When you are heavier you burn more calories, when you lose weight you burn less. It takes burning 3,500 calories to lose only 1lb. This means that it won't get easier to lose it'll get harder. Your body does not want to lose weight; it wants to maintain. This is why when you exercise or diet you get so hungry. It's ok and also neccessary to feel hungry sometimes. I personally like to go to bed hungry.
Be mindful of your diet. Try not to significantly increase your intake with your exercise. If you burn 400 calories it doesn't give you a right to eat 400 extra calories. Yes, you will feel hungry. If you keep it up though eventually your body will need less and less calories to thrive and when you get to your goal weight and quit trying to lose your body will start to level out and you won't need to feel hungry anymore!

I'm definitely finding it harder to lose weight as I get older (and I'm only 27). But it obviously wasn't EASY when I was younger, or I wouldn't be here. I understand it's frustrating to feel like someone is discounting your efforts. What you should take away from it is just stick with it now, while it's not quite as hard. I wish I had done it sooner (don't we all). So just push through and don't let anyone discredit how hard you work to lose it, and how hard you will work to keep it off!

i'm 4'11 too! i have double baby weight to lose (have a 5 yr and a 5 month old) :) just keep on pushing, you can do it!

Just looking at the comment itself, but I don't see it being all that bad. She said that it's good that you're trying to improve your health now instead of later. The longer you continue with bad habits, the harder it is to break them.

To me, she made a positive and complimentary comment that you are taking action now.

I, too, reflected on how I've said something like this myself. I haven't said it in the same way, more like I said it to someone thin saying it must be easy for them to keep their weight down. Hah!

Congratulations on keeping up your weight loss and not being deterred because you don't see changes as fast as some others might. :)

That is the point, you have to compare your young self to your old self. Weight loss has always been difficult for me, I have been overweight since childhood and can relate to all the issues younger people mentioned. But sadly it is brutal in my 60s. As quilter mentioned you have to cut 100 calories a day for each decade staring at 40, My tested BMR is under 1000. Another big problem is that starting at around 40 women lose muscle and it turns to fat. Then add in the hormone changes after menopause.

But it is not impossible, I have very slowly lost 60 pounds since I turned 50 and am continuing to do so. I also have excellent health.

The person who made the comment to AlyN probably did not mean to be rude. We all wish we had the chance to give advice to our young selves. I would holler at myself BUILD UP MUSCLE! This would have made such a huge difference and that is what Alyn was working on. Keep that up and it will serve you excellently in later years.

Well, I can certainly agree with you that weight loss is hard. For everyone. It was hard for me in my 20s. It is hard for me now in my 40s. But, having done both...I am sorry and I am not just saying this because I am fat and old...but, it is infinitely harder. In fact, in my mid-thirties I lost 50 lbs and it was also substantially easier, just a few years back. The longer you let it go, the more you have to lose and the older you get, the more difficult the process becomes. It might be because of increased age, declining health, decreasing metabolism, yo-yo dieting or any other number of problems.

But, that being said, don't let us old fatties get you down. Don't let anyone negate your feelings or experiences whatever your age because weight loss is HARD. For you. For me. For most everyone.

Good luck to you!

I can't speak for others, but losing weight was definitely easier for me when I was young. For many reasons. A little bit of effort yielded a lot of results. Now that I'm older there are more obstacles, time being the biggest one. With a toddler in the house, my own business to run, and no family to help us with babysitting it's a killer on my time and energy. I used to work hard when I was in my 20's too, don't get me wrong. But now I fall asleep when my head hits the pillow... at 9pm lol. Added to that is some injuries that make it more difficult to work out the way I'd like to. Add to that a husband who's a pasta freak and a healthy weight, it makes it difficult to navigate food too. When I was young I was responsible for my own self, I had less wrinkles and body image issues, and more time to spend on me and all of my money went to me me me me me. Now I really have to think about other things first. As much as I want to go and exercise, I couldn't quite afford to get the necessary sneakers for months!!! Just last week I finally bought a good pair of sneakers, for such a long time I've been wearing shoes that hurt my feet - not good with injuries!

Yes, it is easier to lose weight when you are young. That's just a fact of life I'm afraid. I'm not saying it's easy for YOU to lose weight. I'm saying it's easier for you now than it will be later. If I imagined myself as that lady who said that to you, I'm willing to bet she was lamenting herself, and comparing the yield of her efforts then versus now. Do it while it's easier!

Back to add, I was taken aback by the original post because I thought I had said the same thing to younger people. But then I realised I didn't. What I actually say is ; You are very SMART to lose the weight while you are young.

AlyN is doing everything right, but true it is NEVER easy.But in the long run it is all about being healthy. I am the same weight now I was when I graduated from high school; granted 145 was way too at high 18 and 5'1". It is still too heavy at age 65 to have clothes fit around my belly, but it is way better than the 204 I got up to.

I had an eye opener about this last week. I had a visit with someone I had not seen since high school. We were the same size then, both short and round.

We are both 65 now. She has beautiful skin and hair but I am sure she is much more than 100 pounds heavier than we were in high school. She had to be helped out of her car, they had been travelling several hours. She first asked for some milk to take her morning pills, the number of which I couldn't believe. She has had a hip and knee replacement and needs a cane to walk.

I suddenly appreciated that I am on no meds.

So yes, maintaining healthy eating and exercise is tough. Very tough at an early age too with being pregnant and looking after a young family. It deserves rants at any age.

But in the end it could result in a much healthier life.

Keep doing what you are doing AlyN and keep ranting when necessary, it burns off calories.

I do believe there's something to be said for losing it while you're young, mainly in hopes of avoiding the health issues extra weight can cause over time. And with that being said, I wasn't able to get it off when I was young. I'd work hard, but with completely the wrong mindset and would just give up when the results weren't happening.

I gave myself years of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and a floodgate of horrible symptoms. I developed such sick, weakly lungs that I reached the point of having mobility issues. Yeah, in my late 20's I was so fat and out of shape that walking across the room sometimes wound me up in the ER! That was an extremely difficult point to start from and made me wish I'd have lost weight when my body hadn't been so damaged (and I was relatively young still)!

Pulling myself out of that was the most difficult thing I'd ever done and something I won't soon forget. I currently help lead a local weight loss group, and as a 37-year-old I'm by far the youngest member as everyone else is old enough to be my parent or grandparent! And I'm often told it's good I'm working on this now while I'm so "young."

That is something I don't mind hearing as it's something I agree with. But I'm also occasionally snarked upon over it, as if I have some type of unfair advantage over them: "well of course you're losing weight, you're young!" That tends to irk me; if youth was the key to weight loss I'd have never spent the majority of my 20's and 30's being morbidly obese.

My body was better at weight loss when I was younger, but my mind's better now.

I find it so much easier now to be patient and consistent. I also am far more informed now about nutrition and my own body. So yes, right actions led to the pounds falling off more quickly 10 years ago, but now it's so much easier for me to do the right actions.

That's exactly how I felt! I think it was the tone she said it in too that made me feel like I had an unfair advantage. I completely agree with everything you said, you nailed it!

Thank you everyone for all of the replies! It helps to see the other side while also getting support! :) You guys are awesome

I understand your frustration. Your friend probably had a different experience, but that doesn't mean everyone has the same experience. I know that before I turned 30 I had no problem at all maintaining myself at 130-135. After I turned 30 it got progressively harder and then I got a thyroid condition and gained 90 lbs. But that doesn't mean anything about anyone except me.

So true.