’re not applying your condiments with a lab syringe. Exercise calories can also be overestimated, particularly when relying on fitness trackers. Food labels themselves can have an allowed margin of error, so calorie tracking can create an impression of precision that the sources of the underlying numbers don’t necessarily justify.
Further, for some people, particularly those with a history of yo-yo dieting, constantly focusing on numbers can also reinforce a restrictive dieting mentality, and ultimately promote disordered eating and, by extension, eating disorders.
So, how to get the benefits without the problems?
Dr. Machin recommends that instead of tracking indefinitely, it can be useful to keep a 3-day food diary. Eat normally rather than changing your diet because you’re recording it, and include everything, such as cooking oils, dressings, snacks, and drinks.
Then do some number-crunching:
- First, find your target numbers: estimate your daily calorie and protein requirements based on your age, sex, height, weight, activity level, and goal. It’s important to get activity level as reasonably accurate as you can, because adequate food intake is important when exercising.
- Her own example she gives in the video yields approximately 2,118 kcal and 80–107g of protein per day, based on that she is 51 years old, 178cm tall, 67kg heavy, moderately active, and aiming to maintain her weight while building muscle. Individual needs will vary, so your figures that you calculate for yourself here are intended as a starting point rather than an exact prescription.
- Next, use a modest deficit for fat loss: here Dr. Machin suggests a 15% calorie reduction rather than aggressive restriction, since progress is only real if it’s sustainable.
Now, refer back to your 3-day food diary: compare your actual intake with your estimated needs. Look at whether you’re eating more or less than expected, which meals are particularly calorie-dense, and whether you’re getting enough fiber, protein, and micronutrients (Dr. Machin puts an emphasis on calcium here, though really, you need everything, and more common shortages are magnesium and potassium).
As for the rest, numbers are less important. Get plenty of non-starchy vegetables, enjoy whole fruit, opt for high-fiber carbs (ideally ones that also give a good portion of protein too), and enjoy healthy fats. Some foods like nuts, beans, and so forth can offer almost everything in one food, but obviously, don’t rely on just that (diversity is still important).
Lastly, relax. Your diet doesn’t have to be perfect and neither do you. Just look for the ways to improve it, and do your reasonable best to do it well.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
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Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Dietitian Explains: Why Disordered Eating Happens In Midlife
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Lychees vs Watermelon – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing lychees to watermelon, we picked the lychees.
Why?
In terms of macros, the lychees have more fiber, carbs, and protein, making them the more nutrient-dense option in this category.
In the category of vitamins, lychees have more of vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, C, E, and K, while watermelon has more of vitamins A and B1, yielding to lychees an 8:2 victory here.
Looking at minerals, lychees have more copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium, while watermelon has more calcium and zinc.
In other considerations, watermelon is a great source of lycopene, so that is a point in its favor.
Still, adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for lychees, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
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Metformin vs Cancer/Aging
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…and other items from this week’s health science news:
Metabolic health is more than most people think
Researchers (Dr. Emilie Lavallée et al.) found that ATP5I is a direct molecular target of metformin. This may not mean much to most readers, so: ATP5I is part of the enzyme complex that produces ATP, the primary “energy currency” of cells. Specifically it seems to help organize and assemble the ATP synthase machinery, rather than directly carrying out ATP production itself.
In other words: it helps your cellular energy mechanisms work better
As for why you should care about cellular energy mechanisms: you are made of cells, and the energy they have is the energy you have*.
*unless we want to get pedantic, in which case yes, you also have some gravitational potential energy due to your mass, including non-cellular mass, and its relationship to gravity. But that won’t help you get through your day, for the most part.
Usefully, this also highlights a likely reason why people who take metformin have a lower risk of many cancers, bearing in mind that while things like diabetes and heart disease are thought of as metabolic disorders (and they are), so are cancer and aging:
Read in full: Why metformin matters beyond diabetes: New target could reshape aging and cancer research
Related: How Metformin Reduces Long COVID Risk By 63%
Kidney disease is fast becoming epidemic
Bad news: early chronic kidney disease (CKD) often causes no noticeable symptoms, allowing kidney damage to progress for years before being detected.
Worse news: CKD has entered the world’s top 10 causes of death, with approximately 1.5 million deaths in the US attributed directly to the disease in 2023 (yes, science typically lags with numbers like that, because of peer review, here we are in 2026 at time of writing, reading stats from 2023, but it’s better to have correct stats from a couple of years ago than guess at more recent ones without appropriate scientific rigor).
Further, impaired kidney function contributed to about 12% of global cardiovascular deaths, making all-too-clear the strong connection between kidney disease and heart disease.
Underdiagnosis remains a major problem too: many people are never tested, so the true prevalence may be higher than current estimates suggest; researchers emphasized greater use of urine testing and kidney function screening in at-risk individuals.
Good news: treatment options are improving! Newer medications, including SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1–based therapies, and nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, can help protect kidney function and reduce cardiovascular risk in appropriate patients.
However, prevention definitely remains much better than treatment, so it’s as well to get ahead of things and check out our “related” link below to learn now:
Read in full: A silent kidney crisis is spreading far faster than experts expected
Related: Are your Kidneys Ok? Detect Early To Protect Kidney Health (Here’s How)
When industry has beef with scientists
Researchers (Dr. Katherine Sievert et al.) researchers reviewed 500 nutrition studies published between 2014 and 2023 that examined links between meat consumption and health outcomes, then compared study conclusions with declared funding sources, author affiliations, and conflicts of interest.
In few words: a lot of those 500 studies had some form of meat-industry involvement (i.e: the meat industry paid for those studies, in part or in full), and these studies were 16x more likely to conclude that meat was harmless, beneficial, or health-promoting than studies without such ties to the meat industry.
So, in other words: when encountering headlines claiming that meat is healthy, it is worth checking who funded the study, whether authors disclosed financial relationships, and whether the findings align with the broader body of independent evidence.
Read in full: How ‘big meat’ shapes science to give steak a healthy glow up
Related: What Health Difference Does Pasture-Raised Beef Actually Make?
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What’s the difference between period pain and endometriosis pain?
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Menstruation, or a period, is the bleeding that occurs about monthly in healthy people born with a uterus, from puberty to menopause. This happens when the endometrium, the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus, is shed.
Endometriosis is a condition that occurs when endometrium-like tissue is found outside the uterus, usually within the pelvic cavity. It is often considered a major cause of pelvic pain.
Pelvic pain significantly impacts quality of life. But how can you tell the difference between period pain and endometriosis?
Polina Zimmerman/Pexels Periods and period pain
Periods involve shedding the 4-6 millimetre-thick endometrial lining from the inside of the uterus.
As the lining detaches from the wall of the uterus, the blood vessels which previously supplied the lining bleed. The uterine muscles contract, expelling the blood and crumbled endometrium.
The crumbled endometrium and blood mostly pass through the cervix and vagina. But almost everyone back-bleeds via their fallopian tubes into their pelvic cavity. This is known as “retrograde menstruation”.
Most of the lining is shed through the vagina. Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock The process of menstrual shedding is caused by inflammatory substances, which also cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, aches, pains, dizziness, feeling faint, as well as stimulating pain receptors.
These inflammatory substances are responsible for the pain and symptoms in the week before a period and the first few days.
For women with heavy periods, their worst days of pain are usually the heaviest days of their period, coinciding with more cramps to expel clots and more retrograde bleeding.
Many women also have pain when they are releasing an egg from their ovary at the time of ovulation. Ovulation or mid-cycle pain can be worse in those who bleed more, as those women are more likely to bleed into the ovulation follicle.
Around 90% of adolescents experience period pain. Among these adolescents, 20% will experience such severe period pain they need time off from school and miss activities. These symptoms are too often normalised, without validation or acknowledgement.
What about endometriosis?
Many symptoms have been attributed to endometriosis, including painful periods, pain with sex, bladder and bowel-related pain, low back pain and thigh pain.
Other pain-related conditions such migraines and chronic fatigue have also been linked to endometriosis. But these other pain-related symptoms occur equally often in people with pelvic pain who don’t have endometriosis.
One in five adolescents who menstrate experience severe symptoms. CGN089/Shutterstock Repeated, significant period and ovulation pain can eventually lead some people to develop persistent or chronic pelvic pain, which lasts longer than six months. This appears to occur through a process known as central sensitisation, where the brain becomes more sensitive to pain and other sensory stimuli.
Central sensitisation can occur in people with persistent pain, independent of the presence or absence of endometriosis.
Eventually, many people with period and/or persistent pelvic pain will have an operation called a laparoscopy, which allows surgeons to examine organs in the pelvis and abdomen, and diagnose and treat endometriosis.
Yet only 50% of those with identical pain symptoms who undergo a laparoscopy will end up having endometriosis.
Endometriosis is also found in pain-free women. So we cannot predict who does and doesn’t have endometriosis from symptoms alone.
How is this pain managed?
Endometriosis surgery usually involves removing lesions and adhesions. But at least 30% of people return to pre-surgery pain levels within six months or have more pain than before.
After surgery, emergency department presentations for pain are unchanged and 50% have repeat surgery within a few years.
Suppressing periods using hormonal therapies (such as continuous oral contraceptive pills or progesterone-only approaches) can suppress endometriosis and reduce or eliminate pain, independent of the presence or absence of endometriosis.
Not every type or dose of hormonal medications suits everyone, so medications need to be individualised.
The current gold-standard approach to manage persistent pelvic pain involves a multidisciplinary team approach, with the aim of achieving sustained remission and improving quality of life. This may include:
- physiotherapy for pelvic floor and other musculoskeletal problems
- management of bladder and bowel symptoms
- support for self-managing pain
- lifestyle changes including diet and exercise
- psychological or group therapy, as our moods, stress levels and childhood events can affect how we feel and experience pain.
Whether you have period pain, chronic pelvic pain or pain you think is associated with endometriosis, if you feel pain, it’s real. If it’s disrupting your life, you deserve to be taken seriously and treated as the whole person you are.
Sonia R. Grover, Senior Research Fellow, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Gynaecology, The University of Melbourne
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Daily Activity Levels & The Measurable Difference They Make To Brain Health
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Most studies into the difference that exercise makes to cognitive decline are retrospective, i.e. they look backwards in time, asking participants what their exercise habits were like in the past [so many] years, and tallying that against their cognitive health in the present.
Some studies are interventional, and those are most often 3, 6, or 12 months, depending on funding. In those cases, they make a hypothesis (e.g. this intervention will boost this measure of brain health) and then test it.
However, humans aren’t generally great at making short term decisions for long term gains. In other words: if it’s rainy out, or you’re a little pushed for time, you’re likely to take the car over walking regardless of what data point this adjusts in an overarching pattern that will affect your brain’s amyloid-β clean-up rates in 5–20 years time.
Nine days
The study we’re going to look at today was a 9-day observational study, using smartphone-based tracking with check-ins every 3½ hours, with participants reporting their physical activity as light, moderate, or intense (these terms were defined and exemplified, so that everyone involved was singing from the same songsheet in terms of what activities constitute what intensity).
The sample size was reasonable (n=204) and was generally heterogenous sample (i.e. varied in terms of sex, racial background, and fitness level) of New Yorkers aged 40–65.
So, the input variable was activity level, and the output variable was cognitive fitness.
As to how they measured the output, two brain games assessed:
- cognitive processing speed, and
- working memory (a proxy for executive function).
What they found:
- participants active within the last 3½ hours had faster processing speed, equivalent to being four years younger
- response times in the working memory (for: executive function) task reflected similar processing speed improvements, for participants active in the last 3½ hours
And, which is important to note,
❝This benefit was observed regardless of whether the activities they reported were higher intensity (e.g., running/jogging) or lower intensity (e.g., walking, chores).❞
Source: Cognitive Health Benefits of Everyday Physical Activity in a Diverse Sample of Middle-Aged Adults
Practical take-away:
Move more often! At least every couple of hours (when not sleeping)!
The benefits will benefit you in the now, as well as down the line.
See also:
The Doctor Who Wants Us To Exercise Less, & Move More
and, for that matter:
Do You Love To Go To The Gym? No? Enjoy These “No-Exercise Exercises”!
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How To Regrow Receding Gums
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One of the problems with the human form is that our teeth evolved to last us for the whole of our life, with plenty of room to spare before our eventual death at the ripe old age of about 35 on average. Dr. Ellie Phillips advises those of us who might be a bit older than that, on how we can avoid becoming “too long in the tooth”—in other words, how to keep our gums, and thus our teeth, in place and healthy.
Getting to the root of the problem
The single biggest cause of gum recession is an acidic environment in the mouth, which harms teeth and gums alike. This acidic environment is produced not merely by consuming acid foods or drinks, but also (and much more often, and more problematically) by sugary foods and drinks, which are not necessarily themselves acidic, but they feed bacteria that release acids as a by-product of their metabolism. If we consume an acidic food or drink, it’s there for a moment, but if we then salivate and/or take a drink of water, it’s pretty much gone in a few seconds. But those bacteria when we feed them sugar? They are there to stay unless we do something more about them than just drink some water.
Other contributing factors to gum recession include teeth grinding, and (ironically) certain oral care products, especially many artificial teeth whiteners.
In case you were wondering: no, brushing will not* generally cause or even worsen gum recession, but flossing can exacerbate it if it’s already underway.
*unless, of course, you are using one of the whiteners we mentioned above
What to do about it: Dr. Phillips recommends:
- use a moderately firm toothbrush to massage gums and promote blood flow
- avoid acidic oral products and homemade remedies even if they’re not acidic but can be caustic, such as baking soda
- rebuild your gums’ and teeth’s protective biofilm (yes, there are “good bacteria” that are supposed to be there) with proper brushing
- avoid cleanings that are more intensive than brushing—skip flossing until your gums have recovered, too
- adjust your diet to avoid acids and (especially) sugars
10almonds note: she also recommends the use of xylitol to promote a healthy oral environment; we don’t recommend that, as while it may be great for the teeth, studies have found it to be bad for the heart.
For more on all of her advices and a bit more of the science of it, enjoy:
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Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
- Toothpastes & Mouthwashes: Which Help And Which Harm?
- Flossing Without Flossing?
- Less Common Oral Hygiene Options ← including the miswak “chewing stick”, which even outperformed toothbrushes in clinical trials, by biochemically altering the composition of the saliva while gently cleaning like a toothbrush.
- Fluoride Toothpaste vs Non-Fluoride Toothpaste – Which is Healthier?
- Non-Alcohol Mouthwash vs Alcohol Mouthwash – Which is Healthier?
- Xylitol vs Erythritol – Which is Healthier?
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Will my boobs sag if I don’t wear a bra? And 5 other common questions about breasts and bras
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We’re all born with mammary glands – better known as breasts. These are made of glandular tissue, fat and the ligaments that attach them to our chest wall.
For roughly half of us – those born biologically female – our breasts will change dramatically in size and shape at puberty. Size is largely genetic: genes explain 56% of the differences in breast size between people. But breasts may also change during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and can be affected by age, diet and exercise.
So, what about bras?
There are a lot of popular beliefs about when, how and what kind of bra to wear to stop your boobs sagging or make them grow. But is there any evidence behind these?
Before we myth bust, let’s get one thing straight: breasts are sisters, not twins. So, while your bra is symmetrical, it’s normal your breasts aren’t.
Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock 1. Do bras give you cancer?
No, there is no evidence to show wearing a bra is linked to developing breast cancer.
This myth seems to come from the idea bras can block lymphatic drainage, but there is no evidence to support this or any other cancer-causing mechanism.
One study, involving more than 1,000 women aged 55 to 74, compared those diagnosed with breast cancer to those without. Researchers found no aspect of bra-wearing – including how many hours per day and whether it had an underwire – was linked to breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women.
Risk factors for breast cancer are well established and include being female, over 50 years old, having a family history of breast cancer, and lifestyle factors such as inactivity and drinking a lot of alcohol.
2. Does sleeping in a bra stop your boobs growing?
No. Wearing a bra – day or night – won’t affect their size.
Breasts grow thanks to hormones, which are regulated by your brain. Nutrition and overall health can also play a role; for example, if you lose body fat, your breasts may also shrink.
There is no evidence to suggest sleeping with a bra has a negative effect on their growth.
So, it comes down to comfort. Women with larger breasts may find a bra reduces how much their breasts move during sleep, while others may find it uncomfortable.
If sleeping in a bra is comfortable for you, don’t worry – it doesn’t affect boob size. Willie B. Thomas/Getty 3. Will wearing a bra stop my breasts sagging?
No.
Gravity affects everyone, meaning breasts will sag as we age. But larger breasts are affected more by gravitational forces pulling them towards the ground. This may stretch the skin and ligaments over time, making them sag more.
Being pregnant also usually makes your breasts grow bigger and this – along with milk production affecting their composition – can increase strain, potentially stretching skin and ligaments.
Some other factors can also increase this effect, including being older, having a higher body mass index, having multiple pregnancies and smoking. Even surgically reduced breasts sag more with smoking.
However, breastfeeding does not appear to make breasts saggy.
So, while we don’t have evidence to show bras can prevent natural sagging, a well-fitted one may offer support and comfort.
4. Should you only exercise in a sports bra?
Yes. Breasts and bras move with your body. The pull of gravity on your breasts has the potential to cause damage by straining the skin and breaking collagen fibres which support the structure of the breast.
Again, this is more likely to affect women with larger breasts. Researchers found when women with D-cups exercised without a sports bra, their breasts moved up and down about 4 centimetres when walking. When they ran, their breasts bounced about 15cm – the height of your smartphone.
High-impact sports bras are the most effective at reducing breast movement and discomfort, compared to crop tops and everyday bras.
So exercising in a bandeau or “boob tube” bra – like these Roman women in a 4th century mosaic – is not recommended.
These strips of fabric pulled across the chest don’t offer support against gravity and bounce. izanbar/Getty 5. Can underwire bras injure your boobs?
Yes. It’s possible for underwires from bras to escape their casing and scratch or dig into your breast skin, but this has not been studied.
However, one 2023 study found women who wear underwire bras after breast implants are 2.7 more times likely to have them rupture. This suggests underwire bras can put more pressure on breasts.
One case study in 2014 suggested a tight underwire bra was responsible for blocking and inflaming breast veins, causing pain and breast tissue to harden.
However we don’t have evidence this condition is common, and it can be avoided by wearing correctly fitted bras. If you have breast pain or notice unusual lumps or changes, speak to a doctor.
6. Should I get fitted if I have small breasts?
Yes. Wearing a poorly fitting bra can cause unnecessary discomfort, even if you have small breasts.
One study of 309 Australian women, with bra cup sizes ranging from A to K, found only one in ten were wearing a bra that fitted correctly. This affected women with small, medium, large and extremely large breasts equally.
Most had an incorrectly fitting backband (either too loose or too tight) and the wrong cup size. However women with smaller breasts were more likely to have badly fitting bra straps while women with medium or larger breasts were more likely to have ill-fitting front bands and underwire.
A 2018 review of evidence about women with benign but unidentified breast pain (mastalgia) also found most experienced relief when offered bra-fitting advice and reassurance from their GP.
Amanda Meyer, Senior Lecturer, Anatomy and Pathology in the College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University and Monika Zimanyi, Associate Professor in Anatomy, James Cook University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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