Lose Weight, Keep Your Strength

1. Write down one physical thing you wish were easier, carrying laundry, getting off the floor, walking the market. That sentence is your real goal. Keep the paper.
2. Add one protein to your breakfast, an egg, some yogurt, a glass of milk. Just breakfast, just today. Notice if you're less hungry by mid-morning.
3. At one meal, before you sit, check your plate for protein. If it's missing, add some. Don't take anything away.
4. Do one set of chair stands, sit and stand from a sturdy chair a handful of times, holding on if you need to. That's it. Near support.
5. Fill a glass of water and keep it in sight for the day. Sip before you decide you're hungry; older bodies feel thirst poorly.
6. Take one short walk at a comfortable pace, to the corner, around the block, down the hall a few times. Whatever your body says yes to.
7. Rest and look back. Which one small thing felt best this week? Circle it. That's your keeper.
8. Fill half your plate with vegetables or fruit at one meal, frozen and canned count. Notice how full you feel afterward.
9. Cook a little extra protein when you cook, so tomorrow's meal is just assembly. Cook once, eat twice.
10. Move the reference trousers to the front of the closet. This week, notice how they fit, without stepping on a scale.
11. Do a second short strength thing, wall push-ups, lifting two soup cans, a resistance band, cleared with a professional if you have any condition.
12. Take one movement snack during television, standing and moving through a single advert break.
13. Swap one thing on your counter, move a tempting snack out of sight, put a fruit bowl or water glass where your hand goes.
14. Rest and reflect. Which habits are sticking without effort? Those are the ones to keep. Let the rest go without guilt.
15. Attach one new habit to an old one, chair stands with the morning coffee, calf raises while brushing your teeth.
16. Count one strength measure and write it down, how many chair stands, how the stairs feel. This is your baseline to beat, gently.
17. Have a satisfying five-minute meal ready in the freezer or cupboard for a tired night, so the easy option is a good one.
18. Take a slightly longer walk than day six, or add a second short one. Only if your body's willing; near support if balance is a worry.
19. Practice one warm, firm phrase for declining a second helping, out loud, until it feels natural in your mouth.
20. Drink water with each meal today. Notice whether the between-meal hunger eases.
21. Rest and reflect. You're past halfway. Notice what feels different in your body, energy, steadiness, mood, more than in any number.
22. Look at your protein across a whole day, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Is it spread out, or piled into one meal? Nudge one meal toward more.
23. Do your strength session, then notice one thing that's easier than three weeks ago. Let that be the reward.
24. Plan one social meal in advance, decide calmly whether it's a dessert night, and enjoy the meal without guilt either way.
25. Check your reference trousers again. Compare to day ten, honestly. Whatever they say, don't step on a scale to argue with them.
26. If any situation from the medication chapter applies to you, put "talk to my doctor about doing this safely" on the calendar this week.
27. Take a walk with someone, a neighbor, a friend, a phone call while you stroll. Connection and movement in one.
28. Review your strength measure from day sixteen. Has it moved? That's the progress the scale couldn't show you.
29. Pick the three habits from this month you know you could keep for good, the ones that never felt like punishment. Write them down.
30. Look at those three habits. That's your maintenance plan, your keep-your-strength plan, for the long haul. Put a check-in date on the calendar a month out, and go live your life. You've started, and you're equipped.

Muscle mass

the amount of muscle on your body. After sixty it tends to decline on its own unless you give it a reason to stay, which is why protecting it is the heart of this book.

Sarcopenia

the medical name for serious age-related muscle loss. You don't need the word, only the fact underneath it: unused muscle slowly leaves, and it's worth working to keep.

Protein

the part of food your muscles are built and maintained from, found in eggs, fish, meat, beans, lentils, dairy, tofu, and nuts. Spreading it across your meals matters more with age.

Resistance work

any activity that makes a muscle push against a meaningful load, chair stands, bands, light weights, wall push-ups. The signal that tells muscle to stay and rebuild.

Non-exercise activity

all the ordinary movement of a day, walking, chores, stairs, standing, that adds up to more than most workouts and is gentle on the body.

Fiber

the filling, slow-digesting part of vegetables, fruit, beans, and whole grains. Helps you feel full and stay full.

Plateau

a stretch where weight stops changing. Usually normal, often the body settling at a new weight, and sometimes just fat quietly swapping for muscle where the scale can't see.

Maintenance

the long phase of keeping a healthy weight and your strength once you've reached them. A skill of its own, not the absence of dieting.

Registered dietitian

a qualified food-and-nutrition professional who can tailor eating and protein to your specific body and conditions. The person to ask the specific questions this book deliberately leaves to an expert.

Who is Lose Weight, Keep Your Strength for?

For anyone over sixty who wants to carry less weight and still be able to lift, climb, and get up off the floor a decade from now.

What does it not do?

It is not a rapid weight-loss plan, not a calorie or macro prescription, and not medical advice, and it will not tell you how many pounds you should lose.

How long is it?

About 25,000 words across 10 chapters, with 13 full-page illustrations. In paperback that is about 120 pages. The audiobook runs about 2h 36m.

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.

En español