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Eat Enough to Stay Strong — An appealing tray of small nutrient-dense meals and snacks beside an older adult, emphasizing appetite support, dignity, and strength.
Book 24 of the series

Eat Enough to Stay Strong

A Practical Guide to Low Appetite, Unintentional Weight Loss, and Better Nutrition After 60

Weight that comes off on its own is telling you something. This book helps you read it and turn it around.

Three ways to have it

  • Paperback$13.99Not yet printable

    5.5 × 8.5 in, 120 pages, posted to you. ISBN not yet issued

  • Ebook$4.99

    EPUB, reads on any e-reader, phone or tablet. ISBN 979-8-90623-733-0

  • Audiobook$9.99

    About 2h 37m, narrated in full. ISBN 979-8-90623-734-7

Read the opening free Prices and delivery

What it is for

For anyone over sixty who is eating less than they need and losing weight they did not intend to lose, and for the family members who noticed.

What it will not do

It is not medical advice and cannot find the cause of your weight loss, treat a swallowing problem, or tell you what supplements or how much of them to take.

What this guide is about

The trousers are looser and nobody is pleased about it. Meals get smaller without any decision ever being made. Cooking for one starts to feel like more trouble than it is worth, so lunch becomes tea and toast, and soon dinner does too. Then somebody says you look thinner, and they do not mean it kindly.

This is the opposite of a diet book. It is for the person whose appetite has thinned out and who is losing weight, muscle, and strength without meaning to. The stakes are worth naming plainly. What comes off unintentionally is not only fat. A good part of it is muscle, and muscle after sixty is what gets you out of a chair, up the stairs, and back on your feet if you stumble.

Start here, and start with your doctor. Unexplained weight loss and a fading appetite should be checked, and any trouble swallowing needs prompt assessment. The book says so repeatedly rather than skirting it.

Around that sit roughly 25,000 words across ten illustrated chapters: why appetite fades and which causes can be addressed, how to make every bite work harder, small meals and planned snacks, taste and smell and enjoyment, chewing and swallowing, the medicines and moods and illnesses that flatten hunger, getting food into the house when shopping and cooking are hard, tracking recovery, and eating with other people without feeling watched.

Then a 30-day plan of small wins, a food and appetite diary, questions for your care team, a five-sentence phone call for asking for help, a support circle worksheet, a weekly two-minute check, a quick-reference card, a glossary, and plain-language sources.

No doses, no supplement prescriptions, no medical advice.

Inside the book

Every chapter, with the sentence it opens on.

The chapters

  1. Low Appetite Is InformationMarguerite is seventy-eight, and for fifty years she made her living with a needle.
  2. Make Every Bite Work HarderStart with a bowl of porridge, because it makes the whole idea visible.
  3. Small Meals and Planned SnacksRuth keeps a clock on her kitchen wall that her late husband hung there forty years ago, and lately she's started using it in a way she never expected.
  4. Taste, Smell, and EnjoymentTomás put down his fork and said the thing out loud for the first time.
  5. Chewing and SwallowingPriya coughed at the dinner table again, the third time that week, and this time her granddaughter noticed.
  6. Medicines, Mood, and IllnessHank lined up his pills on the kitchen windowsill every morning, the way he had since his wife started him doing it.
  7. Make Food Easier to ObtainGloria's problem wasn't appetite, not at the start.
  8. Track Recovery and EscalateSamuel keeps a diary, and it saved him some grief.
  9. Eating With Others and Accepting HelpYusuf ate standing up at the kitchen counter, and he did it fast, and he was usually done in four minutes.
  10. A Recovery Plan for Strength and WeightBernadette broke her hip in the spring, and the fall wasn't the worst of it.

And at the back

  • When It Feels Hard: Troubleshooting the Real Barriers
  • Common Myths, Gently Corrected
  • Your 30-Day Plan
  • Worksheets, Scripts, and Reusable Frames
  • Quick-Reference Card
  • A Small Glossary
  • Sources and Further Reading
  • A Closing Word
  • About the Series
  • About the Author

The thirty days

Here is the whole book turned into thirty small actions, one a day, each different from the last. None takes long. None asks you to overhaul your life. The idea is to do a little every day, so that by the end of the month the habits are laid down and eating enough feels less like effort and more like just how your days go.

  1. Write down everything you eat and drink today, honestly, as it happens. Just observe. No changes yet.
  2. Do the same again, and look at the two days together. Notice the real shape of your eating.
  3. Check your own signals: are clothes, rings, or a belt looser than a few months ago? Note what you find.
  4. If the signs point to real weight or appetite loss, make the doctor's appointment today. Write down the one plain sentence you'll open with.
  5. Find the longest stretch in your day when you eat nothing. Choose one grab-and-eat snack to put in that gap tomorrow.
  6. Set up a snack shelf: one spot in the cupboard, one in the fridge, stocked with things you can eat without cooking.
  7. Set up your simple tracker, a notebook by the kettle or a note on your phone, and write today's first line.
  8. At one meal, add one rich thing: butter, grated cheese, a swirl of cream, a spoon of peanut butter. Same meal, one enrichment.
  9. Enrich your breakfast properly, whole milk, butter, an egg if you can, since appetite is often best in the morning.
  10. Switch to whole milk in everything, and choose the full-fat yogurt today instead of the diet one.
  11. Make one nourishing between-meal drink: a milky coffee, or a milkshake with full-fat milk, ice cream, and a banana blended in.
  12. Add protein to a meal that had little, an egg, some cheese, tinned fish, beans, so every main meal has some.
  13. Try eating little and often: add one small snack between each meal today, using your snack shelf.
  14. Look back at your tracker for the week. Did the small additions add up? Note one word for how it's going.
  15. At one meal, turn the flavour up: an extra squeeze of lemon, a heavier hand with herbs or pepper, a spoon of chutney or mustard.
  16. Test something fresh: try a food cold instead of hot, or sharp instead of mild, and notice which is easier to eat.
  17. If your mouth runs dry, keep water by you all day and sip alongside meals. Notice if eating gets easier.
  18. If chewing or swallowing has been hard, write the plain sentence for your doctor, and book the conversation about a dentist or swallowing assessment.
  19. Put all your medicines and supplements in a bag to take to your doctor or pharmacist, with the question: could any affect my appetite?
  20. Cook one extra portion of something and freeze it in a single serving, for a low-energy day to come.
  21. Have one no-cook meal today, on purpose, and count it a win. Real food, minutes to make.
  22. Invite one person to share a meal with you this week, in person or on the phone. Send the message today.
  23. Look up one shared-meal option nearby, a lunch club, senior group, or community meal, and find out when it meets.
  24. Turn a vague offer of help into a specific ask: one portion, one lunch, one added item on someone's shop.
  25. Look into one way to make getting food easier: a delivery option, or one person to add your list to their shop.
  26. Ask your doctor about gentle movement suited to you, or, if you have one, do your physiotherapist's exercises today.
  27. Pair one eating habit with one gentle movement, and do both, food and movement together.
  28. Sit down to a proper meal at a set place, with company if you can, unhurried. Notice how much easier eating is that way.
  29. Run your two-minute weekly check: weight or clothes-fit, strength, eating, and one honest word. Compare it to Day 7.
  30. Choose the two or three things from this month that helped most, and decide to keep just those. Small and kept beats big and dropped.

Pages from this book

Real pages, at the size they print. In the paperback these are black and white; the cover keeps its colour.

An older adult naming emotions and choosing support, shown with calm body language and non-stigmatizing symbolism.
An older adult naming emotions and choosing support, shown with calm body language and non-stigmatizing symbolism.
A calm thirty-day progression as four weekly clusters and two review days, simple shapes, no readable text.
A calm thirty-day progression as four weekly clusters and two review days, simple shapes, no readable text.
Concentric support rings — self, trusted people, community, professionals — shown through people and symbols, no words.
Concentric support rings — self, trusted people, community, professionals — shown through people and symbols, no words.
A four-stage decision path shown as visual stations with a calm older adult moving through them, no words.
A four-stage decision path shown as visual stations with a calm older adult moving through them, no words.

Words this book makes plain

Appetite
The desire to eat. It can fade with age, illness, low mood, or certain medicines, and its absence doesn't prove you don't need food.
Undernutrition
Not getting enough nourishment for your body's needs, from eating too little, or too little of the right things, over time. It's what this book helps you prevent and turn around.
Unintentional (or unintended) weight loss
Weight coming off without your trying to lose it. It's worth a doctor's attention whatever your starting size, because the unintended part is the signal.
Muscle loss
The gradual loss of muscle that tends to come with age, sped up by undereating. It matters because muscle is what keeps you strong, steady, and independent. Doctors sometimes call the age-related form sarcopenia.
Protein
The part of food your body uses to build and keep muscle. Found in eggs, fish, meat, beans and lentils, and dairy. Getting some at each meal helps protect your strength.
Energy density
How much fuel a food carries for its size. Butter, cheese, and nuts are high; lettuce and clear broth are low. When eating small, you want more of the high kind, so each bite counts.
Enriching (or fortifying) food
Adding rich ingredients, butter, cream, cheese, oil, nuts, to ordinary food so a small portion carries more nourishment, without making the plate bigger.
Little and often
Eating small amounts many times a day rather than three big meals, which suits a small appetite better.
Dysphagia
The medical word for difficulty swallowing. It needs prompt medical attention, and often an assessment by a speech-language pathologist.
Speech-language pathologist (speech and language therapist)
The specialist who assesses and helps with swallowing difficulties, among other things. Your doctor can refer you.
Registered dietitian
A qualified professional who assesses what your body needs and builds an eating plan around your health, tastes, and life. The right person when self-help isn't enough.
Dry mouth
A lack of saliva that makes chewing, swallowing, and tasting harder. Often a side effect of medicines, and worth mentioning to your doctor or pharmacist.
Oral nutritional supplements
The high-energy drinks and powders sold to boost nourishment. They have a place for some people, best on top of real food, and whether they suit you is a question for your doctor or dietitian.

The words to use

Copy these out, print them, or keep them in a note on your phone. They are yours to use.

The Two-Day Eating Picture

Before you change anything, see what's actually happening. For two days, jot down every food and drink, roughly, as it happens, no editing and no judgment.

  • Morning: _______________________
  • Mid-morning: _______________________
  • Midday: _______________________
  • Afternoon: _______________________
  • Evening: _______________________
  • Before bed: _______________________

At the end of two days, ask yourself three plain questions: Where are the long gaps with nothing in them? Which meals am I leaving half-eaten? Is there protein and richness in this, or mostly bulk and fluid? That picture is the thing to build on, and the thing to show your doctor.

The Enrich-It Checklist

Keep this where you cook. Before any meal, run down it and add one or two things.

  • Butter, melted into or spread onto it
  • Grated cheese, stirred in or on top
  • Cream or full-fat milk, swirled through
  • Olive oil, poured over vegetables or into soup
  • Peanut butter or ground nuts
  • An extra egg
  • A sauce or gravy to add moisture and fuel

The question that runs the whole checklist: what can I add to make this count for more?

The Little-and-Often Day

A shape to borrow, not a rule to obey. Set reminders for the times your appetite tends to forget.

  • On waking: something small and easy
  • Breakfast: enriched, since morning appetite is often best
  • Mid-morning: a snack from the shelf
  • Lunch: small, with protein
  • Mid-afternoon: a snack or nourishing drink
  • Dinner: small and warm, nothing you dread
  • Before bed: a milky drink and a little something

Scripts for the Conversations That Matter

The right words, ready to borrow, for the talks that are hardest to start.

To your doctor, about weight or appetite: "I've been eating much less than usual, and I've lost weight without trying to. I'd like to find out why."

To your doctor, about swallowing: "Swallowing has become harder, and sometimes I cough or feel food stick when I eat or drink. I'd like it looked at, and I've read I should ask about seeing a speech-language pathologist."

To your doctor or pharmacist, about medicines: "My appetite dropped and I've lost weight. Could we review my medicines with that in mind? I've brought them all with me."

To your doctor, about mood: "I've lost my appetite, and honestly I've lost interest in a lot of things lately. I think the two might be connected."

To a family member, turning worry into help: "Here's what would actually help me: could you bring an extra portion when you cook on Sundays? I'd eat well off that for days."

To a friend, about company: "Would you have lunch with me on Thursdays? I eat better with company, honestly, and I'd love to see you."

To family who push too hard: "I know you're worried, and I love you for it. Big plates overwhelm me and the nagging makes it harder. What helps most is small portions, rich food, and your company without the commentary."

The Weekly Two-Minute Check

Once a week, same day, answer four things and note them. Over weeks, the answers show you the trend that memory hides.

  1. Weight or clothes-fit versus last week: up / down / same
  2. Strength (chair, stairs, jar, walk): easier / harder / same
  3. Eating over the week: more / less / about the same
  4. One honest word for how it's going: _______________

If the trend is flat or downward over a few weeks, that's your cue to go back to your doctor and ask about a dietitian. Not a failure. A sensible next step.

The Support Circle Worksheet

Nobody does this alone, and mapping who's around you makes asking easier. Fill in each ring with real names and specifics. The point is to see that help exists, and to have names ready when you need them.

The middle, you. What's the one barrier that most gets in your way right now? Getting food, cooking it, low appetite, eating alone, a sore mouth, low mood? Name it: _______________

The first ring. The people close to you. Family, friends, neighbours you'd trust with a small, specific ask. Write down who, and the one thing you'd ask each for: - _______________ could help with _______________ - _______________ could help with _______________ - _______________ could help with _______________

The second ring, community and services. Lunch clubs, senior groups, faith communities, meal-delivery schemes, volunteer shoppers, your library or council's information desk. What's near you? - _______________ - _______________

The outer ring. The professionals. The people whose job this is: your doctor, a pharmacist, a registered dietitian, a dentist, a speech-language pathologist, a physiotherapist. Who have you spoken to, and who do you still need to? - Already spoken to: _______________ - Still to contact: _______________

Keep this where you'll see it. When a hard day comes, you won't have to think up who to call. The list is already made.

Questions worth asking before you buy

Who is Eat Enough to Stay Strong for?
For anyone over sixty who is eating less than they need and losing weight they did not intend to lose, and for the family members who noticed.
What does it not do?
It is not medical advice and cannot find the cause of your weight loss, treat a swallowing problem, or tell you what supplements or how much of them to take.
How long is it?
About 24,900 words across 10 chapters, with 13 full-page illustrations. In paperback that is about 120 pages. The audiobook runs about 2h 37m.
Can I read some of it first?
Yes. The foreword and the whole introduction are on this site, free, with nothing to sign up for.
What languages is it in?
The books exist in five: English, German, Spanish, French and Dutch, each localised properly — its own illustrations with the labels drawn in that language, and its own country's institutions named in the text. This shop can sell you the English and the Spanish today; the other three are finished books waiting on their paperwork.
What does the complete set include?
All thirty guides in print, in one box, and the ebook and the audiobook of every one of them at no extra charge.

Free to read

What is in it, chapter by chapter

All 10 chapters: what each one opens on, the questions it answers, and the one small thing to do when you have finished it. About 24,900 words in the book itself.

Every chapter

Where it sends you next

The book’s own sources, printed here in full.

This book is built on well-established, mainstream guidance about nutrition and healthy aging, the kind you'll find echoed across reputable national health services, aging organizations, and dietetic bodies. We've deliberately kept to durable, general principles, food first, protein for strength, little and often for small appetites, get checked when weight or appetite drops, rather than specific numbers, because numbers date quickly and the right ones for you depend on your own body and health.

For trustworthy, current information, these are the kinds of sources worth turning to, and worth preferring over anything you stumble across online:

  • Your own doctor, pharmacist, and, where available, a registered dietitian. No book knows your body. These people do, and they're the right source for anything specific to you.
  • National public health services (for example, a government health service's website in your country) often have plain-language pages on unintentional weight loss, eating well in later life, and swallowing problems.
  • Reputable aging and older-people's organizations, many of which publish free, readable guides on eating well, staying strong, and getting help with food and meals.
  • Professional dietetic associations, which often offer public information written by qualified nutrition professionals.
  • A speech-language pathology service, for anything to do with swallowing difficulty.

When you look anything up, favour these established sources over individual blogs, product sellers, or social media, especially for anything touching your health. And treat dramatic claims and miracle products with a healthy doubt. Real nutrition advice tends to be calm, plain, and unexciting, much like this book.

A Note on Review

This book was prepared with review from a clinician, a registered dietitian, and a swallowing specialist, whose role was to keep the guidance safe, general, and grounded in food-first principles, and to make sure the safety messages, get checked for unintended weight or appetite loss, seek prompt attention for swallowing trouble, don't stop medicines on your own, are clear and correctly placed. Health guidance changes over time, and time-sensitive details are checked near publication. Nothing here is a substitute for advice from a professional who can examine you and knows your history. Where your situation crosses the line from general self-help into your specific health, this book's steady instruction is the same: bring a real professional into the room.

This book in other languages

En español

The particulars

SeriesPractical Guides for Life After 60, book 24 of the series
ImprintThe Greenlight Guides Editorial Team
Length24,900 words, 10 chapters
Extentabout 120 pages (estimated from the manuscript, not a proof)
Size5.5 × 8.5 in (140 × 216 mm)
Illustrations13, full-page illustrations
Listening time2h 37m
ISBN, ebook979-8-90623-733-0
ISBN, audiobook979-8-90623-734-7
ISBN, paperbacknot yet issued
LanguageEnglish (en-US)

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