Skip to main content

Does LCHF Work for 40+ Women?

A commenter on another blog said, "Calories count: ask any woman over 40. Oh wait, you notice LCHF never mentions them or shows their success stories."

I'm not sure where this person got that idea. Maybe he's new to LCHF; it seems to me like there's a lot of us out there who eat this way without counting calories. Three years ago, at age 41, 20 pounds fell off when I whacked back the carbs. I've kept it off and stayed pretty close to what I weighed in high school. Amy Alkon, Mary Dan Eades and Jackie Eberstein come to mind as LC ladies of a certain age; I'm sure I'm forgetting dozens more.

Here's a photo of me taken June 3, 2013, age 44. (I wanted to show my best friend what I wore to see Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson, since she pictured me in a lavender shirt, white linen pants, and starchy bag with a bottle of Perrier.)


Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow! Lookin' hot, Lori!
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Carole. Looks like you've done great on LCHF yourself. :)

It was kind of fun to be one of the few people there wearing white.
Galina L. said…
Well, I tryed both after 45. I got more fat on a minimal animal products/hight wholegrains, veggies,fruits/no sugar diet because I was insanely hangry all the time to keep calories low. I got from size 16 to 12 on LCHF diet, and also stopped having asthma, flues, cat allergy, urinary tract infections, hot flashes and more nasty things. Should I feel sorry that I didn't get skinny?
Lori Miller said…
I'd call those results a success.
Anonymous said…
That's a lot of great health improvements Galina.
Not to be sneezed at!
:)
tess said…
I haven't taken off impressive numbers of pounds, just 20ish with "the last ten" to go, but like Galina my health has improved tremendously. I think we might become more intolerant of the toxic foods younger people may be able to use with impunity, but GOK we're used to controlling what we choose to consume.... I'll be 58 next month (EEEEEEK!)
Lori Miller said…
Happy early birthday, Tess, and many happy returns!

I know some people (esp. women) call a diet a failure if they don't lose that last ten pounds. But like you and Galina, I've seen so many health improvements on LCHF that even if I were 10 or 20 pounds heavier, I'd call the diet a success.
Galina L. said…
Thank you, Carole and Lory. You both look gorgeous, btw.
Galina L. said…
When I started a LC diet, just avoiding a further weight gain felt like a success. After 45 I realised how low (healthwise) could I go. Many who are 40+ find themselwes in the same health trap, and looking differently than a movie star could be not that high on a priority list.
There's a lot of us girls out there who have discovered LCHF and the improvements it can and does bring to health.I certainly wouldn't go back to any other diet/lifestyle, but I appreciate we all have to make our choices and do what is best for us.The older you get the more you appreciate good health

All the best Jan

(PS Early Happy Birthday to Tess)
Lori Miller said…
Of course, the older you get, the harder it is to lose weight on any diet. But hey, I'm glad someone was out there yesterday to mansplain it to me.
Lori Miller said…
I hear that. I started LC to get rid of the hell in my stomach. The day I started this blog, I was in the worst pain of my life with an abcessed tooth. My left shoulder hurt too much to carry a purse and my teeth hurt. All those problems are gone now; the weight loss was a pleasant side effect. Even if I still needed to lose weight, there's NOTHING that could budge me from LC and send me back to all those health problems.
I am one of those women who isn't losing the "last 10" with LCHF, but on a typical calorie-reduction plan, my metabolism shuts down, and when I add carbs, I gain every time. So it is really a no-brainer for me, too. I am so sick of supposed experts staw-manning their way to popularity on various blogs with this calorie thing. They are getting desperate (not Jimmy, lol!)
Lori Miller said…
He was an empty vessel making a lot of noise.
Lori Miller said…
I see that Sharon Osbourne lost 30 pounds at age 59 on Atkins. (Full disclosure: she's a paid spokesperson for Atkins.) Her blog is here:
http://blogs.atkins.com/Blogs/Sharon%20Osbourne/Default.aspx

Popular posts from this blog

Thanksgiving recipes for Pumpkin Pie & Cranberries--printable!

If you'd rather read a printed recipe than watch a video, here are my recent recipes for Better than Grandma's Pumpkin Pie and Probiotic Cranberry-Apple Relish.  Hat tip to Dana Carpender, whose pumpkin pie recipe inspired this one. The cranberry-apple ferment is entirely my own creation.  Pumpkin Pie--no grains, sugar or emulsifiers Crust 2 cups shelled raw pecans 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon monk fruit powder* (or 3 tablespoons sugar substitute) 4 tablespoons butter, melted 2 tablespoons water Pumpkin Pie Filling 1 pie pumpkin 1-1/2 cups half and half (with no thickeners) 3 eggs 3-4 teaspoons monk fruit powder* (or 3/4 cup sugar substitute) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice Preheat the oven to 350F. Stab the top of the pumpkin all the way through the flesh in a few places at the top. Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour. Let cool. While the pumpkin is baking, put the pecans in a food processor with the S blade and run until they are finely...

Cigna is Making Progress

Yesterday as I put my lunch in the refrigerator at work, I noticed a bunch of unfamiliar people in the break room. One of them, Pepe, started in: they were there for the health fair, they would check your cholesterol, the sugar in your blood, your height, your weight, and it would just take six minutes. A coworker asked him if he'd ever considered a career in sales. Just for blog fodder, I participated. They really were fast, and one even found me at my desk (in an office nearly half the size of a city block) after the tests were finished. My HDL cholesterol was 65--up from 42 from a year and a half ago, and up from 57, where it was last year when I'd been three months a low-carb diet . A level over 60 is considered good. I haven't taken any medication to make this happen. I went on a low-carb diet and eliminated wheat. I also take vitamin and mineral supplements in addition to a high-nutrient diet. What impressed me more, though, was that the nurse (and Cigna) said that bl...

Fly with Reuteri

If you're planning to travel by plane and you want to keep enjoying the benefits of l. reuteri yogurt, you might have gotten sticker shock from the price of l. reuteri probiotics. MyReuteri * costs $46 to $83 for 30 capsules, depending on the CFUs (colony-forming units, or the number of viable microorganisms). If you're thinking about economizing by putting some yogurt in a sturdy container and taking it with you, you can do that. I'll break down the pros and cons and look at some alternatives.  Photo from Unsplash . Cost Yogurt might be less expensive than probiotics, but it isn't free. A half-cup serving costs about 70¢ to make if you start with a previous batch. It contains about 90 billion CFUs if fermented for 36 hours.  This is a lot less than $5.56 for two capsules of 50 billion CFU MyReuteri, but for a one-week vacation, you'd only save $34 by eating yogurt instead. (You can freeze any unused capsules for later.)  Furthermore, the yogurt would have to go in ...

30-second Fix for a Cracked Stick Blender

Use Mighty Fixit (if you still have some from 2012) or Rescue Tape (which looks like a similar product) to fix a cracked stick blender. After I fixed the attachment, I washed it in the sink and the tape held up. I also wrapped a knife handle several years ago, and it's been through thousands of washings.

No Dairy BiotiQuest Ferment in Apples + Cranberries + Celery

Can you have too much l. reuteri or SIBO yogurt? Yes--more than 1/2 cup of yogurt a day can raise your insulin or, in some people, cause sinus congestion or an upset stomach. Luckily, there are other foods you can ferment.  One of my favorites is apples, cranberries and celery fermented with BiotiQuest Ideal Immunity probiotics. This recipe is slightly different from the one I posted before--I've left out the brown sugar and maple syrup since the apples provide plenty of sugar.  Here's my four-minute video showing how to make it: You can buy the seedling mat here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IDQD32Y/ref=dp_iou_view_item?ie=UTF8&th=1